Breathing Away Pain
Shut your mouth and get rid of back pain… stop snoring and even improve sleep apnea... seriously.
Breathing is an involuntary act. We do it all day and every day. So, if breathing is just breathing, why have yogis practiced Pranayama for thousands of years and why did James Nestor write an entire book about it, calling the act of breathing a “lost art”? Here are a few key points from his book and some of the research I found on the subject:
Breathing is life and taking your last breath is what we say when we die.
While we all breathe, very few of us are doing it right and if breath can cure, it can also make us sick; breathing right can give us perfect straight teeth, while breathing wrong can give us cavities, not kidding.
These outlandish statements have been at the core of many ancient cultures and their approach to medicine, some breathing techniques date back several thousands of years, but the "art" of breathing has also been studied and used more recently. In early 20th century, a woman named Katarina Schroth cured herself of scoliosis through specific breathing stretches and then went on to cure thousands of others, developing the Schroth Method.
In the Mid-20th century, Carl Stough, a vocal coach better known as Dr. Breath, helped athletes become gold medalists, singers become stars but more importantly he is known for helping emphysema patients breathe again and sustain a normal life. Though his work in the VA hospitals is well documented, his methods are rarely used as considered too "far-out"
A study on native Americans found that their perfect teeth, tall and toned bodies was due to proper breathing, in fact from birth, mothers held their infant’s mouths shut after each feeding and made sure they kept their mouths closed during sleep to ensure proper nose breathing.
Correct breathing can cure many ailments and improper breathing can in fact make us sick. More and more studies are proving this theory right. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found substantial evidence that breathing affects our autonomic nervous system and slow breath can activate specific parts of our brain and modulate our response.
Slow controlled breath, can lower blood pressure and even significantly reduce side effects of chemotherapyand related cancer treatments.
If your mouth just dropped from reading this, quickly shut it!
Breath and posture are related, and if you think breathing into specific movements can cure scoliosis, it is not so hard to understand that breathing can help with back pain. I have been testing this theory on myself and have reduced my lower back pain by 60% the first week and recovered fully after a month (I have several herniated disks and one that is completely dry... I should be in constant pain and have been in the past). Beside the simple breathing meditation, I have been stretching into the breath to help my lungs elongate my spine.
Take a few minutes to try this breathing specific meditation and let me know how it feels.
If you like the result and want to take it further, try taping your mouth at night... don't believe me? google mouth taping for snoring and see how many videos and articles you find about this topic. But it won't be just for snoring, by improving your sleep, your health will immediately benefit. Check out this video about it by the author of the book breath.
Thank you for being here, stay healthy and Happy.