Breathe! Just Breathe!

Ordinary people do this 23,040 a day, 8,409,600 a year but you will likely never notice it unless it is taken away or you can't seem to catch it. It can be taken away by something beautiful or the love of your life. It can calm you down when your anxious or you can pass out from doing it to fast!

Have you guessed what this is? Today we are talking about your breath. It is one of the things that we massively take for granted until you can't catch it.

Breathing is massively essential to life and optimal function. It's how we get oxygen to all aspects of our body. The problem is you don't have to be that efficient at breathing to get "enough" to survive. The problem is that "enough" isn't nearly enough to do the things you want to do.

Let's prove it to you that you aren't breaking enough, and it is affecting how you feel!
Rate on a scale of 1-10 how alert and energetic you feel

After your next exhale, breath in full (count to 4)
Hold your breath for a six-count
Let your breath out slowly (again a six-count)
Inhale fully on a four-count
Hold for a six-count
Exhale for a six-count
Inhale for a four-count
Hold for six-count
Exhale for a six-count
Now take 20 quick full breaths (should be approximately 2 seconds in and 1 second out)
Now hold for 30 count

Now rate yourself, on your alertness/mental clarity and your overall energy. I would almost guarantee that you have a lot more energy than you would if you would have had a shot of espresso.

What you just did was activate your diaphragm a lot and get your chi flowing a ton, this is getting more oxygen to your tissues and brain.

This is important for a million and one reasons, but the most important one is that it will get a ton of oxygen to your brain; fascinating factoid your brain is 2% of your total weight, but it consumes 20% of your total oxygen whether you are awake or asleep. So, if you're not feeling sharp or you're body is flailing energetically try two round of the above breathing.

Or check out your app store for one of the several free breathing apps there the one I am currently using is https://shiftstate.io/.

So get intentional and purposeful with your breathing!

Until next time have a great day
Dr. JJ