The Curative Power of the Breath (What the Breath Can Teach Us)

  

 My interest in the breath began in a training session at the gym.

 “Let’s talk about the breath,” she said.

In response, I blurted out a ridiculous comment:“I don’t like to breathe.”

What I meant is I don’t like to follow the instructions of how to breathe during an exercise class. Instead, I continue to breathe in a haphazard way, resisting the discipline. But why?

The trainer observed me and said, “When you inhale, you don’t relax your abdominal muscles. Instead, you tighten them.” She suggested that the problem arose because I’ve been taught to hold in my stomach muscles.

Well that is strange. How can I do something so wrong that is supposed to be entirely natural? We usually don’t think about this process of inhalation and exhalation by which the body brings in O­­­2 and exhales CO2 because we assume it is automatic.

I can’t believe I’m the only one in the world to whom efficient breathing doesn’t come naturally, so I decided to explore the topic. I soon learned that actually both inhalation and exhalation are quite intricate, a combination of relaxation and contraction of various muscles.

As we inhale, the abdominal muscles relax but the diaphragm contracts to move downward to create a vacuum and pull in the air. Upon exhalation the stomach muscles contract, but the diaphragm relaxes upward to push the stale air out!

To further complicate matters, we’re supposed to inhale and exhale for the same length of time to expel all the stale air at the base of the lungs. Obviously, we’re all breathing, but we’re not all breathing efficiently or correctly to our full capacity.

 To do so requires attention and concentration!

According to the American Physiological Society, curiosity about respiration began over two millennia ago, but by comparison, serious physiological investigation into its control is very young.

Breathing is both automatic and to some extent, also voluntary. If we don’t think about it, we breathe on automatic pilot. But we can also take control to guide the process like a skilled pilot flying a jet.

We don’t often think about the power of the breath, but the wolf in the children’s story of The Three Little Pigs intuits this power to blow down pigs’ houses!

Focusing on the inhalations and exhalations is indeed “boring” but its regular rhythm can soothe us to sleep with the power of a lullaby. Counting our inhalations and exhalations can conquer our various fears, such as a flying phobia. When we feel out of control of our situation, focusing on the breath helps us to feel in charge again.

A phrase from a meditative exercise says, “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” The Yogi masters say that meditation and breathing exercises can sharpen our minds and modern research has validated the yogis teaching. Breath control or pranayama is the fourth of Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga. According to the June 2015 Yoga Journal, Pranayama is a physical, mental and meditative practice that uses the breath as a vehicle to improve life.

Singers and athletes have to train their breath to achieve the heights of their discipline. And each of us has this great power within our grasp to harness our breath to benefit our health.

Scientific research is studying how mindful breathing—paying attention to the breath and learning how to manipulate it—is one of the most effective ways to lower everyday stress levels and improve a variety of health factors ranging from mood to metabolism.

An historical approach shows that how we breathe relates to the culture in which we’re raised. Women of the Victorian age often suffered from a malady called neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion. They had to wear tight-fitting corsets that compressed their chest and abdominal muscles that made deep and efficient breathing impossible. After exertion, even as minimal as climbing a flight of stairs, they would often faint. Some had a room at the top of the stairway in their home known as a fainting room, where they could relax to catch their breath. 

Maybe in some ways society has evolved to become less barbaric; with an understanding of physiology we would never recommend such binding or constrictive attire for anyone!

Breathing is intricately connected with our emotions. Panic disorder, a state of extreme anxiety, may cause hyperventilation that increases the oxygen level and results in feelings of light-headedness. As a result, panicky feelings worsen. Breathing into a paper bag helps to increase the level of carbon dioxide and decrease the anxiety.

Gastic reflux is another problem that an understanding of respiration may be able to help. In this condition, gastric contents leak from the stomach into the lower esophagus. GI physiologists are studying how focusing on the action of the diaphragm can help to prevent these episodes. Tightening the muscles during swallowing may work better than taking any of the class of medications known as proton inhibitors.

A person reported on the web that he hadn’t benefitted from medication. Like me, he was contracting his abdominal muscles when he should have been relaxing them! When he focused on proper breathing techniques his symptoms of acid reflux disappeared.

Dr. Andrew Weil endorses proper breathing techniques as a gateway to health.

Please refer to his brief YouTube video How To Perform the 4-7-8 Breathing.

Directions: Inhale through the mouth for four counts, hold for seven counts, and then exhale through the mouth with an audible swish sound. He recommends that a person take four of these rhythmic breaths four times daily during the first month.

Using the breath to treat various symptoms is an inexpensive, ever-accessible method that requires discipline, but in the long run can be most rewarding. 

Breathing grounds us in our bodies. As N. Harari, the author of Sapiens and 21 Solutions for Problems of the 21^st Century, writes, “If we are not at home in our bodies, we’re not at home in the world.” Clearly, if we don’t breathe properly, we can’t be at home in our bodies.

In summary, proper breathing can help with many kinds of stress. When matters around us are out of our control, we do have power over our breath and therefore ourselves.

Conclusion: The fastest road to being at home in our bodies is the route of the breath, a powerful tool to self -cure.

We are missing

a fountain of health

if  we fail to explore the breath.

Dear Reader, I welcome your comments. jsimon145@gmail.com