Lung Health: Breath is the essence of life.
Maintaining good breath is essential to good health. Your lung health is affected by many variables including your breathing technique, diet, and surrounding environment. Take a moment to consider these three variables.
What is their presence like in your life?
If you are looking to improve your respiratory health in the most holistic way, then read-up on the following five tips!
1. Mind Your Posture
Posture check! How are you holding your body right now?
Your body operates at it’s best when it is in proper alignment. Whether you are standing, sitting, or walking, it is imperative for your lung health to maintain good posture. When the neck, back, and spinal cord are properly stacked and straight, then the airways are open for effective and efficient breathing.
2. Exercise Your Breath
Breathing may be an involuntary function, but some awareness and conscious cultivation around this act will help develop better habits!
Let’s revisit a previous health and wellness article from our blog featuring the Kapalabhati Breathing exercise, which not only serves as a good meditation, but will also help to strengthen the lungs.
- Sit upright comfortably in a cross legged position, resting your hands on your lower belly. If you’re not comfortable sitting cross legged on the floor and you’re sitting in a chair, make sure you plant both feet on the ground.
- Take a deep, cleansing breath before you begin; in through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Inhale deeply through your nose, filling your belly with air about ¾ way full.
- In a quick motion, forcefully expel all of the air from your lungs while drawing your navel in toward your spine. The primary movement comes from your diaphragm.
- Allow your lungs to fill up naturally, with no effort, as your belly expands. Perform this cycle 10 times.
- Once you have completed the cycle, allow your breathing to return to normal and observe the subtle sensations in your body.
- Repeat the cycles of 10 breathing movements up to 3 to 4 times.
3. Soothe Lungs with Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a medicinal herb well known for it’s benefits in breath and lung therapy. The essence, when inhaled, offers a cool, soothing sensation throughout the respiratory system. Give your lungs some respite from bad air and difficult breathing with one of the following methods. Find the one that works best for you!
- Rub a few drops of pure eucalyptus oil on your hands, then cup them over your mouth and nose, breathing to draw in it’s medicine.
- Rub it on your chest, and allowing the essence to gently waft up into your nasal passages over time.
- Run hot water over a washcloth, wring out excess moisture, and place a few drops of eucalyptus oil onto the cloth. Then, sit back, relax, and lay the washcloth over your face, inhaling the soothing properties of the warm humidity and the oil.
4. Amplify Your Adaptogens
Adaptogens are known for boosting your body’s overall function and helping it attune to stressful conditions. Among a myriad of benefits, they balance mood, increase focus, replenish your adrenals, encourage circulation, and promote oxygen consumption.
The following are some adaptogens, used by ancient traditional societies for centuries, that are particularly well known for their respiratory benefits. Here are some of our favorite adaptogenic options for better lung health.
- Ashwagandha (found in our Cacao Elixir™) Also known as Ginseng. In trial studies, this root is a natural medicine has been shown to repair lung damage caused by Asthma, while also decreasing susceptibility to many forms of cancer including lung cancer. (1) (2)
- Schizandra (found in Spirit Tonic): this berry acts as an expectorant that helps clear excess mucus. It also increases oxygen flow throughout the cells of the body. (3) (4)
- Reishi: as an anti-inflammatory, this mushroom helps to enlarge and expand airways for better breathing. (5) It also serves as an expectorant. (6)
- Cordyceps: this mushroom is similarly shown to strengthen the lungs, reduce inflammation, minimize phlegm, and relax the airways. (7)
4. Increase Lungs Immunity
The healthier you are as a complete being, the better you will be able to fight off the adverse effects of poor air quality. During compromising times, you must take extra care to make sure your immune system is strong and healthy.
Good sleep and a healthy diet are a must for a strong immune system. Make sure you are nourishing yourself appropriately. Well known natural immunity boosters include Vitamin C, ginger, garlic, and green tea.
Ginger, in particular, has the ability to "slicken" the lungs. Particles can stick to the ends of the alveoli, where oxygen exchange occurs, hampering the bodies ability to oxygenate itself. Ginger hlps to remove these particles so they can be coughed up and expelled from the body.
Supplements are also quite helpful! Try giving your immune system and lung health a super boost with nano silver. Our bodies require 50mcg. daily of silver to function properly. With it’s dissapearance in most topsoils, me need to supplement it. This nano silver has been shown to kill every pathogen it’s been tested on, while leaving healthy gut flora alone. With compromised lungs, infection risk is possible. Boost your immune system with this powerful Nano Silver Solution.
5. Work Out
And last but not least, don’t forget to EXERCISE! Regular physical activity will vastly improve the quality of your life, while also giving your lungs a good work-out.
During exercise, your lungs and your heart are the two hardest organs at work. They are bringing extra oxygen into the body and circulating it throughout your system, keeping things fresh and flowing. Plus, as you are breathing more, breathing heavier, and taking larger breaths, you are thus strengthening the operating capacity of your lungs.
Lung Health: What Do You Do?
We would love to hear about how these solutions worked for you! We invite you to leave your feedback in the comments below, and to offer up your personal tips, tricks, and solutions to breath, respiratory, and lung health.
