Breathwork
How a Daily Breathing Practice Can Drastically Improve Your Mind, Body, and Spirit
By Jane Rivers
Copyright 2021 by Jane Rivers
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Contents
Introduction
When it comes to humans, animals, and just about every single living thing that you can think of, they are going to have one thing in common: breathing. This is why the absolute first concern an emergency responder will look for in any type of emergency will be if the distressed person is breathing. This is an essential question as it will also be the first one asked about newborn babies, and the last one asked when somebody is dying. With all of this being said, have you ever wondered why breathing is so important? And since breathing is so vital, are you then able to practice and improve how you breathe through breathwork, with the ultimate goal of improving your mind, body, and spirit?
These are all excellent questions, and we will get to them momentarily. In order to understand how to improve your body, mind, and spirit using breathwork, you will need to know how breathing works within your body. Once you fathom this process, you will be better equipped to harness the powers and benefits that it can bring you.
Now you may be thinking, "I already know how breathing works!" You don't need to do anything, as your body will do all of your breathing automatically, right? The answer is going to be yes, and this is technically true, that your body is going to be doing most of the work involved with breathing on its own without you needing to think about it. However, studies have proven that if you can understand and harness the power of your breathing using breathwork, the number of benefits you will receive will be tremendous! You will feel happier, healthier, and more aware, just to name a few.
But as mentioned earlier, we will get to that shortly. Until then, here is exactly how breathing happens in your body and how you can use breathwork to increase its benefits.
Chapter 1: Breathing and Your Body
Before getting started with how breathing works in your body, let's first clarify exactly what 'breathwork' is. Breathwork is defined as any type of conscious breathing technique or exercise. Breathwork is commonly used to help improve your physical, spiritual, and mental well-being. When practicing breathwork, you will be intentionally changing your regular breathing pattern. The practice of breathwork has recently seen a massive surge in popularity. Many people will attest to the fact that it can help you fall into deep relaxation or even help you feel more energetic.
Now that you know what breathwork is, how can the simple act of breathing help you to increase your mind, body, and awareness?
Breathing 101
For your body to operate at maximal efficiency, it will require energy to help fuel everything that occurs. For example, every time your body contracts a muscle or maintains a resting state in your body's neurons, it is going to be using energy. The energy available in your body is not unlimited, which means that you are going to need to somehow obtain more of it to keep your body working. So how is this done, you are wondering?
Plants get their energy by taking sunlight and then turning it into carbohydrates (or sugars), which they then use to function in a process known as photosynthesis. Humans are not able to do this. While you use the energy found in carbohydrates to fuel the different reactions within your body, the process is much different from what it is in plants.
For the human body to produce the energy that it requires daily, it combines oxygen with sugar. This means that you will need to accumulate both oxygen and sugar, ultimately requiring your body to work to fill this need. In fact, most of the energy you do have will be used to acquire more sugar and oxygen so that you can produce even more energy.
You already know that the oxygen you need for this reaction will come from the air that you breathe, but where do the carbohydrates come from? The carbohydrates required to complete this entire process come from plants or animals that have eaten these same plants. When oxygen and sugars are combined within the human body, your body will have all of the components needed to produce more energy.
On a side note, if you are wondering why the world doesn't run out of oxygen since every person and animal needs it to survive, the answer is that the earth's plants supply it. You see, plants use the sunlight along with carbon dioxide in the air to create the energy they need. This same plant will then release oxygen as a byproduct. Conversely, humans and other animals will use this same oxygen that the plant has released along with carbohydrates to create the energy that they need to survive, releasing carbon dioxide as a waste product. As you can see, plants and animals are going to need each other to complete their cycle of energy production!
To sum it up, for your body to produce energy, you will need to use oxygen from the air that you breathe and combine it with sugars that you get from the carbohydrates that you eat.
Oxygen and Energy: How They Work in Your Body
For your body to gain the energy that it requires to operate at an optimal level, it will need to release the energy that is contained within the chemical bonds of the molecules that you consume, for example, sugars. When you eat foods (loaded with proteins and carbohydrates), they will then be digested in your gastrointestinal tract. Once these foods have been digested, they turn into smaller molecules (such as amino acids and sugars) that can pass into your bloodstream. In the bloodstream, these molecules are then transported to the cells of your body, where mitochondria will begin to break down their chemical bonds, freeing the energy that they contain. The cells of your body require oxygen to complete this process. Every one of the cells in your body requires energy to function properly, which means you will need a lot of oxygen.
Once the cells of your body breakdown the molecules and their energy is released, the energy will then be stored in a special chemical compound known as ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, which contains three phosphates. If your body needs more energy to carry out a function or activity, this stored ATP will be broken down, ultimately releasing its stored energy. Your body will then be able to use this energy to complete the function or activity that is at hand.