Improving your health is free: Part One.
Let’s start with basics: – the most basic and immediate human need is to breathe, both to bring in the oxygen our bodies and brains need and to get rid of the excess carbon dioxide that we don’t need. Fortunately, plants work the other way round, they need carbon-dioxide and breathe out oxygen, what a wonderful circular system our world is blessed with.
Anatomy alert! I’ll keep it really simple. Our lungs are like long triangles, with the apex, the short pointy bit, at the top, behind our collar bones, and the wider base of the triangle at the bottom, down at our lower ribs. The diaphragm is a dome-like muscle that attaches around the inside of our lower ribs – when it is relaxed, at the end of an out breathe, it is more domed. As it contracts, it flattens, and this draws air into our lungs.
Take a deep breath in and out – where did you feel your body moving?
I am guessing you felt your shoulders move up and down. But that’s where the smallest part of your lungs is, the pointy top bit. To be better at bringing air in and getting rid of the waste products, we need to breathe lower down.
I am also guessing that you are reading this sitting down, whether on the commute to work or at your desk, or maybe while you are eating. So, wherever you are, see if you can take a few breaths WITHOUT moving your shoulders, rather – allow your ribs, especially your lower ribs, and your belly to softly expand outwards as you breathe in, and come back in as you breathe out.
An image I find helpful here is to visualise your ribs at the back as being a bit like the wings of a bee, so that as you breathe in, the wings open out, and as you breathe in, the wings come back. If you can try and practice this a few times during the day, especially if you are maybe feeling a little tired or unfocussed, both your brain and your body will thank you for it, and it will become easier the more often you do it.
Also, breath powers our voices, whether in speech or in song. If you notice your voice getting tight, it’s quite possibly because you are simply not breathing enough. I am also a singer, and when I was younger developed some serious vocal problems after a combination of nasty chest infection and life stress had got me into bad habits with my breathing. Vocal problems sorted by a wonderful singing teacher who sorted out my breathing.
Healthy breathing helps you have a healthy voice.
And osteopathy? I have some lovely techniques to help stretch out your ribs, and to help you stand straighter so that the bellows of your ribcage can work better. One of the reasons that older people can get breathless is that as their posture becomes more stooped, their ribs can’t expand and contract so well which then means they can’t breathe so deeply. Anything that will help you to sit or stand more upright, in a relaxed way, will help you to breathe more freely, and more effectively – and feel more alert.
If you live or work in or near Baldock in North Hertfordshire, or Bromley in South East London, and would like to have a chat about how osteopathy might be able to help you, then do get in touch: text me or call me on 07535 350 343. I may be with a patient, so a text is best, and I can call you back.