Well, what I mean is, we all can get into bad breathing habits. We take our breathing for granted. After all, we don’t have to think about it and we do it everyday, all day, and even whilst we sleep. So, how can it be that we adopt bad breathing habits and what should we do about it? This is one of the first discussions I have with all of my clients, whether they be singers, people with physiological voice problems or trans-people working to modify their voices. Many people have to re-learn diaphragmatic breathing, also known as abdominal breathing or belly breathing.
Diaphragmatic breathing is optimal breathing. Yes, we can all get by on sub-standard inhalation and exhalation for normal, non-challenging existence. If you are an athlete, a singer or a person who makes special demands on your voice at all, you will benefit from perfecting this breathing style and then enhancing it further.
A recent issue of Harvard Medical School HEALTHbeat describes the benefits of this optimal breathing technique to people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but they also explain why it is beneficial to everyone:
“Learning diaphragmatic breathing”
All of us are born with the knowledge of how to fully engage the diaphragm to take deep, refreshing breaths. As we get older, however, we get out of the habit. Everything from the stresses of everyday life to the practice of "sucking in" the stomach for a trimmer waistline encourages us to gradually shift to shallower, less satisfying "chest breathing." Relearning how to breathe from the diaphragm is beneficial for everyone. Diaphragmatic breathing (also called "abdominal breathing" or "belly breathing") encourages full oxygen exchange — that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. Not surprisingly, this type of breathing slows the heartbeat and can lower or stabilize blood pressure.
If you want to connect with your breathing and ensure you are able to use diaphragmatic breathing, I suggest you do the following exercise first thing in the morning, before you rise and face the stressors of your day. Then at the end of the day, when you have retired to bed, you can use this exercise as a sort of breathing meditation, which may promote relaxation and sleep along with practicing optimal breathing technique.
Once you are able to execute diaphragmatic breathing whilst lying down, graduate to sitting and standing. Keep working to make this manner of breathing habitual.
Rediscovering Diaphragmatic Breathing
Lie comfortably on your back on your bed or floor, with your head and knees supported by a pillow. You may prefer to rest your feet comfortably on the floor, with your knees up. Relax.
Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen, just below your rib cage. Your little finger should be approximately at your navel.
Breathe in slowly through your nose, letting the air in deeply. The hand on your chest should remain relatively still, not totally still, and the one on your belly should rise markedly. This rise is caused by the contraction and subsequent lowering of your abdominal muscle which increases the space in the thoracic cavity and so the lungs can inflate more fully. You may visualise the incoming air as inflating a ‘belly balloon’.
Allow your abdominal muscles to move inward as you exhale through your lips. You should notice that your hand on your belly should move down as you exhale and your stomach flattens. This flattening is the result of natural recoil of the abdominal muscle back to its resting dome shape.
Have a go and good luck breaking those bad breathing habits!