Breathing is essential to our health; many people who suffer from stress and fatigue do so because of poor breathing skills and lack of exercise. To improve health breathing exercises are vital, here we discuss a few options which have proved valuable for many of my clients

Breathing is something that we all do every single day yet it can easily be taken for granted until it is limited or has the threat of being taken away. Breath and oxygen flowing around our body is obviously essential to our survival and life force. Learning correct breathing is something that we all need to learn, here is a few exercises to try…

The first thing in the morning your body is just switching on as it were, so needs the most stimulation possible, one exercise which is a favourite of mine is the 1 – 4 – 2 principle. This exercise is simple to do and boosts energy which is great on a fresh summers morning or especially on a cold winters morning when its harder to get started.

Stand erect and as you breathe in count how many seconds it takes, if it takes 4 seconds to breathe in then hold the breath for 16 seconds and then breathe out for 8 seconds. The 1 – 2 – 4 principle is whatever you breathe in for, hold it 4 times as long and breathe out twice as long as you breathed in. it is recommended that this is performed twice a day but immediately upon waking as a great way to start the day. As another option powerful visualisation can be used at the same time to increase the blood flow, as the body will physically react from internal visualisation, maybe imagine oxygen flowing around the blood and switching on parts of the body like light switches and every time a switch is flicked and a wave of energy goes through the body.

This exercise is usually performed for 10 repetitions, two times a day but if thee has been a history of breathing challenges or health concerns it is advisable to seek medical advice before doing any exercise. Practice is essential if health is to be improved the body will need constant repetition to log it with in the cells.