You are likely not doing the best job of breathing! Most people tend to take shallow breaths using only the muscles of the chest and neck…without even being aware of it!

Several factors may contribute to this shallow breathing:

• Physical pain, stress, or anxiety: these triggers your body's sympathetic nervous system (the "fight or flight" response), which produces quick and shallow breaths that originate in the chest.
• Poor posture: Slouching over a desk tightens chest and rib cage muscles and compresses the diaphragm, stopping the lungs from expanding fully. Over time, your body can adopt shallow breathing as a normal habit even when you feel calm.
• Lack of movement: Whether it is due to recovering from injury, illness, or surgery, or because you are living a sedentary lifestyle, lack of movement weakens the muscles you use to breathe deeply.
• Diaphragmatic breathing is the fix! Sometimes called “belly breathing,” diaphragmatic breathing utilizes the power of the diaphragm (the large, dome-shaped muscle at the base of your lungs) to pull air deeper into the lungs. When sitting or standing, most of the blood circulating in our lungs is in the lower areas, so expansion in this area promotes a good mix of air and blood. Slow diaphragmatic breathing activates your body's parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) nervous system, improving many physiologic responses.

Benefits include:

• Lowered blood pressure
• Decreased heart rate
• Reduced spasticity
• Reduced pain and reduced awareness of pain
• Decreased stress and increased relaxation
• Improved circulation and blood flow to healing areas
• Improved mental focus

Here is a simple 3-minute exercise you can use to begin to train yourself to use diaphragmatic breathing:

1. Put your tongue gently on the roof of your mouth behind your top front teeth.
2. Inhale through your nose to the count of 4.
3. Exhale gently through your mouth to the count of 5 or 6.
4. Let your brain help you by using visual imagery! Picture yourself at a quiet beach, watching gentle ocean waves hit the shore. As you inhale, visualize a smooth wave rolling gently up onto the sand. As you exhale, imagine the wave receding peacefully back out into the ocean. Let your breath match the steady, rhythmic cadence of the water.