Now that we know we have to live with some version of Covid virus for years to come, I thought it was time to share my thoughts as certified health & wellness coach. So what is one thing that we can do (from the comfort of our home) that will help strengthen our respiratory system, more specifically our lungs?
Lungs are our first line of defense and in case of viruses such as Covid (and it's various cousins) our last line of defense as well. Lungs are part of the complex respiratory system which allows us to breathe without us even noticing it. Only when our air passage is blocked (sleep apnea, asthma etc.) or we are gasping for air, we truly appreciate the value of having a strong respiratory system. Each and every cell in our body needs ample amount of oxygen to function and healthy lungs are the key to this process.
The American Lung Association (ALA) along with a number of research-based hospital systems in US like John Hopkins, Stanford, Kaiser etc. are now recommending "breathing exercises" to strengthen our lungs as part of both prevention and post Covid recovery protocols. The research data now points to the fact that there will be new variants of Covid coming every year - unfortunately nobody can predict their intensity. So in addition to eating super healthy, keeping our lungs in best possible shape is no longer an option but a necessity if we want to have good respiratory health.
In the past couple of years, I have shared many documented benefits of doing regular "breathing exercises" specially "SKY Breathing". Regular practice of SKY helps in boosting immunity, stress reduction, opening air pathways, sleep improvement, lowers blood pressure/cholesterol/lipid levels etc. We can now add improving respiratory/lung health to the list as well. Physical exercise like walking, stretching, swimming, going to gym etc. is very good for general health & wellbeing and we need to do it to the best we can. But for long term lung health rhythmic breathing exercise like SKY is the best. One of my older cousin who daily tracks his heart rate, oxygen levels, sleep patterns, stress levels etc. was blown away by seeing the effects of SKY on all the important markers in just few weeks of practicing it. I encourage everyone including the young or old to learn about the SKY Breathing practice. It just take 20-25 minutes out of 24 hours in a day and can be done anytime.
If you are not sure if SKY breathing will help you, ask questions from the instructors before making a decision.
My wife (Luna) and I attend the SKY breath meditation workshop once or twice a year to make sure we are doing the breathing exercises correctly and incorporate any adjustments that we need to make. I will be attending the online SKY workshop on April 15-17. If you would like to get rid of daily stress, I suggest you join this workshop. You can also share it with friends and family members who are going through stress.
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