September is Pain Awareness Month. I am bringing attention to some of the issues people face who have chronic pain. This blog discusses the power of the breath in relation to stress management and easing chronic pain. It is helpful to understand the role of breath in our well-being.
One of the first places to begin to effectively manage your stress level is with the power inherent in your breath.
Our conscious use of the breath is of such importance to our health and healing from the changes that long term stress and chronic pain brings to the brain.
The breath is so seemingly simple, and when consciously used, is a mighty force for healing.
Most of us breathe most of the time in a shallow and even rushed manner. This sends a signal to the cells in the body of poor nourishment. Our most core need – oxygen – is not being met.
Let’s look closer at how this plays out in the body:
Normally we breath in an unconscious, irregular, shallow, and rapid manner. This results in chronic tension and a general unsteadiness. We don’t feel rooted and sure in the world, and no wonder – because we are not rooted. The lungs supply oxygen and remove carbon dioxide waste from the body, but the lungs also help regulate pH balance, help us excrete water through our exhale, and cool us through the inhale. When we do not breath fully, using our total lung capacity, our body cannot function properly.
If you laid out the surface area of a pair of adult human lungs, it would cover an area the size of a tennis court. Take that in for a moment.
Our lungs have such a large surface area so they can supply our bodies with oxygen. We have this huge capacity to bring this vital life force – oxygen – into our bodies, yet most of us only live at about 10% of that capacity.
Further, more than half of the tiny air sacs that take in air are located in the base of the lung. When we shallow breathe, we allow carbon dioxide to build up in the base of the lungs from not fully exhaling, and deny our cells the nourishment they need by not inhaling all the oxygen they need. When we shallow breathe, those small air sacs, the alveoli, cannot do their job of cleaning out the mucous linings, providing us with life-giving oxygen, and flushing out toxic waste and irritants that then lead to disease and infection.
The power of conscious breathing is that we change that shallow breathing dynamic and really turn on the healing power and vitality that the breath holds for us. It calms the effects of a reactive amygdala on our nervous system and helps calm us. It helps to balance the brain and the nervous system and nourishes the entire body, bringing wellness to every cell.
For breathing exercises to help balance the brain and body, and mediate stress, click here.
#PainAwarenessMonth #UnleashTheGripOfChronicPain #LivingBeyondChronicPain
