Breathing
June 2020
Did you know that time pressures, financial pressures, complex social interactions with families, change, resilience and expectations from others and ourselves, ALL impact on our stress levels and this has a direct relationship with breathing.
We do need a small amount of stress to function well, but we often don’t find the right balance. With increased stress, the autonomic nervous system moves from parasympathetic (calm) to sympathetic (fight or flight). This causes our heart beat to increase and our breathing gets shallower and faster, it’s all part of the fight or flight reaction.
We take for granted breathing but little do we know how huge the physiological effects are of poor breathing. They creep up on us and are difficult to put a finger on!!
Typical symptoms of breathing pattern disorders are:
- Frequent sighing and yawning
- Disturbed sleep
- Erratic heartbeats
- Feeling anxious and uptight
- Pins and needles
- Upset gut/nausea
- Clammy hands
- Chest Pains
- Shattered confidence
- Tired all the time
- Achy muscles and joints
- Dizzy spells or feeling spaced out
- Irritability or hypervigilance
- Feeling of 'air hunger'
- Breathing discomfort
This comes predominantly from the physiology happening in our body when we expire too much carbon dioxide (CO2) which in turn changes the pH in our body! Our body likes to maintain a pH between 7.35 and 7.45 so doesn't have much room to move before we start to feel the effects!!
Pam has trained in the Bradcliff Method of Breathing Retraining and each time she talks to people they are surprised at how little we think about it but also how much poor breathing affects our bodies and minds!
She will look at how you are breathing and look at strategies to improve your health and well being.
Call Karen or Kim at reception (03 686 9399) to discuss having an assessment