This is the importance of knowing how to breathe, if you want a normal life …
“You came from shopping. Taking out each item, You noticed that one of the ingredients for dinner stayed in the register when you paid. Your children were already waiting for you to take them to a friend’s house. You ran not to be late, although You were still on time. Your husband called you on the phone so that you could define what to buy for his mother’s birthday. As soon as You entered the house, You saw your pet waiting for a walk and You simply did not know where to start.
You sat on the couch to watch social networks, while You waited for the agitation to pass. Seeing so many Christmas posts, You remembered that you had not yet planned what to do to ring in the new year and you were even more distressed. When You saw the clock, 30 minutes had passed and You had not done anything
That is your last memory before waking up in bed with your children and husband scared to find yourself passed out in the living room at home. What had happened?You had such an intense anxiety attack that fainted.
From that moment, You learned to take things more calmly and, although you have not quite succeeded yet, knowing how to breathe has been essential for you. To the point where, it is what allows you to function daily without reaching those stress levels.
Let’s talk about the importance of knowing how to breathe, especially if you want to avoid an anxiety attack, or worse, panic.
Why is knowing how to breathe so important?
Breathing is one of those functions of our body that is so natural to us that we do not pay attention to what happens when we inhale and what implications it has for our well-being, hence the importance of knowing how to breathe.
Naturally, if we stop breathing, we die, but the matter is much more complex than that.
An article by the Pasqual Maragall Foundation points out that “breathing is directly related to physiological activation and anxiety reactions”. So, when we feel anxious, the body maintains a significant state of alert that causes hyperventilation, or that feeling we have when we are “short of breath” that, if not controlled properly, could lead to rapid heartbeat, dizziness, tingling , blurred vision, among others.
How to avoid reaching the hyperventilation stage?
The deep or diaphragmatic breathing technique could be the answer you are looking for, and one of its greatest advantages is that you do not require a special knowledge of meditation and it is a solution that you could acquire little by little.
Through the following steps:
–Choose a comfortable posture for your body. Sit, with your back straight, your head slightly bent forward and your feet flat on the floor. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.
-Breathe deeply while imagining that you have a balloon that is inflated in your stomach. You should take the air through your nose and count to 3. Then, you hold the air for 3 seconds and exhale through your mouth slowly for another 3 seconds.
-Check if the hand located on the belly is the one that rises with your breath, while the one on the chest remains in the same position. If so, you are doing fine.
-Repeat the process about 3 times.
As you can see, it is a very simple technique that you can carry out anywhere. It is recommended that you practice it when you begin to have that feeling of worry, your breathing accelerates or your thoughts are taking flight without control.
Likewise, it is important that you dedicate time to your hobbies or activities that relax you at times, in that way you can deal more easily with everything else.
This is the way to take time for yourself, without neglecting your occupations …
