correct breathing is fundamental to our well‑being
every time we breath we are telling our body to either be in a relaxed state or a stressed state
with every breath we take we send a message via our autonomic nervous system to our brain
by performing slow and deep diaphragmatic breathing into our belly, we stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn stimulates our vagus nerve, telling our brain to send out a message to reduce our heart rate, to reduce our blood pressure and to put our body into a relaxed state — known commonly as our ‘rest and digest’ mode
conversely fast shallow breathing into our chest stimulates our sympathetic nervous system telling our brain to send out a message to increase our heart rate, to increase our blood pressure and to put our body into a stressed state — known commonly as our ‘fight or flight’ mode
mii‑chi teaches you to harness the power of your breath
mii‑chi helps you to become aware of your breathing, to slow it right down and to breath into your belly at all times, constantly stimulating your vagus nerve
our vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in our body and it connects our brain to our body, allowing our brain to monitor and control many important organs throughout our body including our heart, lungs, intestines and stomach
when we breathe in our heart rate increases in order to speed up the flow of oxygenated blood around our body
when we breath out our heart rate slows
the difference between these two heart rates is called our vagal tone
a small difference means a low vagal tone
a large difference means a high vagal tone
a low vagal tone causes inflammation, which over time has a negative impact on our health
a high vagal tone decreases inflammation, which results in better mental and physical health
slow diaphragmatic / belly breathing increases our vagal tone stimulating our vagus nerve to send out anti-inflammatory signals to our body