Take a minute to think about the engine of your car…
There is an important series of events that needs to work properly and efficiently for the engine to run at its best. One of the most important pieces in that series is the fuel line.
No fuel line- no working engine.
Imagine for a second that your car’s fuel line was ever-changing. One moment it’s wide, allowing fuel to flow smoothly to the engine; and another moment, the fuel line is thin, like the size of a pencil.
Probably not going to produce consistent results, right?
Well, that same process is going on in your body! Did you know that out of the 4 major suppliers of energy to your brain (Food, Water, Sleep, Oxygen), that oxygen makes up 70% of the energy production?
Now take a minute to think about how you breathe…
You probably don’t think about it much, right? It’s really just an automatic function that happens all day, every day, without much thought involved.
Let’s compare your brain to the engine of the car from the earlier illustration…
As newborn babies, we all breathed through our stomachs. If you watch a baby, you will see its stomach rise and fall as it breathes while its chest remains fairly still.
This is because a baby doesn’t know any different! It’s our innate, biological response.
Things like chronic stress, poor sleep, and constantly being on the go, teach us to change our breathing patterns to withstand the needs of the day. However, as our breathing patterns move from our stomach up into our chest, those breaths become much quicker and more shallow. This raises our respiration rate and reduces the amount of oxygen getting to our brain … kind of like the pencil-sized fuel line…
Like a car’s engine, our brains need a consistent flow of oxygen in order to perform at their best. So how can you improve how you breathe so that your brain can function at its best?
Follow these steps below to become an ELITE BREATHER:
- Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down.
- Place one of your hands on your stomach and the other on your chest.
- Breathe in through your nose on a 4-count, allowing your stomach to inflate like a balloon while your chest remains still.
- At the top of your breath, with your stomach still inflated, hold for 2 seconds.
- Now release your breath slowly through your mouth on a 4 count, allowing your stomach to contract back towards your spine.
- Repeat!
Don’t get me wrong, this form of breathing isn’t possible to perform all the time. It would be very difficult to do things like exercise, have a conversation, or eat while doing this form of breathing. However, if you can consistently practice this for 20 minutes per day, you will begin to feel a sense of calm and control over your emotions and state of being.
We’re here to help! If you have any questions about how to become an ELITE BREATHER … please contact us! Visit www.tigerpi.com/freeconsult