Exhalation under normal conditions- passive process: the diaphragm and external intercostal muscles relax, which allows the chest to return to a calm position, and the elastic forces of the lung expel some of the air contained in the alveoli. With increased exhalation, the muscles of the abdominal wall take part.
Their reductions increase the pressure inside the abdominal cavity, as a result of which the diaphragm rises and the volume of the chest decreases. Other muscles such as mm. quadratuslumborum and m. transversus thoracis, play a lesser role in increased exhalation.
Lungs located in two closed spaces, separated from each other. The surface of the lung is intimately adjacent to the inner surface of the chest, and the visceral and parietal pleura are in contact. Two opposing forces bring the parietal and visceral layers of the pleura into contact.
Unrolled elastic fabric The lung tends to contract towards the root of the lung, while the capillary attraction existing between the two endothelial surfaces, in the presence of a constant negative pressure in the pleural cavity, causes the lung to follow the chest wall during inspiration. The continuous tension experienced by the lung affects not only the chest wall, but also the mediastinum.
It manifests itself in the form suction force, which can be measured by a pressure gauge connected to the pleural space. With a calm chest position (between inhalation and exhalation), there is a negative pressure of 6-8 mmHg. During inhalation it increases to 12-20 mm and during exhalation it decreases to 5-3 mm.
Suction force lungs causes expansion of the mediastinum and its contents. The left atrium, located between the two lungs, is connected to them by the pulmonary veins. Contraction of the atrium during systole overcomes the elastic force of the lungs, but during diastole this elasticity, acting on both sides, leads to a fairly vigorous expansion of the atrium. The right atrium is exposed only to the elastic traction of one right lung, which facilitates the flow of blood through the v. cava to the right heart.
From this it is clear that opening the left pleura affects only the left atrium, and opening the right pleura disrupts the filling of both the right and left atria. When considering pulmonary function, several aspects of normal breathing are of interest.
Air, inhaled and exhaled during normal breathing is called tidal (500 ml).
Air, which after normal exhalation can be exhaled through maximum expiratory effort, is called spare (1,500 ml).
Air, which after normal inspiration can still be inhaled using maximum inspiratory effort, is called additional (about 1,500 ml).
Air, which remains in the lungs after maximum exhalation and can leave the lung only when the pleura is opened and the lung collapses, is called residual. But even after complete collapse, a certain amount of air remains in the lung, which is located in the alveoli. This air is called alveolar air.
Towards the end of kindergarten age, children, first boys and then girls, begin to slowly move away from their parents. Growing up children do not allow themselves to be stroked or hugged, for fear of appearing “weak”. Just recently they were looking for and finding solace in your arms, but now they have pulled away; it is uncomfortable for them, especially boys (not an adult!) to cuddle up to you, ask “pat me, please.” But they still want it (they need it). Look how they grab and hug...
Few people really know how to say “no.” After all, “no” is a place where I am no longer ready to move my boundary.
And coexistence with people (in a family, kindergarten, classroom, camp, university, at work) presupposes compromises, that is, continuous shifts of this very boundary in an unknown direction. It is considered good to give in.
Entering into someone else's position is right.
In all languages there is an analogue to our expression “Enter my situation.”
“Are you sorry?”, “Give in, you’re a girl...
“The power of intention works wonders”, this basic metaphysical postulate is studied in almost any classical, esoteric or spiritual school of development, there are a lot of examples of this, they are encrypted in various catchphrases like: “Whatever you go for, that’s what you will find”, “a drop wears away a stone” ", "thoughts are material", "... and it will be done to you according to your faith", etc.
The power of intention in action is the unification and aspiration in a certain direction of actions, thoughts and feelings, which, being supported by personal strength...
Willpower is one of the main character traits of a person. Often they even say “character” instead of “willpower”. This is not accidental, because how much willpower is developed in a person determines how he can realize his other qualities.
Some people (especially women) say that they don’t need willpower or that it’s simply not given to them. They say with some relief: “Well, I don’t have willpower.” At the same time, exercise and a cold shower in the morning are postponed with a clear conscience until next Monday...
In our world, we usually observe the following: some have, if not everything, then a lot - they live in wealth, doing what they love and getting great pleasure from life (maybe this is happiness?), while others barely make ends meet, saddled with loans, they say that I simply do not have the opportunity.
But if, like those rich people, there were these opportunities, then I would...
Intention, what is it?
What limits our capabilities? Exclusively our intentions. Intention is desire and...
“I really want to lose weight, but I don’t have enough willpower...”, “I can’t quit smoking, I have no willpower at all...”, “I have no willpower... what should I do? How to become a strong-willed person?” Surely you have repeatedly heard such phrases from friends, acquaintances and relatives, and perhaps you have uttered them yourself.
What is willpower? How to educate and develop willpower? Is it possible to train her?
There is a widespread belief in society that people who smoke, are overweight, or drink alcohol excessively are weak-willed. This...
Despite the huge amount of work on the physiology of breathing, experts have not yet come to a consensus on its optimal mode. There is no less advice to “breathe deeply” than to “breathe shallowly.”
From practical life, everyone knows that the nervous system controls breathing.
And by the number of inhalations and exhalations you can determine the strength of the nervous system. People with a weak nervous system breathe 12% faster than people with a strong nervous system. It is logical to note that if a person is engaged in voluntary regulation...
According to Eastern teachings, air carries not only oxygen, but also prana energy.
Control of breathing - pranayama - helps to accumulate and maintain it in the body. As a result of using the technique, energy begins to circulate freely throughout the body, internal organs are healed and the psycho-emotional state is harmonized.
On a physical level, pranayama acts as a lung exerciser. To tighten muscles, we use various strength exercises, and to...
It is extremely important to help yourself comprehensively understand the activity of thought energy, master the technique of controlling it, and master the method of translating beneficial ideas into life reality. We can use the power of thought a thousand times more effectively and we will be convinced that...
Few people know that in moments of severe stress you need to breathe deeply through your nose. In this article we will explain exactly how to do this and why such deep breathing is important.
Despite the fact that in Western medicine it is not customary to make a distinction between breathing through the mouth and through the nose, it is no coincidence that athletes are taught nasal breathing from childhood, and pregnant women are advised to learn deep and shallow breathing techniques to relieve labor pain. Meanwhile, thousands of years ago in the East, deep breathing techniques through the nose were practiced, which promoted health and longevity.
In the east, great attention has always been paid to breathing techniques. It is no coincidence that the vital energy “prana” is translated from Sanskrit as “life”, “breath” or “movement”.
The human lungs consist of 5 lobes, but during our daily breathing, only the upper two lobes are used, while the remaining parts remain immobilized. The upper lobes activate stress receptors that are associated with the sympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system increases the heart rate, increases blood pressure and mobilizes our body. The sympathetic department of the nervous system is responsible for our most powerful emotions - anger and fear. The last emotion is key in the instinct of self-preservation. When in danger, a person reflexively swallows small portions of air through his mouth, which mobilizes his body, and the person gains the ability to run quickly. This physiological feature is associated with human evolution, when dangers awaited him at every step.
The problem is that we use shallow breathing every day in everyday life, where there is no danger of being eaten. And stress receptors continue to activate: the body releases excess stress hormones day after day. Thus, a person, constantly worrying, gets used to breathing shallowly, which leads to even more stress.
With nasal breathing - deeper breathing, due to the structure of the nasal passages, a person fills all lobes of the lungs with air, which helps him reduce stress and cause relaxation.
Unlike the sympathetic system, the parasympathetic department is activated precisely during nasal breathing. This section acts differently: the parasympathetic section of the nervous system lowers blood pressure, reduces pulse, stimulates the immune system, and also has a calming effect on a person. This type of breathing is also beneficial due to the massage of the heart and internal organs, carried out through the movement of the diaphragm.
Breath is life. Learn to be aware of your breathing and breathe more from your “belly” rather than from your upper chest. By observing your breathing, you yourself will become calmer and healthier. And even if at first such breathing “from the lower parts of the lungs” may seem uncomfortable, you will see that after just a few days of practice, it will become easier for you to breathe, and with such breathing comes calmness!
Let us remind you that Gennady Malakhov’s health formula is based on six healing powers. These are consciousness, breathing, nutrition, skin, immunity and movement. According to the famous folk healer, by learning to manage them, you can restore, maintain and strengthen your health without clinics, hospitals and medications. In the previous issue of “The Family Healer,” Gennady Malakhov told our readers about methods of working with consciousness. The topic of his next conversation is breathing.
(Continuation. Beginning in "AiF. Health",).
Breathing is a complex and continuous biological process that ensures the body’s connection with the external environment. The importance of breathing as a healing force is evidenced by the fact that without it a person dies within 5-10 minutes. Breathing disorders, according to Buteyko, can cause 150 types of diseases.
The deeper, the more harmful
Insufficient breathing causes oxygen starvation. Excessively strong and frequent leads to spasms and loss of consciousness. It is advisable to strive to do 5-7 breathing cycles per minute (one breathing cycle is inhalation, exhalation and a pause between them). The lower the breathing rate, the healthier the person. Deep and rapid breathing flushes carbon dioxide out of the body, the deficiency of which causes constriction of the bronchi and blood vessels, leads to oxygen starvation of the cells of the brain, heart, kidneys and other organs, increases blood pressure, and disrupts metabolism.
After reaching puberty and up to 40 years of age, respiratory function is at its highest, and then destructive processes occur in the lungs. Thus, atrophy of the mucous membrane begins in the bronchi, which leads to a decrease in the elasticity of the bronchial tract and a loss of their tone. As a result of atrophy of the lung tissue, the alveolar septa become thinner and their elasticity decreases. All this is reflected in breathing. It becomes more and more profound at the same frequency and contributes to the development of various pathologies.
In the rhythm of yogis
If we turn to the experience of yogis, they perform their main breathing exercises in the following rhythm: first, a quick inhalation is taken, then a breath is held while inhaling (in time it is 4 times longer than an inhalation), followed by a full slow exhalation (in 2 times longer than inhalation) and inhale again (there is no pause between exhalation and inhalation).
When the duration of inhalation, breath-holding and exhalation are 12, 48 and 24 seconds, respectively, intense sweating and removal of impurities from the body through the skin occurs. When the time of inhalation, breath-holding and exhalation is 24, 96 and 48 seconds, the body begins to tremble from the passage of powerful streams of energy. Finally, with the longest inhalation, breath-holding and exhalation times, reaching 36, 144 and 72 seconds, a person enters a state of highest bliss, characterized by extraordinary lightness, vigor, youth and strength.
Perhaps some of the readers will be able to achieve at least one of these conditions after long training. But first, let's try to normalize breathing function using the simplest techniques.
Method of volitional elimination of deep breathing
The author of this method is Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko. According to his theory, a healthy person’s breathing proceeds according to the following pattern: inhalation, exhalation and an automatic pause that occurs involuntarily after exhalation. In a sick, deep-breathing person, there is virtually no automatic pause. The whole Buteyko technique comes down to returning this pause. Experience shows that after 3 years of regular training, it recovers. But it must be constantly monitored - then success is guaranteed. Training according to the Buteyko method is done as follows: you need to sit comfortably (your back should be straight), stretch your neck up, and place your hands loosely on your knees. Now you need to relax as much as possible, calm your breathing and pulse. When relaxing, check whether your shoulders, arms (especially the curves of the arms and hands), face (especially the muscles around the eyes and forehead), legs (especially feet), muscles of the chest, abdomen, and diaphragm are well relaxed.
Now measure your heart rate (HR), breathing rate (RR) and control pause (CP). CP is holding your breath after exhaling, which you can hold until the first difficulty. Do not try to overexpose it - the original data will be incorrect. Write down all initial measurements (NC, BL and CP) in a notebook.
So, having taken a comfortable position, begin to reduce the depth of breathing, gradually reducing it to nothing. In this case, you should feel a slight lack of air. To make this exercise easier, you can raise your eyes up (without lifting your chin) and slightly pout your lips.
A set of exercises aimed at reducing the depth of breathing consists of 6 cycles. Two cycles are performed at night (at exactly midnight and 4 a.m.) and four cycles are performed during the rest of the day (at 8 a.m., 12 a.m., 4 p.m., and 8 p.m.). Each cycle consists of five attempts. It is better to train so that around the 5th minute you can no longer breathe in the selected mode. Then the time of attempts increases to 10 minutes.
Having mastered this rhythm, you need to move on to the second degree and again try to further reduce the depth of breathing and breathe in a new mode, first up to 5, and then up to 10 minutes. There are several such degrees of reduction in breathing. You can move from one to another only when the previous mode has been completely mastered and it is no longer possible to return to your previous breathing.
Let's say you decreased the depth of breathing for 5 and then 10 minutes. Now measure the gearbox (write down the measurement data in your notebook). This is one try. Next, you reduce the depth of breathing again for 5 minutes and measure the CP - this is the second attempt. And so on up to five attempts. This limits the first cycle of exercises, which consists of 5 attempts of 5 minutes each, plus the time spent on the CP. In total, the time of one lesson with a CP of about 15 seconds will be about 30 minutes in the case of a 5-minute attempt and about an hour in the case of a 10-minute attempt. Do not forget to write down in your notebook the time of each attempt and the CP measurement data after each attempt. After finishing the lesson, measure the emergency, respiratory rate and also write down this data in a notebook. Carry out the next five cycles in exactly the same way at the specified time.
Daily exercises end with the calculation of the arithmetic average of the CP measured during the day (there should be 36 such measurements: one measurement at the beginning of each cycle and five measurements after each attempt during each cycle). Also write this arithmetic mean value of the CP in your notebook: using this figure you will observe the dynamics of your training process.
The criteria for the correctness of the training are as follows: a slight lack of air at the beginning of the training, turning into a very strong one (“I can no longer breathe in the chosen mode”); a feeling of warmth followed by perspiration and even sweat; CP growth from one attempt to another, from one day of classes to another. At the very beginning of training, the CP may increase too slowly or even stand still. Don't pay any attention to it. Continue training and your CP will slowly begin to increase.
These exercises must be performed until you bring the CP to 60 seconds. After this, you can exercise only 2 times a day for a year. Classes should be held for an hour: one in the morning, after getting up, the second in the evening, before dinner. After a year of training, switch to one hour-long session per day, which should be performed before dinner. At the same time, take control measurements of the gearbox every morning.
If your CP starts to drop in the morning, be sure to find the cause and eliminate it. Possible reasons for the fall of the gearbox:
Chronic tonsillitis, cholecystitis, appendicitis, bronchitis, pneumonia;
- excessive consumption of coffee, cocoa, tea, chocolates;
- use of antibiotics, antispasmodics and other similar drugs;
- alcohol, nicotine, drugs;
- physical inactivity (sedentary lifestyle);
- hot weather, excessive interest in steam rooms and other hot procedures;
- negative emotions;
- prolonged downward position of the eyes;
- plentiful and mixed meals;
- consumption of large quantities of protein products, especially meat of all types, fish, eggs, dairy products, as well as citrus fruits and yeast bread.
If, despite eliminating the reason you found for the drop in CP, its value still continues to decrease, start all classes from scratch and carry them out according to all the above rules. If your CP remains stable at 60 seconds throughout the year, you can stop training. But if they are not a burden to you, continue: it won’t get worse.
Breathing through a tube
This method was proposed by Anton Galuzin. The whole point of snorkel breathing is to increase the harmful space (air that is not involved in gas exchange, but is in the airways) of the respiratory tract by using a tube of a certain size. For this, tubes with an internal diameter of 30 mm and a length of 42.5 are used; 99.5; 156; 227; 284 and 355 mm.
Exercises with a tube are performed under the same conditions as the Buteyko method, only a mask with a tube attached to it is put on. Before starting classes, it is necessary to empty the lungs of residual air. To do this, you need to take several exhalations with a shallow, short breath. You need to breathe easily and calmly through the tube.
You can practice once a day in the morning, starting with 5 minutes and taking a tube 0.8 m long. Gradually increase the breathing time daily by 1-2 minutes and replace the tube with a longer one. Adjust your breathing rhythm within 4-6 breaths per minute.
Galuzin himself practices for 30 minutes, using a 2.3 m long tube. After 3.5 months of such exercises, his headaches and chronic dermatitis disappeared, mental activity and performance increased, and his dependence on the weather disappeared. Along with the improvement in his physical condition, his need for food, including meat, noticeably decreased. Anton Galuzin is very pleased with his breathing exercises, as they bring him health, pleasure and joy.
By embryo type
This rather ancient method of normalizing breathing is very effective, but it is only suitable for vegetarians. Fetal breathing aims to return to the breathing of the fetus in the womb. The technique for doing it is as follows.
You need to sit up straight, your back is straight, it’s better to close your eyes. The air should be inhaled through the nostrils slowly and so smoothly that no noise should be heard. When the chest begins to expand, inhalation must be stopped. Then the breath should be held as long as possible, at least for the time necessary to count from 1 to 120. After this, it is necessary to exhale the air completely through the mouth (but preferably through the nose) so smoothly that the bird feather suspended in front of the face does not moved. Then again follows inhalation, holding the breath, exhalation, etc.
Ideally, you would hold your breath for the time it takes to count from 1 to 1000, but probably only yogis are capable of this. To obtain the maximum effect, fetal breathing should be practiced 3-4 times a day (for example, at 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours). Naturally, you need to start with 5 minutes, gradually increasing the time of each lesson to 30-50 minutes.
In addition to renewing the body, as the ancient sages say, this breathing helps to distract thoughts and, as a result, concentrate the mind. It brings health and complete peace.
"Blacksmith's Bellows"
Just as the bellows of a blacksmith serve to supply air to the furnace, so this exercise helps to supply air to the body. It is performed simply: sit up straight, close your right nostril with your thumb and take a quiet, very slow breath, performing sequentially low breathing (when only the diaphragm is involved in breathing, and the chest remains unchanged), middle breathing (when intercostal muscles are involved in breathing, and the chest expands to the sides and rises slightly) and upper (when breathing is carried out only by raising the collarbones and shoulders upward with a stationary chest and some retraction of the diaphragm).
As soon as the inhalation is completed, open the right nostril, close the left one with the ring finger and exhale quietly through the right nostril, emptying the lungs as much as possible and pulling the diaphragm as high as possible so that a hole is formed in the stomach. After this, immediately take a quiet, stretched inhale through the right nostril, and exhale - quiet and stretched - through the left. Then the whole cycle repeats again.
This exercise allows you to reduce the breathing rate to 3 breaths per minute, which creates the best conditions for the functioning of the pineal gland, which has a direct impact on the circulation of energy through the channels of the acupuncture system. Alternate breathing through the left and right nostril produces a balancing effect on the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Maximum pulling the abdomen up when exhaling and protruding it when inhaling leads to the creation of powerful energy flows in the body, due to which various energy imbalances are leveled out in the body. Finally, "blacksmith's bellows" is an effective massage of all abdominal organs.
(To be continued.)
Buteyko argued that there is one disease - deep breathing, but it has 150 symptoms. Here are just a few of them: headaches, sleep disturbances, tinnitus, memory impairment, fatigue, blurred vision, obesity, impotence, cough, dry hair. mouth, pain in the heart, cardiac arrhythmia, bleeding gums, frequent belching, flatulence, spasms of the esophagus and stomach, aching muscle pain, muscle atrophy, dry skin, itching, salt deposits. These and many other symptoms can be eliminated by mastering and applying in practice the method of volitional elimination of deep breathing.
Never hold your breath at maximum inhalation. If necessary, do this only within 70-80% of the maximum inhalation depth. When inhaling, work more with the diaphragm and moderately with the intercostal muscles and shoulders. Moreover, the older the age, the shallower the depth of inspiration due to the ribs. Never hold your breath at maximum exhalation. If necessary, do this only within 70-80% of the maximum exhalation. The weaker the heart, the less the breath hold during exhalation should be. When exhaling, work more with the diaphragm - this is a good massage for the internal organs and heart.
Breathing is the road along which you can come to yourself
How smooth and calm is your breathing, do inhalation and exhalation differ from each other in ease and duration, are there pauses and delays between them?..
The Small Medical Encyclopedia defines respiration as “a set of processes that ensure the supply of oxygen to the body from atmospheric air, its use in the biological oxidation of organic substances and the removal of carbon dioxide from the body. As a result of biological oxidation, energy is released in the cells, which is used to ensure the vital functions of the body.” Simply put, with the help of breathing we acquire what is necessary for our life and get rid of what is unnecessary and no longer necessary. Violations in this constant process lead, at a minimum, to impairment of health and quality of life.
The way we breathe can predict how we live. A person’s whole life is an exchange of his internal and external, his surroundings. Our state depends on what and how we take from life and how easily we let go of something. And if you want to change something in life, the simplest thing is to start paying attention to your breathing. In fact, our breathing changes when something starts to happen around us. In addition, breathing is something that is truly ours and is always with us from birth until death. This is why breathing can become the path along which we come to ourselves.
Fears, panic, distress, obsessive thoughts, guilt, resentment, pain, insomnia, feeling of emptiness, loss of self - this is not a complete list of problems that can be solved by monitoring your breathing.
You can pay attention to your breathing anywhere and at any time (in transport, walking, at home in front of the TV, in bed before going to bed, in the morning when waking up, etc.). It is especially good to start observing in acute situations, when an unnecessary and interfering state begins to take hold of you (for example, in stressful situations). The duration of contact with breathing can be from several minutes to an hour, the frequency is unlimited. Here it is important to focus on your own feelings. For example, in acute conditions it is necessary to observe until the severity subsides. In all other cases - until you feel comfortable or achieve a certain result.
Watching your breath is very simple. Just pay attention to how you inhale and exhale. Notice how the chest moves up and then down. Just watch. Notice how the depth and pace of breathing changes, and what new sensations arise. Perhaps it will become noticeable how the whole body gradually begins to engage in breathing. You can observe the movement of the anterior wall of the lower abdomen. Observe how, during inhalation, the front wall of the lower abdomen expands, and during exhalation, it contracts.
For calming breathing, you can inhale from your lower abdomen and exhale through your chest, imagining how the air flow makes a revolution inside your body. Another option for calming and relaxing breathing, when inhaling, count to three, then exhale with a count of 6 (later up to 12), pause with a count of 4, and a new, same inhalation-exhalation cycle.
Depending on the problem, you can choose the appropriate metaphor for breathing. Here are just a few of these options.
1. Inhale - receiving something important and so necessary for you (for example, confidence, calmness), exhale - getting rid of excess, unnecessary things that interfere with you. This is good especially in cases where it is not entirely clear what is needed and what you want to get rid of.
2. Inhalation and exhalation as a symbol of an endlessly vital process, as a combination of two opposing energies, which together give integrity and unity. Imagine how these two streams pass within you, supporting and directing your inner life energy.
3. Imagine how, together with the exhalation, you exhale the pain from the body into the outer space. And as you inhale, you fill your body with health and strength, activating restoration processes.
4. As you inhale, imagine that you are filling your body with the necessary vital energy, and as you exhale, this energy takes its place in the body. As you exhale, it’s good to add some word that has a special positive meaning for you. In this way, you can fill yourself with the necessary vitality and resources.
Even simply observing your breathing for a few minutes allows you to get significant positive results not only on the external, tangible, but also on a deep, unconscious level. Therefore, there are usually always results that are noticeable immediately, and others that appear months and even years later. Life will continue to flow as usual, presenting you with various surprises, but at the same time you and your perception of life will change. With every inhalation and exhalation you will be closer to your real self, you will be closer to your own goals...
Finally, I would like to suggest an exercise described by Leslie M. Leckrone in her book “Good Power (Self-Hypnosis).” This exercise perfectly saturates the body with oxygen, ventilates the lungs, brings joyful, pleasant relaxation and relieves anxiety. In addition, it is very useful for psychosomatic bronchitis and asthma without exacerbation.
“Sit comfortably and relaxed; straighten your shoulders, straighten your back, lift your chin. Place your left hand on your thigh, raise your right hand to your face: four fingers should be together, the fifth (thumb) should be apart. Pinch your right nostril with your thumb and take a deep, slow breath - it will last four seconds (which can be counted like this: “one thousand, two thousand...”, etc.). Hold your breath for eight seconds, then, releasing your right nostril, close your left nostril with your index finger and exhale - during these four seconds, try to push all the air out of your lungs. Without changing the position of your fingers, inhale through your right nostril for the same four “long” counts, then pause for eight seconds, after which, holding your right nostril with your thumb, exhale to the left. The first respiratory cycle is completed.
The exercise usually consists of four cycles and is performed twice a day - best at dawn and in the evening, in the rays of the setting sun. Gradually, the number of cycles can be increased - first to six, then to eight - or, conversely, temporarily reduced if dizziness appears.”
And also, try combining observing your own breathing with listening to my audio recordings. The results may pleasantly surprise you.