Nasal Breathing - Living A Healthier Family Life
We have no control over how we enter or exit our life. What I do know is that I have control on what I want to learn, so today I want to learn the best ways to breath and keep my family of six, my body and mind feeling healthy and energized every single day.
I posted this video on Instagram with the steps on perfecting Diaphragmatic breathing which has made such an impact in my life.
I recently discovered that breathing through your mouth is about as practical as trying to eat through your nose! Our bodies were designed to breath through our noses, not our mouth. That is a fact. Nasal breathing is healthier than mouth breathing for several reasons. Your lungs take oxygen from the air, and absorption of oxygen happens mostly on exhalation. Exhaling through the nose, which is smaller than the mouth, creates greater air pressure and therefore a slower exhalation.
According to experts, most people breathe at 10-20 percent of their full capacity. Restricted breathing greatly decreases respiratory function, which in turn decreases energy levels in the body. Since oxygen is our main source of life, and exhalation is the main way to expel toxins from our bodies, poor breathing can contribute to a multitude of health problems, from high blood pressure to insomnia and even cancer. These are definitely healthy problems I want to avoid!!
We live in a multitasking world, many of us feel stressed out, overworked, and overstimulated during our daily lives, leaving us in a chronic state of fight or flight response. Breathing in and out through the nose helps us take fuller, deeper breaths, which stimulates the lower lung to distribute greater amounts of oxygen throughout the body.
Our lower lung is rich with the parasympathetic nerve receptors which link our calming body and mind, whereas the upper lungs stimulate our chest and invite mouth breathing — this prompt us to hyperventilate and trigger sympathetic nerve receptors, which result in the fight or flight reaction.
Since our nostrils are smaller than the mouth, air exhaled through the nose creates a back flow of air (and oxygen) into the lungs. And because we exhale more slowly through the nose than we do though the mouth, the lungs have more time to extract oxygen from the air we’ve already taken in.
Breathing through our nose forces us to slow down until proper breath is trained; therefore, proper nose breathing reduces hypertension and stress. It also helps prevent us from overexerting ourselves during a workout. The air that we inhale through the nose passes through the nasal mucosa, which stimulates the reflex nerves that control breathing. Mouth breathing bypasses the nasal mucosa and makes regular breathing difficult, which can lead to snoring, breath irregularities and sleep apnea.
Noah, Oscar, Mietta and Zali Stevens practicing their nasal breathing.
The way that we breathe affects our brain. When your child mouth breathes, they lose the calming benefit of nostril breathing to their brain. Mouth breathing also causes oxygen deprivation by delivering cold, dry air to the lungs. Kids sleeping with mouth open can cause oxygen deprivation and increase stress levels.
The increased oxygen we get through nasal breath increases energy and vitality. Therefore I am learning to breath through my nose as mouth breathing accelerates water loss, contributing to dehydration and all other health ailments.
As a family of six we enjoy the Aloha Breath greeting when we arrive home. It’s where we press together the bridge of our noses while inhaling at the same time. It’s a Hawaiian greeting that welcomes the other person into their space by sharing the breath of life, which was sacred to the culture. Ancient Hawaiians recognized that their breath was the key to good health and believed it possessed mana (spiritual power).
We practice this daily as it was such a special part of our wedding day when we said “I do” on the Hawaiian shores in 2006.
Aloha Aku No, Aloha Mai No – I give my love to you, you give your love to me.
How about you , would you like to learn more about how you can breath through your nose more often so you feel even more healthier and spend more fun quality family time together? Leave me your comments below.
Happy Sunday from our family to yours.