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Janice MacPherson's avatar

A fun activity to try if you have a wearable device that tracks your heart rate. Take deep breaths into your belly and watch your resting heart rate immediately drop. When we breath into our belly, it tells our body that we are safe (activates the parasympathetic nervous system to "rest and digest".) Yoga teacher here. 😎 Breathing is amazing.

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Esther Nagle's avatar

I started going to yoga classes because I wanted a way to improve my lung health, and reduce asthma attacks, that would allow me to carry on smoking (cigarettes and weed!). Yes, I know.....

I HATED the breathing practices! I couldn't breathe through my nose because allergies meant it was always blocked, so the breath parts of yoga actually stressed me out completely.

Then I started yoga teacher training, and had to figure it out. I was advised to try ditching dairy products, and within a week or two, I could breathe through my nose. A complete revelation!

By the time I finished my training, I could not only breathe properly through my nose all the time, but the self regulation skills it had given me had helped me quit smoking and drinking (which I also had previously been addicted to).

Saved by the breath? I certainly think learning to breathe well was a BIG part in my healing!

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