The Secret Ingredient to a Good Night’s Sleep
If you’re finding yourself lying awake for hours on end, then learning how to activate your breath can send you off to La La Land in no time at all.
Working on the quality of your breathing has many health benefits. Getting top quality “healthy breath” may take you a few months of practice – but you sure will notice the difference in youthfulness, energy, vitality, weight management, muscle tone and of course, sleep quality.
That’s why when you’re in a healing session or training session, we always start with awareness of the breath. The breath tells you a lot about what’s going on at the day-to-day level, as well as the deeper levels where we usually need a scuba tank to visit.
Most people are terrible breathers – and it really sells out your body, not too mention escalating your stress levels. Learning how to breath not only helps manage things like blood pressure but can also alleviate aches and pains due to poor posture.
Bad breathing can trigger other bad habits and leaves you susceptible to lower back pain. Worst of all, if you’re surrounded by other bad breathers, you’ll tend to pick up their shallow breathing habits as well!
Good breathing means going deep into the lower abdomen where oxygen rich blood is in ready supply. Good deep breathing also needs to be easy and effortless – over time this will become second nature and you’ll eventually be able to breathe in through your feet, sending the breath around your body before eventually breathing out through your feet again.
Correct breathing utilises and helps tone the core muscles, so there’s another reason to do it right. Kumu Julia, our Chief Guide says “I love Yogic Pranayama but I still use the Alexander Technique I trained in years ago at Drama School too. You can easily find them on the internet. The important thing is to choose a method you can maintain and get a better night’s sleep”.