Balance, health, happiness, self-healing – these are the potential benefits of conscious breathing, and they’re easily available to anyone. The importance of conscious breathing has been recognised since the start of human history. In many ways, breathing is a real source of physical, mental and emotional benefits.

“Just breathe!” Popular wisdom often reminds us that breathing lets us manage stress and anxiety. Conscious breathing is better than happy pills or detox capsules. Its potential benefits include getting rid of stress naturally, and freeing our body of toxins. Recent studies have proved it: 70% of toxins can be eliminated by breathing. The reason is that breathing renews the oxygen in the blood. That’s why today most health regimes include some work on breathing.

Respiration has lots of other powers too, a fact highlighted by a study carried out by the Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Breathing can help adolescents to calm their impulsive tendencies. Managing emotions, tackling stress, reducing pain – and the amazing consequences of good breathing don’t finish there!

The remaining question is, which technique will you want to use? Of course there are many exercises to match individual needs. Ideally, you will learn to distinguish between thoracic (chest) breathing and abdominal breathing, to breathe deeply, and to work on your posture. In practice, there’s a multitude of techniques to help you relearn how to use 100% of your abilities. That’s what it takes to enjoy all the benefits for your body and mind, and to be able to improve your mental and emotional habits.

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