How Intentional Breathing Exercises Benefit Your Mind, Body, & Spirit
Intentional breathing is good for your health.
getty It's important to take part in daily breathing exercises. After all, you're breathing all the time but how often are you intentional breathing?
Breathing is your buddy! It will bring you back to your center and make you feel emotionally balanced.
No matter what’s going on in your life, if you go too long without taking in some good, deep breaths, you’ll begin to feel less at home in your body.
Not doing any intentional breathing as part of your lifestyle can keep you disempowered and stuck in negative behavioral patterns .
What does intentional breathing mean and how do breathing exercises come into play?
Intentional breathing means taking some good, deep breaths as exercise and awareness practices.
These exercises and practices not only open your lungs and heart, but also free your soul. It’s important to make sure you exercise your beautiful, life-giving lungs on a regular basis.
The secret is that the more you exercise them in a spiritual way, the more you’ll experience joy in your body. And in addition, the better you’ll become at listening to the wisdom of your body.
I do a lot of intentional breathing during yoga. Often, in the middle of a deep yoga class, I have had an emotional release or a burst of inspiration.
I often had to take a piece of paper and pen with me while I doing yoga because I experienced divine inspiration coming into my body. It was an expansive and delightful experience!
In the Taoist tradition, it’s the lungs that hold both joy and grief. And, in life, it’s normal to experience grief.
Life is change. Things and people come and go. That’s part of the journey.
If you open your lungs, you open yourself and your body to spirit. You’re accessing what I call the holy breath. You draw your higher self into your body, and you start to think in a way that is on a higher, more inspired level.
Alternate Nostril Breathing
Alternate nostril breathing is a powerful healing intentional breathing exercise. It’s one of many yogic intentional breathing exercises designed to balance and heal the body.
Alternate nostril breathing, amongst other benefits, is designed to balance the masculine and feminine sides of the brain and body. When you're balanced, you feel better.
Intentional breathing and taking in conscious deep breaths is a great tool to relieve depression.
I've never suffered from clinical depression, but I do know that breath, movement, and sound (spiritual exercise) are powerful mood lifters. I have had to do a lot of deep breathing to feel sane in this crazy world.
When your body is depressed or stressed, it contracts and you begin to take shallow breaths. Less divine energy or life force energy gets into your body.
That's why it’s important to breathe deeply when you’re going through stressful times in your life.
In conclusion, make sure you take the time to get a lot of good, deep breaths into your beautiful lungs as you journey through life.
What form of exercise are you doing? Is it allowing you to open your lungs, your heart, and your soul, so that you can feel the spirit moving through your body?
Give yourself the gift of intentional breathing. Let deep breathing be your buddy and keep you feeling bright.
Anna-Thea is an author and Certified Divine Feminine Educator. If you’d like to learn more check out her online courses.