Diaphragmatically Breathing, the secret to Neurological reprogramming your body and mind

Bottom Line

Try this experiment, put one hand on your lower belly and the other hand on your chest. Take a deep breathe in. Which hand moved more? There is a good chance that if you sit often, or have high stress in your life that you are chest breathing. Another name for chest breathing is shallow breathing, and when you shallow breathe you are also changing the way your nervous system is going to function.

 

Why it Matters

We are all born with the innate ability to breath with the diaphragm, but not all of us are mindful enough to maintain it through our lives. When diaphragmatically breathing the belly is allowed to expand with the air as it comes in. When we are young, sitting in chairs hinder the ability of the diaphragm to expand. Due to this our body must compensate and the way it does that is breathing up into our chest. We tend to use things called our accessory breathing muscles to get this action done.

Accessory breathing muscles should only be used in times of dire need of oxygen. Otherwise, we are just using muscles that shouldn’t be used all the time, and neglecting ones that should be used more. Neurologically, diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the Vagus nerve which is huge for relaxation and feel-good promoter. We have the ability to regulate our nervous state all through the power of proper breathing.

 

Next steps

Diaphragmatic breathing can be done anywhere and is one of the best tools you can use to decrease stress, while increasing mindfulness and comfort. The Vagus nerve controls the mind-gut connection. The liver, intestines, stomach, and pancreas depend on positive mind-gut connections and this will greatly aid in digestion

 Start the neurological retraining with these links below!

 

Diaphragm breathing

Prone Diaphragm breathing “crocodile breathing”

 

Source

Bergen, Rose PH.D. “Pathways to Family Wellness, A New Trend in Childbirth.” Mar. 2022.

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