Take a deep breath and live longer

Breath is life. We can survive without water or food for some days but life without breath is simply not possible.
When we breathe in, we are not just inhaling air, we add fresh energy to our body and mind. This energy is healing and rejuvenating, it revitalises and nourishes the system. Similarly, when we breathe out, we are not just exhaling air, but also the toxins from our body and mind.
When we get stressed or angry our breathing pattern changes. It becomes short, fast-paced and irregular. In such situations the first thing we are generally asked to do is, "Take a deep breath".
Try practicing slow and deep breathing for a few minutes every day. It can help you get rid of anxiety, depression and disorders brought on by stress.
Yogic philosophy says our lifespan doesn't depend on the number of days we live but on the number of breaths we take. This means the "slower we breathe, tthe longer we live".
We can easily validate this by observing animals: a tortoise breathes very slowly, approximately four breaths per minute and lives for up to 150 years. On the other hand, dogs take in around 24 breaths per minute at rest and live for only up to 13 years.
Humans take in 15 breaths per minute on an average. This increases when we are stressed. Yogic practices like pranayama and meditation are very useful for better breathing. In pranayama, the objective is to consciously control our breath, making it slow and deep. In dhyana (meditation), awareness is drawn to the object of meditation and while doing so, the breathing rate gets slower effortlessly, often to less than one breath per minute.
So, breathe slowly and add more years to your life.
- The writer is based on Dubai