Smoking is habitual and though people know it is harmful to the body and lungs, they continue to smoke because it has become habitual and they cannot live without it. It is an urge that cannot be controlled or denied and when a person gets an urge to smoke, he or she would light a cigarette, knowing very well that it is harming the body. Smoking relaxes your body because it introduces mild acidity and chemicals to your body and that is the reason why many people have an urge to smoke. However, if you want to control the urge to smoke, talk to the people who left smoking by practising breathing exercises. Smoking introduces harmful chemicals and acids to your body. One way to counter the harm caused by smoking is to eat larger portions of vegetables and fruits. Another way to reduce the damage is by doing breathing exercises, daily.
There are two types of breathing exercises that would minimize the urge for smoking, ‘alkaline breathing’ and ‘acidic breathing.’ These are two Yoga techniques of breathing that you can learn easily by joining a yoga school. But, before you start your breathing exercises you have to prepare yourself to do the specific breathing exercises.
Before starting breathing exercises
Make yourself comfortable, either sit down on the ground or on a chair, do not clutch your hands, placed them on your thighs, soften your face and stomach muscles and breath out all air from your lungs.
Alkaline Breathing
Inhale, make sure your lungs are either half or one-third full. Pause and then inhale again and fill up your lungs fully. Try to retain your breath for a few seconds or as long as you are comfortable. Now start exhaling, slowly empty your stomach, then chest, hold, do not inhale for a few seconds. This is one cycle of breathing exercises, repeat the whole cycle five to ten times. If possible, breath deeply in a minute three to six times. If you feel lightheaded immediately stop and go back to normal breathing, giddiness indicates the level of acidity is high in your body.
Acidic Breathing
Repeat the cycle of breathing and try to hold the breath longer, as you become used to deep breathing you will be able to repeat it many times. However, take care, gradually build up breathing exercises, because your body is not used to breathing deeply and you may feel uncomfortable.
Why breathing is known as ‘acidic’ and ‘alkaline’?
Alkaline and acidic are measures that check the level of alkaline in your blood. When you breathe deeply the circulation increases and this helps in removing carbon dioxide from your body, which is normally not removed during normal breathing. Both kinds of breathing exercises are recommended for people who want to minimize smoking, not stop it altogether. The breathing exercises suggested above help in reducing the urge to smoke often, for example, if you were smoking ten to fifteen cigarettes a day, you will reduce it to five to eight cigarettes.
Further practice of controlled breathing helps in developing ‘carbonic acid’, which has a calming effect on the body. As you get used to breathing exercises and practice them for longer and longer periods you will notice you get a feeling of wellness, this is due to the fact that harmful acids are expelled through breathing exercises. Breathing exercises help in calming your brain and relaxing your body, you feel energetic, perform better at work and the quality of your life improves. As we all know that smoking is bad and this habit must be eliminated as early as possible so do a startup with the yoga program and it will help you to avoid all the bad practices.
