Take Control of Your Breathing and Take Control of Your Life

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds, your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world, dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

-- Patanjali
Breathing is a vital life force of all human beings. It is the way that energy is transported around the body and is the body’s automatic cleansing system. Breathing is linked to the autonomic and limbic system within the body which are partially responsible for emotions and states. By controlling our breathing we can control our emotions.

Try these breathing exercises.

Step One

Take a deep breath in and then exhale out about a tenth of your lung capacity and inhale to fill up again, this is shallow breathing.

When you are breathing it helps if you rest one hand on your stomach to check that your stomach raises when you inhale. This will be your check that you are breathing correctly.

Do this ten times and check how you are feeling, when you get use to doing this exercise you can increase the repetitions.

At first it will feel a little strange but with time you will get use to it. Over time you will feel better and more motivated.

Step Two

Breathe in slowly to the count of eight, rest your hand on your stomach to check that you are breathing correctly. Breathe out slowly to the count of six contracting your stomach.

At first do this five times and with practice increase to ten and then fifteen.

You should feel calm; I love this one because it makes me feel really good. This exercise is also used in meditation.

I have done these exercises with my clients and they have reported that they feel really relaxed and motivated to take on their challenges of the day.

I hope that this will help you and would love to hear from you with your feedback.