A Breathing Exercise

Warm hands by rubbing them together. Place warmed hands on either side of naval.

Exhale slowly and press hands lightly on abdomen aiming to form a slight hollow. Gently force air out of lower lungs and abdomen.

After exhaling completely, begin to inhale, slowly extending the abdomen outward so that it extends like a balloon. Take two or three seconds to balloon the abdomen outward. Use a bit of of downward pressure with the diaphragm.

Avoid chest breathing.

Repeat four or five times.

Eating and Execise Stuff

Walking, Swimming, and eating carbohydrates may prove calming.

Dr Maria Simonson, director of health at the Weight and Stress Clinic at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Good Samaritan Hospital, says that listening to fast music may cause one to eat more.

I do try to get adequate sleep and am trying to learn to eat more slowly.

Exercise helps helps to maintain health blood fat levels.

Exercise tones the muscles, stimulates circulation, helps one from becoming overweight. It also can make me become stronger and that seems a motivating factor.

Breathing Exercises

My intention here is to begin to list and describe about twenty breathing exercises.

Everything done on purpose in life in which one is aware of breathing might correctly be called a breathing exercise. I want to list here only the exercises in which breathing seems to be the main focus. Still my choices are, of course, arbitrary.

The first exercise I am listing is a boarderline case.

ba:
Tighten abdominal muscle while breathing.
~ Stand with your arms stretched out in from of the body slightly above chest level, palms down.
~ Inhale completely, so that your lungs fill with air and the chest expands.
~ Then begin to exhale slowly; using mainly the abdominal muscles to force air out of the lungs.
~ As you exhale, slowly drop your arms to your sides and tighten your abdominal muscles as much as you can.
~ Bring arms up as you inhale.
~ repeat about seven times.
~ Practice until you are breathing smoothly and rhythmically.

Breathing Exercise

We know that breathing is very important. Still we often don't have well in mind what one old aunt of mine often repeated. "It aint what you do, but the way how ya do it." She didn't usually talk that way. She may have been quoting some old song. The idea is that the way we breathe counts.

Just remembering to take a few deep breaths several times a day may do one a great deal of good.

There are a large number of more formal breathing exxerecises available to us. I think that it is as good idea to find and use a number of them and then to choose two or three of them to practice with some regularity.

Here's one I have called "Crane" for no very good reason that I can remember. If you are in cold country you might start this exercise by rubbing your hands together to warm them. Then continue by placing warmed palms on either side of the naval. Sounds like something I picked up east of Suez, doesn't it?

Exhale slowly and press hands lightly on the abdomen aiming to form a slight hollow. Gently force air out of lower lungs and bring abdomen in.

After exhaling 'completely,' begin to inhale, slowly extending the abdomen outward so that it extends like a balloon. Take two or three seconds to balloon the abdomen outward with downward pressure of the diaphragm.

Repeat 4 or 5 times,

Avoid chest breathing.

We know that the important parts of breathing are inhaling and exhaling. Attending consciously to our inhaling and our exhaling a few times a day may do us a world of good; perhaps as much good as more formal exercises. Still I do believe that formal breathing exercises may add greatly to our well-being.