Diaphragmatic Breathing

[optimismishere]

So I was in my yoga class doing various yoga asanas (poses). After intense sessions, we are asked to lay on the ground and do breathing exercises to cool ourselves off. And one fine day our guru taught us Diaphragmatic Breathing. It’s also known vaguely as stomach breathing. I remember that after practising this breathing technique I felt way relaxed and I think I could produce more saliva. I think it can reduce the intensity of our bad breath and later help eliminate it completely.

Our guru asked us to keep our right palm on our stomach and the left palm on our chest.

He then asked us to start breathing. He asked us to first observe the way our stomach and right palm go down and down while breathing slowly. (For 5 repetitions)

Then he asked us to do the same with the chest and left palm part. Chest doesn’t contract like the stomach does. But it still contracts and expands a bit.

Then he asked us to observe the same in our throats as the air came in and went out. He asked us to slowly concentrate on the way air goes through our noses to the tonsils and then to the throats. This I think was very beneficial.

Finally, he asked us to observe the changes in stomach, chest and throat together when he breathed in and out.

This exercise reduced my stress greatly. It may help us in our fight against bad breath. Best wishes. Namaste.

[bozo]

you sound very optimistic. i suppose i am an optimist as well, im doing the raymond/ujjayi breathing when i remember. And there is something to it, to breathe air into the back of the throat. Its hard to describe but the way i normally breathe is somehow wrong, like im blocking parts of the throat.
And like you Im thinking it does increase saliva a little.

[optimismishere]

My views about breathing exercises were bolstered by the fact that the recent Nobel prize in medicine was given to a physician who proved that oxygen is very important in curing a varied number of diseases. I think he stated that oxygen, when properly inhaled in a specific way, can help give the cells of our body the power to combat various conditions. Yoga and pranayama and other breathing techniques mainly give emphasis on the manner and ways in which we should inhale.

I’ll keep trying and trying. I feel a bit better ever since I started doing diaphragmatic breathing. I practice 15 mins at a time. I will increase the frequency of doing those 15 minute breathing exercises.

[Raymond]

you sound very optimistic. i suppose i am an optimist as well, im doing the raymond/ujjayi breathing when i remember. And there is something to it, to breathe air into the back of the throat. Its hard to describe but the way i normally breathe is somehow wrong, like im blocking parts of the throat.
And like you Im thinking it does increase saliva a little.

the idea is not that you do it when you remember, you should adopt it as your new way of breathing, it is a matter of practice, it is like learning to drive a car, at first it is very complicated, but once your subconscious learns it, breathing from this new way will be like walking, even afterwards it becomes difficult to return to the way you had before, even when sleeping you will breathe in that new way.
It is only a matter of practice once you understand how it should be done, I think that is the most difficult part, understanding exactly the way of breathing that I am referring to.

[Raymond]

And remember, use one or more people to evaluate you, otherwise it will be like walking in the dark, without knowing if you are choosing a result or not.