Many of us have experienced and felt the pain of breathlessness during Covid. Breathlessness or shortage of breath is linked to several factors such as respiratory issues, lung problems, heart issues, allergies or stress, and anxiety. Breath is the most vital aspect of our survival and any kind of breathing problem disrupts the whole functioning of the body and annoys the mind.
Often, it is hard to track the reason for breathlessness. The youth today is so committed to their busy lives that many times they fail to acknowledge that they are suffering from breathing problems and just go on living despite the constant feeling of uneasiness. It’s important to bring a change in this outlook and start from the basics i.e. taking care of yourself. So, to destroy the root cause of the issue, let’s take a look at some of the breathlessness symptoms.
Symptoms of Breathlessness
- Feeling heavy/uneasy
- Unable to take long breaths
- Chest pain while breathing
- Shallow breath
- Heavy breathing
- Coughing or wheezing during breathing
- Sweating
- Fatigued while breathing
- Pale skin, hands and feet
- Fever or chills
- Diarrhoea or vomiting
As already mentioned above, there might be several causes for breathlessness and any cause could trigger one or all of the symptoms to appear. It is important thereby to understand and cure breathlessness.
Understanding More About Causes and Cure
Lung Problems
If you have persisting lung problems like asthma, TB(tuberculosis), pulmonary hypertension, and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) among others, you might feel breathlessness more often. People who work out more than they should in a day feel breathlessness due to exertion as the lungs do not get enough oxygen.
Remedy: Controlled food habits, prescribed medicines and deep breathing are some of the relief methods for the persisting problems.
Anaemia
A condition where your body has a shortage of red blood cells that carry oxygen to different parts of the body is called anaemia. Anaemia is a common issue in females that leads to problems during periods and pregnancy and its symptoms vary from breathlessness to fatigue and paleness.
Remedy: There are different reasons for anaemia. Anaemia with folate and vitamin deficiency can be taken care of with an iron-rich diet, vitamin supplements and core strengthening exercises.
Cardiovascular diseases
Certain heart conditions such as heart attack, angina (reduction in blood flow to the heart), and abnormal heartbeat can cause shortness of breath and need immediate medical intervention.
However, to check breathlessness at home, you need to do the following things with the right treatment:
- Ease the breathing problem by sitting in a comfortable position with a straight spine and take long breaths. You may also lie to a side with your head on a cushion and relax
- Get active
- Try some light exercises like stretching and stop worrying
- Reduce your diet until you feel better
- Open up the windows for some fresh air or take a walk in nature.
- Catch up with a family member, or friend or spend some time with a pet
- Bring the focus to the cause through mindfulness and don’t panic. Treat it the right way.
Mental Disturbance
Overthinking, stress, anxiety, depression, etc. are some of the many mental illnesses that reveal themselves through breathlessness and sometimes through inconsistent and faster breathing.
While medication can provide relief for the persisting cause, it’s important though to bring a change in the lifestyle. Here is what you can try:
- The moment you feel panicked and still can control yourself, change your place and see if it helps.
- Understand the bothering thought and evaluate it practically. Can you change something about it without causing harm to you or others? If you can, try that else acknowledge your feeling but move on.
- Do a few deep inhalations and exhalations. Spending some time focussing on your breathing pattern can also calm you down.
- Find something that you like and get involved. Examples: Singing, Painting, Playing sports, gardening etc.
“Every emotion is connected with the breath. If you change the breath, change the rhythm, you can change the emotion.”
~ Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Other Causes
There could be other reasons for breathlessness like catching an infection, allergies, cold problems or persisting diseases. Although some of them may require you to take medicines daily, it is important you follow a healthy lifestyle and make no room for the issue to linger.
Tips For a Healthy Lifestyle and Treating Breathlessness
Self-Discipline
Planning your day and implementing the action accordingly leaves no scope for panic because of mismanagement. Therefore, sticking to a routine, striking off particulars from your to-do list and leading life activities are crucial to avoid issues that lead to breathlessness.
Self-Awareness through Meditation and Mindfulness
While meditation calms your disturbed mind, mindfulness analyses, acknowledges and sometimes repairs your thoughts. Both of them make you more aware of who you are and what you can do to feel healthy. Through self-awareness, we can control the effect of severe illnesses like chronic asthma, and irregular heartbeats, improve our pulse rates and cure breathlessness at home.
“If you can win over your mind, you can win over the whole world.”
~ Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
The Right Food and Enough Sleep
Food that is nutritious, light and unadulterated is good for the body and prevents many diseases. Good food also brings good thoughts. As they say, we must not live to eat but we must eat to live.
A sleep of about 6-8 hours is essential for a healthy body. A sound sleep keeps you fresh, and rejuvenated and prepares you for the challenges in the day ahead.
Good Company
Quite often ignored, company also plays a vital role in our lifestyles. Good company enables you to share your insecurities and teaches you important life lessons. We tend to reflect the attitude of people we spend time with. So, choose your company and stay away from stressed life.
“Human evolution has two steps – from being somebody to being nobody; and from being nobody to being everybody. This knowledge can bring sharing and caring throughout the world.”
~ Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Though all of the reasons above can help you in some way to eradicate the causes of breathlessness, you must not simply let go of these good habits. They make you efficient in the long run.
Join us today in our program here to experience serenity and happiness through powerful breathing techniques that can transform your life.
