Breathing and Posture

Helping you sort the kinks in the body

Our physical state translates to what happens to us internally. The action or inaction our physical body is experiencing adjusts our peak performance. Breathing and posture are such critical components for correcting these states. Certain tasks we perform naturally bring about an elevated level of anxiety, which, when prolonged, leads to deeper health risks. Sometimes we may even develop angst without performing any specific tasks, but simply due to the mental space and time we occupy. For example, one’s attachment to a past memory may have resulted in physical infliction or scars, and this could also be emotional scars. We can also develop anxiety about things that are yet to happen when we dwell too much in the theater of our imagination and worry about those possible scenarios. We have covered a bit on this topic of memory and imagination in other chapters, which you can read more on if you need to refresh.

I want to share in this chapter two possible remedies you could include in your inventory for handling acute anxiety. Posture and breathing, when combined with time and space, serve us greatly to bring on moments of calmness. Posture relates to the physical state that our body occupies while experiencing that emotional stimulus. While breathing refers to the depth, frequency, and quality of breath, So let us look at how these two actions can be used to benefit us emotionally. Posture was one thing I never paid attention to. Recently, though, a thing that I noticed was that when I started to feel pressure or stress, my posture changed. Parts of my body go into a restricted or crossed position. It could be hard to notice, but something as simple as toe curling, finger crossing, or your body just shrinking and collapsing inward is an indicator of your state. This change in posture or body adjustment can also prolong or get you deeper into a state of pressure or stress. Before we look further at ways to remedy such a situation, we will look at the second part of the topic, breathing.

Breathing is also a key indicator of the state of our body and, when adjusted, could aid in relieving us from stressful situations and gaining more clarity. Breath, or oxygen intake, is important because it is a connector for so many aspects of our body. Our body requires oxygen to help transport nutrients and blood to our various parts and limbs. However, when experiencing stressful situations, we often restrict this flow because of the quality, frequency, and depth of our breathing. Pay attention to it. Next time you are under some sort of stress, your breathing may become irregular; either you breathe really fast or really slowly compared to your normal breath.

Becoming aware of our breathing and posture and then using that knowledge to help unravel the kinks in our system is a great attribute to have in our arsenal. Sometimes one small situation goes unnoticed, but throughout the day, other smaller situations compound with the previous. You may find that by the end of the day, we are just so drained. Taking time to remedy or observe smaller changes to our system allows us to deny or avoid situations that may add more to developing unnecessary stress in our bodies. Quiet often; it doesn’t need you to perform some large tasks to remedy. Simple things like checking the posture of our body when a stressful condition unravels and then making an effort to reverse that by creating a more open posture.

Open out your palm, untangle your fingers, toes and anybody part that may be in a crossed position. Then pay attention to your breathing, try to get the breath at steady pace or maybe just slightly below your average rate. The quality of the breath is also going to be important. Factors that could affect quality are your environment - is the air polluted with artificial smell or particles? There might also be other physiological factors that are affecting your intake of airflow. In those situations, you may need to bring more attention to the process of the breath by visualising where the air is coming from and imagining how it’s being transferred across the various part of your body. Maintaining focus on any given task helps us push ourselves above average. Some principle can be applied to our breathing exercise.