You’ve gotta breathe anyway…
Oxygen is the fuel our cells need to carry out their day to day functions. Yet, as a culture, our habit is to breathe too shallowly, from the chest. Because of this, oxygen doesn’t get absorbed into the alveoli as well and the consequences are lactic acid buildup in the muscles (along with other metabolic remnants), “air hunger”, energy issues and more.
A couple months ago I sent out an email describing the importance of breathing through our nose, using our belly more and our chest less and I also hinted on the fact that we should all be breathing at a slightly different rate, based on our height. For example, shorter people should take more breaths per minute than taller people.
This video is sort of a soundtrack or a pacer to help you breathe at the correct rate. It is meant to have you think about your breathing at first, but eventually allow you to NOT think about your breathing because the guitar notes pace your breathing rate.
The tracks were recorded with an old acoustic guitar in the garage. It doesn’t quite rival Eric Clapton’s 1990’s unplugged version of Tears in Heaven, but it gets the job done :o) The first ten minutes is for people who are 5′ tall, the second is for 5’6″ tall people and the third is for 6′ tall people.
Here’s the thing: You’ve gotta breathe anyway. Try this pacing-yourself trick when you have a chance to relax for 10 minutes and see if it can help improve your oxygenation even a little bit. The payoff in making this one little change could be huge – both for your body and brain performance!