Breathe Properly To Stay Calm and Deadly Focused

Proper breathing will put your body in harmony, increasing blood flow and also serotonin and dopamine levels.  To slow down and control the chatter in your head, repeat a mantra, e.g., I say the word, “steady” in competition pistol shooting when I must remain totally focused and calm.  

Let’s begin:

Start by taking a deep breath into your nose.  Focus on breathing into your stomach.  Then exhale all of the oxygen out of your body.  Do this two or three times to prepare yourself.

Now, focus on breathing in deeply for four seconds, and hold for four seconds.  Then breathe out for four seconds and hold for four seconds.

Do this several times or until you feel your body is in harmony again. Your lungs, the hemispheres of your brain, your entire body must be in harmony to function properly.  This will reboot your system to achieve that harmony.

Do not let the simplicity of this breathing exercise fool you.  The reason is based on Nobel Prize winning research.  When you breathe into your nose you are increasing the nitric oxide levels in your blood stream.  Basically, it increases your blood flow and lowers your blood pressure.  

You can even make it better if you wish by humming when you are exhaling.  Humming oscillates the air while you are breathing which greatly increases the level of nitric oxide levels into your blood stream.  

Note:  Dr. Louis J. Ignarro won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1998 for the discovery of the importance of nitric oxide to the cardiovascular system for increasing blood flow.  He is also considered the Father of Viagra.