Recently I’ve been thinking about how we breathe - and why it might get faster or slower. Most often we think our breathing gets faster to take more oxygen in and get rid of more carbon dioxide.
While this is true, there are many other reasons our breathing might get quicker. Stress, worry or heightened emotions being one of the other big factors. If this is the case, the basic reasons of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange are often ignored by your body. So your breathing might not slow itself back down like it should.
Stress & The Diaphragm
When we are under a lot of stress, our diaphragm muscle at the base of our lungs switches on too much. This causes it to flatten out and lift our chest. (Has anyone heard me say ‘drop your ribs’ over the last few years??). The diaphragm is then adding pressure to your abdomen and internal organs. This could add to the digestive symptoms of stress, pelvic floor issues and pain.
It also means the diaphragm isn’t helping as a breathing muscle anymore. So we have to use the muscles between and around our ribs and neck instead. Some areas of our lungs, particularly at the bases, won’t have air passing through them like there should be. Has anyone seen what happens when you stop air passing through a warm, wet environment?? Think about the corners of a bathroom, when the window is never opened, and that yucky stuff starts to develop in hard to reach places... Wet and warm, with poor ventilation, is the ideal conditions for bugs to grow.
The muscles working harder to help you breathe can become tight and uncomfortable. The chest lifted position also tightens our lower back muscles. A tight lower back tips our pelvis forwards and makes the back of our legs feel tight. In this position it’s also really difficult for our abdominal muscles to work. (Has anyone spent time working on your 'core'? It won’t matter how much the muscles have been ‘strengthened’ if they’re in a position that switches them off!)
Why this is particularly interesting now? We’re under some of the most uncertain times a lot of us will have faced - personally, as a family and as a community. Uncertainty is very likely to cause stress - whether you know it or not. It wouldn’t be a massive assumption that a lot of our diaphragms are misbehaving.
With any flu-type illness we can feel short of breath, have coughs, aches and pains. Knowing about Covid-19 and how serious it can be adds to the stress. If you were to be unwell, with coronavirus or anything else, this stress adds to the fight your body is already having with the illness itself.
So we have: 1. Illness → quicker breathing 2. Stress → tighter diaphragm → chest raised and extra muscles helping you breathe
→ quicker breathing 3. Chest/legs/back/neck tightness or discomfort → pain → stress (back to point 2!) 4. Quicker breathing → worse exchange of oxygen/carbon dioxide → quicker breathing 5. Tight diaphragm → areas of lung not moving air → more illness
Do you see where I’m going here?
One of the things I am advising MOST right now is the one thing we can ALL be doing to help break these cycles. BREATHE. But not just any breathing - the type that helps our diaphragm to relax. That helps our body away from stress reactions or ‘fight and flight’ mode. That helps our extra muscles to settle down and our lungs do what they should do in the most efficient way they can.
Use the contact links at the bottom or top of this page to let us know if you're having issues with your sleep, stress or any aches or pains - we'll give you advice to help get you on the right track.
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