The simple act of breathing
The simple act of breathing
Updated: Jan 15
Maybe you share my feeling of overwhelm while researching the massive variety of breath and mindfulness workshops and retreats available today, looking for the 'one' that will resolve my variety of issues.
With so many to choose from, and if I choose one and not the other, am I missing out on that one thing that will work for me? How do I know where I will get the best bang for my buck? Or more correctly, long-lasting positive change?
Perhaps I need to deep dive into doing them all. Maybe that can be my new life quest. All offerings provide something different and unique and I don't want to miss out on the best solution to an enlightened, beautiful, stress-free life.
But that is just me and how I feel. You may not have the same anxiety.
Having studied yoga teachings and breath practices I have, for a long time, been curious about finding the most simple and powerful ways to connect back to my, and for my students, your true-selves. The stress free versions of our selves. Experiencing what is our birthright; calm minds and bodies with a consistent feeling of optimism, curiosity, compassion and love. It's been a goal of mine to find simple practices that help us humans identify feelings and emotions, be more in-tune with noticing what the body is feeling and what the heart is communicating.
Some practices and spiritual guidance offers can have you navigating a state of confusion and alienation, disabling you from your feelings and emotions and the natural human feeling state. It's not that I want to undermine the numerous 'spiritual quest' offerings available today.
Some techniques are amazing for releasing trauma held in the body (one of the most important things for everyone to do) or stimulating the release of natural DMT. My aim here is to let you know there is a simple way to help yourself feel better.
SUPERPOWER
My yoga quest has confirmed my belief that our breath is our superpower. This makes sense right? Without our breath we don’t get to live long. The yogis who contributed to the Patanjali Yoga Sutras (a famous yoga framework) believed the ongoing practice of breath retention was the elixir of youth. Primarily due to intensifying the amount of oxygen we intake into the blood stream. Oxygen is a pretty good miracle cure for many things.
The breath is also a powerful ‘tool’ to bring us into an awareness of our body, sensing how our bodies are feeling, despite what our 'monkey' minds (the ongoing, incessant thinking mind) may be telling us. Breathing is an autonomic process, our body breaths us, but we are also able to control this process, override how the body is breathing in any given moment - which is our superpower.
Expanding on that belief is science and research that is confirming what our wise yogi’s from 2000+ years ago discovered. That a focus on the breath, and also moving the body consciously with the breath, is a major key to remaining, or returning to our state of relaxation, clear-mindedness, feeling strong, curious, content and joyous. This includes that feeling of being 'connected' - to yourself and the world around you, in the most positive ways possible. Our conscious breath can and does alleviate stress and the symptoms associated with stress, allowing us to return to our natural state of being.
STRESS AND BREATH
Breathing is an autonomic process - we just do it, and we do not have to think about it. Right?
Our natural breath cycle is a longer exhale than inhale, and the movement of breathing includes the abdomen. But with the busy and intense lifestyles that we lead these days, we have lost touch with understanding how our body is feeling, how our breath may be getting restricted or constricted dependent on our habits and stressors.
Sitting for long periods, our posture, lack of activity, forward bending of the head and things such as smoking or vapping and the intensity of life stressors, either acute or chronic, all impact negatively on us and our breathing.
Acute stress is, ideally, short-lived and a response to things such as being stuck in a traffic jam making you late for work, disagreements with your close ones, workplace conflicts, and other situations that cause our nervous system to react with flight/fight/freeze response. Acute means short-lived. Chronic stress is when stressful situations and circumstances continue for more than a day or two, evolving into weeks and months.
Sometimes we cope by dissociating ourselves from the impact of stress, pretending everything is ok and the body is fine. Numbing and dumbing ourselves to our physical and emotional responses. This is common due to many factors including our 'hustle' lifestyles, how busy we make ourselves, not having time to just 'be' without doing, including the social and cultural pressures to 'soldier on' and 'keep your chin-up' and comparing ourselves to others.
This act of ignoring our bodily responses, means we dis-associate from listening to our amazing bodies, governed by our nervous system, which normally fluctuates from the restorative rest/digest response to the activated fight/flight/freeze in response to life. If we are healthy, well and vital this process works in a balanced, fluid way.
Also we no longer ‘mentally’ consider some life stressors to be stressors or dangers, we have become numb to the stress effect as they are a part of our daily life (eg: driving a car).
Part of our brain, the reptilian part (the amygdala to be specific) which controls our instinctual responses, still responds to dangers, ensuring the nervous system responds in order to keep you alive. This includes the fight/flight/freeze response; the increased heart rate, shorter breath, cortisol and adrenaline release which stimulates quick-fire muscle responses.
Humans have evolved the ability to rationalise circumstances and control emotions using our sophisticated pre-frontal cortex. This rational response often steps in and controls our state of being - evaluating the circumstance and overriding the instinctual response.
Research is ongoing into what occurs within mind-body communications. It is important also to understand each persons response to life is different to another person’s.
We do know that awareness of, and conscious control of, the breath can adapt our nervous system response, which then impacts our mental state, our thoughts.
STANFORD 'CYCLIC SIGHING' RESEARCH
Recent research from Stanford Medical School has confirmed what wise yogis have known for 2000+ years; the simple act of breathing, your natural breath cycle, is the single most potent way to regulate your nervous system.
Stanford conducted a good study, comparing breath practices with mindfulness meditation and other similar practices. Results concluded that 'cyclic sighing' was the most effective and had the best long-term effects on the nervous system and our physiology. Cyclic sighing emphasises longer exhalations than inhales - essentially a return to our natural breath rhythm.
Our natural breath is meant to be slightly longer exhales than inhales - but with the advent of our hustle and stressie lives, our breathing has become out of sync, often times shortened and constricted.
It’s fantastic to have further proof that with a little time spent consciously focusing on our natural breath cycle, the most powerful restorative tool we have, we can make long-lasting, positive changes to our physiology and start to be the master of our mind and body. SIMPLE PRANAYAMA - Breath Practice
If you have 5 minutes, take a comfortable seat or lying posture. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Close your eyes. Become aware of your natural breath, breathing through the nostrils.
Bring a slow count of 4 to your breath cycle - like this: Inhale 1... 2... 3... 4... Hold 1... 2... 3... 4... Exhale 1... 2... 3... 4... Hold out 1... 2... 3... 4... Repeat until the 5 mins is complete. You could also extend the exhale count to 6, 8 or 10 and notice how that feels. I recommend this practice if you are awakening during the night, it helps to calm the breath, then the mind and ultimately the nervous system. Let me know how it goes for you and if you are interested in further pranayama practices email me; karlinfrew@gmail.com