Keep healthy at work!

If your job is making you breathe badly - do something about it.

Make sure BREATHE STRETCH & MOVE is added to your office library -- and enjoy the stories people tell in the book.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

'My heart rate used to go up to what felt like a thousand a minute -- like a wildly galloping horse. My palms and armpits would go sweaty, and I thought I was going to throw up, before big presentations. One time, I couldn't speak at all, and I've never forgotten the horror of that. So I lived in total fear of it happening again."
- Shaun 28 Architect

This describes very well what 'stage fright' feels like; going blank and not being able to focus on what to do next, in spite of being well prepared. Stage fright is really another name for an acute attack of carbon dioxide deficit. (too much of it is flushed out through infringements to our breathing by-laws - sighing, breath-holding, mouth breathing, rapid or high-chest breathing). Symptoms of this include tingly fingers, wobbly knees, tunnel vision and as often as not, a quavery voice. Or worse still, completely losing the plot, and as happened to Shaun . . . speechlessness. His problems when we analysed them were:

• Hyper inflated (and painful) upper chest, and rigid stomach wall
• Habitual mouth breather
• Forgetting to pause for breaths during speech
• Speaking to the very end of his out-breath followed by a huge high-speed audible in-breath.
• Rapid mono-tonal speech
• Extreme nervousness because of the above.

Shaun had been doing all the right things. He was keeping fit, he had an excellent diet, and was seeing a councellor for stress. But the First Step had not been addressed - assessing and correcting his breathing pattern disorders. This proved to be a major breakthrough for him. He is now a brilliant and confident public speaker.

Over breathing is bad for us
The physiological consequences of over breathing can be profound if it goes on day after day. The body starts to adapt both structurally (raised shoulders, tighter muscles, upper chest breathing, jaw tension, headaches) and physiologically (the body struggles to maintain chemical balance). So both mind and body are affected by 'bad breathing'. (How can the brain work properly if its not getting the right mix of fuel?) And central to this potentially harmful state of affairs is that 'bad breathing' becomes . . .. in and of itself stressful. The original stressful events may have long gone . . . The adaptations become the problem.

We'd love to hear from you - your own stories of work stresses and how you've dealt with them. Breathe well ! from Dinah, Tania and the B R E A T H I N G WORKS team.