Breath Retraining
PERHAPS YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE UNDERWATER AND CANNOT GET A DEEP ENOUGH BREATH.
Are you able to breathe through your nose for one minute or 20 consecutive breaths? Try holding a sip of water in your mouth to test your ability to nose breath while reading this. Nose breathing slows down your breath flow, contributing to strengthening of your diaphragm — your primary respiratory muscle.
There are MANY benefits to slowing down the breath and breathing primarily through the nose during all activities. Even if you can breathe through your nose continuously during the day, what happens when you are asleep? Do you wake up with a dry mouth and stuffed up nose? Is it possible that you may have a breathing problem?
When you have a breathing problem, you don’t just have a breathing problem … you have a sleep problem.
If your breathing is off, then your sleep is off … and this affects your emotions over time.
How do you breathe when you are stressed or experiencing heightened emotions? Faster, louder, with more effort and upper chest movement. Ideally, we want to breath slower and with little effort … we want to breathe less!
Breath retraining is an antidote to treat chronic stress, the symptoms of which are very similar to those of chronic hyperventilation.
Click on one of these three topics to learn more:
Sleep Apnea
Are you, your sleeping partner, or your child troubled by snoring? Perhaps you regularly wake with a dry mouth or headache and feel groggy upon rising with excessive sleepiness, irritability or poor concentration during the day. The older we get, the more likely we are to be affected by sleep-disordered breathing.
Overbreathing
Does light exercise cause you to breathe heavily or with an open mouth? Do you want to learn how to rely less on an inhaler and more on your own ability to control your breathing? Perhaps you are ready to learn how to actually "breathe and relax".
Anxiety
Anxiety is your physical body's response to real or perceived threats. Breath retraining can counter the physiological changes, such as increased heart rate and respiration, that come from being in a prolonged state of anxiety, and it has had a positive impact on my clients when it comes to calming the mind and improving quality of life.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC UPDATE: Instead of in-person sessions at Bayview Studio, I am offering online live stream sessions via Zoom.
Breathe Better and Smile Bigger!
Schedule a FREE consult with Sarah to learn how to optimize your health through functional breathing.