Why is breathing the most important life process?
Breathing is one of the key life processes, so we call it Prana or the life force.
Most of us are concerned about the quality of dress we wear, the house we live in, the food we eat, the water we drink etc… as very important as they are more obvious.
Isn’t it? Why is it so?
Is it our fault, or are we designed like that?
From an evolutionary perspective, the human brain is designed so that the more obvious the things, the more attention it pays, the more subtle the things are, the more they tend to get ignored. So we keep improving the obvious things neglecting the subtle ones.
What if that subtle process is the most important & a daily repetitive life process?
You are right. Breathing is that subtle, repetitive, vital life force called Prana.
In the present technology-driven information era, we are flooded with too much information like Netflix, Youtube. Isn’t it? Thus leading to many thoughts.
Every thought influences our mental state, thus altering our breathing pattern. We tend to take shallow, rapid breaths when exposed to many thoughts. Our human body is designed to take slow & deep breaths.
What happens now?
The rapid & shallow breathing pattern activates the Sympathetic nervous system kicking in flight or fight response. It leads to mild hypoxia in the entire body at the cellular level due to insufficient, rapid gaseous exchange in the lungs. Moreover, Cortisol levels rise, blood sugars tend to rise. It simulates a pre-hypertensive and pre-diabetic profile initially. When it happens in the long term, we are prone to these lifestyle disorders like Obesity, Diabetes and others.
On average, we breathe around 10 – 12 times per minute, 720 times per hour, 15,000 times per day.
If we neglect such an important life process over the years, Isn’t it high time to learn more about it? It may be one reason for the rise in health issues like Obesity leading to diabetes & Hypertension.
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, ‘A perfect man breathes as if he is not breathing’.
Do you want to be a perfect human?
Let us learn breathing as the children do.
Let us get healthy by learning the correct way of breathing and making it a habit.