Learning to Breathe

Two years ago I saw numerous doctors, including a physical therapist, to get help for migraines that I suffered from.

While the physical therapist worked with me on exercises for relaxing my neck muscles, she made a comment that surprised me.

"Did you know you don't swallow correctly?"

What?? I don't?? Is that really possible?

She told me I put stress on my neck muscles by swallowing improperly, and thus was causing tension on my already stressed neck and head. I had no idea there was a right and wrong way to swallow.

We spent a portion of every session retraining me to swallow properly, and eventually it became my new normal. (See HERE to find out if you swallow correctly or not. If you don't, you'll find an easy exercise to help retrain what you thought was a very basic skill!).

Now that I've relearned swallowing (can't believe I'm even saying that!), I have another task in front of me, thanks to a new physical therapist.

"Did you know you don't breathe correctly?"

Here we go again!

After nearly two years of relief from migraines, I can feel some of the symptoms returning so sought out a physical therapist for help. Rather than go straight to steroid injections that were necessary last time to reduce swelling in my vertebrae, which brought on the cycle of migraines, I wanted to try a more natural approach.

And that's when I found out I don't breathe properly!

Following our first session he encouraged me to practice new breathing techniques in order to retrain my diaphragm and gain better spinal stabilization. Hopefully that will be one of the keys to stabilize my neck and keep those pesky migraines away!

I'm always up for learning something new. Just didn't expect it to be how to breathe!

Want to read one of my most embarrassing moments? Click HERE. It was the last time I had the injections for the migraines. Go ahead and have a good laugh at my expense today!