Habit Challenge in Buellton: Proper Breathing

If you never leave step one for the whole month, it is still better than not doing anything. Take this first gentle step towards recovering your health and we will check in next month. If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to contact me by calling our chiropractic office in Buellton!

1st Month’s Habit Challenge: Proper Breathing

Habits are created or destroyed generally in 30-45 days. This year, 2015, I’d like to challenge you with a new habit each month for 12 months, all geared towards better, healthier living. So each month I will roll out a new challenge, which should be completed on a daily basis that should take no more than ten minutes. Everyone has ten minutes to spare each day, so with focused effort we can transform our lives in just ten minutes a day. The habits should be useful for life, so you won’t drop them off, but maintain them thus the 30 day trial period, and add the new one in. But wait, you say, that means (120 minutes) 2 hours a day by December. I don’t have two hours a day to spare. Not to fear. Some habits won’t take the whole ten minutes, and some you will be already performing in your life. You can start at any challenge and go back and pick up challenges you missed. You can skip challenges that you are already sufficient. This should be fun and doable.

To Help Inspire You To Implement These New Habits, We Will Be Running A Monthly Contest.

The Rules Are As Follows:

1. Email your success story from implementing a new habit

2. Share this post on your social media with your friends and family

One lucky success story will be chosen at the end of each month and will win a Free 20 minute massage with Dr. Neary!

“All chronic pain, suffering, and diseases are caused by a lack of oxygen at the cell level” — Dr. Guyton, The Textbook on Medical Physiology

Experts say you can live for weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without air. Oxygen is vital to life and yet, with our sedentary lives, we have forgotten how to breathe properly.

This first monthly challenge is to reacquaint you with proper breathing, give you resources to further your investigation, and to make it an easy lifelong habit.

The ancients were keen on proper breathing, such as Hawaiian Huna Healing that I studied over 10 years ago. Martial arts practice a forceful exhalation with sound as they show strength. Yogicbreathing can be relaxing, called “Prana”, or sensual called “Kundalini”. Singers and vocal coaches have techniques to improve diaphragmatic breathing and posture. The research has found that even cigarette smokers take long inhalations of fresh air between puffs, which may be the most relaxing, enriching part of the process.

Week 1 Step 1

No special equipment needed, no special time or location. A simple process of self-evaluation. Sitting or standing, simply put both palms of your hands on the lower ribs just above your pelvic bones. Take in a deep breath and feel the ribs expand into your hands. Repeat a few times so you can “feel” it without your hands. Now place one hand over sternum/heart area and one between shoulder blades (back of palm is fine). Now breathe deeply and feel the chest expand front to back. Repeat this a few times. Practice this up to 10 mins a day so you’re taking deep breaths without relying on your hands for input.

Week 2 Step 2

Once you have mastered this process, usually over a week’s time, we can move to the next level of breath practice. Sitting in a relaxed posture, focus on your breath going in your nose follow it to the back of your throat, feel your chest expand and belly expand. Practice this for up to 10 mins for about a week. Now we’ve moved from externally experiencing your rib cage move to internally feeling your lungs expand.

Week 3 Step 3

Now we will add a mental component to the breathing process. You can continue to focus on your breath, focus on one thing as in hypnosis, such as a positive thought, healing energy, a color or focus on no-thing, like meditation. Practice this up to 10 mins for about a week.

Week 4 Step 4

As these first three steps have become easy, you can move to this final step 4. If you are having any challenges, remain at the step you are at, as it is really good work. The final step incorporates movement with the breath. The best example of this is, Sun Salutation which you can find online and is a series of 13 opening and closing postures that links the breath.

In health,

Dr. J