This is normal breathing. Most movement occurs in the abdomi-
nal areas with only slight movement of the chest, which expands
more with much deeper breathing.
Those who breathe improperly often move their muscles opposite
that of normal. This happens for various reasons. Brain, spinal cord
and local muscle injuries can disturb normal movement of the breath-
ing muscles. In some individuals, poor breathing can come from
stress, the stigma of not showing a big belly, and even over-exercising
the abdominal muscles, making them too tight to relax.
Improving the breathing mechanism can help many areas,
including movements of the spine and pelvis, getting more oxygen
and eliminating carbon dioxide, and reducing or even eliminating
pain.
Pain is an Emotion
There’s nothing that interferes with life more than pain. It changes
people, their lives and society itself. Pain is often the symptom asso-
ciated with muscle imbalance, but other causes, such as gut pain are
common. Pain medications, which only treat the symptoms not the
cause, are among the best selling prescription and over-the-counter
drugs.
Pain is an emotion. It originates in nerve endings found in the
skin, blood vessels, nerve fibers, joints and bone coverings. Pain nerve
endings send messages to the part of the brain responsible for emo-
tions (called the limbic system), where you interpret the feeling as
pain. This is why pain is relatively subjective, and an emotion as
opposed to a sense, such as the sense of smell, taste, vision or hearing.
If pain was a sense, it would be much more difficult, if not practical-
ly impossible, to control it by physical (e.g., cold), chemical (e.g.,
aspirin), or mental (e.g., hypnosis) measures.
The cause of the pain is often in the same physical areas as the
pain itself, but at times may be associated with problems elsewhere in
the body, or with problems that don’t produce symptoms. Referred
pain, for example, is felt in one location on the body while the cause is
somewhere else. A common referred-pain pattern is associated with a
heart attack, where pain is felt in the lower neck, shoulder and arm
usually on the left side. Or, pain in the middle of the spine may come
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