How we breathe really matters
"The nose is the silent warrior, the gate keeper of our bodies, the pharmacist of our minds, the weather vane to our emotions" Dr Niac
In 2020 the bushfires and Covid-19 drew our attention to our most important organ of the body, central to our health and wellbeing on every level - physical, emotional and mental: our lungs. If not just for the smoke filled air or the fear of being afflicted, but needing to breathe our way through the stress that became a new state of being for so many. Unfortunately breathing is a thing we take for granted, until we have a problem. On a global level our lungs are not in good shape, asthma is the most common chronic illness affecting children. Within Australia chronic lung conditions such as bronchitis, emphysema and lung cancer are in the top five causes of mortality. Most chronic lung conditions are either preventable, reducible, even curable with breath work. It's not a coincidence that 90% of the western society are breathing poorly AND our obesity rates increase also. Our entire wellbeing, physical and mental, is impacted dramatically with correct breathing.
Did you know instead of the alphabet and numbers Monks are taught as they enter their first class at school how to breathe. Why? Because the only thing that stays with you from the moment you are born to the moment you die is your breath. All your friends, family, environment, body, your mind is ever-changing. The one thing that stays with you is your breath, it's our constant. When you get stressed...what changes? Your breath. When you get angry...what changes? Your breath. We experience every emotion with the change in breath. When you become consciously aware of breath and manipulate it (through Pranayama - yogic breathing techniques) you can navigate ANY situation in life.
Breathing is considered a powerful source of medicine in ancient cultures like Tibet, China, India, Native American, Aboriginals, Peruvians. Yet in our Western society learning to breathe correctly is rarely recommended as a method for recovery even in chronic cases of the lung, sinus and heart. Even though thousands of years of healing and science (and a fair bit of logic) shows how breathing incorrectly provides us with a laundry list of maladies (from blood pressure, heart conditions, digestion issues, ADHD, chronic fatigue, spinal problems). The truth is none of the rest matters unless we're breathing well. We assume it's passive, it happens of it's own accord, but we can manipulate it. Our lungs are malleable, we can change them. Our nervous system learns new patterns with repetition.
We know that stress, fear, gasping in shock affects breath flow, however did you know there is a new phenomena called 'email apnea'? In a state of perpetual distraction, such as email checking, reading data or calculations, the breath becomes unstable and erratic and we even hold it for up to 30 seconds. We do it when we are deep in thought, concerned, even in bed. It's unconscious and out of our control UNTIL we train our mind to be conscious of our breath, train our breathing to be steady and fluid, train our chemoreceptors in the brain to withstand C02 level fluctuations without panic. We become resilient to stress, more present calm and focussed. We do this with Pranayama techniques.
Master your breath and you become the master of your mind, then you can navigate your way through anything life throws your way. Your Emotional Intelligence, Physical and Mental Health relies on how well you breathe.
Try my "Breathe In '21 Day Challenge" - for $21, OR also included in your Monthly Membership library $30/month 24hr FREE Trial. Over these 21 days we explore various breathing and Pranayama techniques, positions and mudras to manipulate the breath. It could also be used as a lead in to a regular at-home meditation practice. Perhaps you'll find your ultimate breathing technique.
NEW PLAYLIST ‘ALL about the BREATH’ is in your Inspya Me Online Studio library - click here with 25 x practices to explore various breathwork practices and discover which one is perfect for your needs.
The above information and the Challenge were inspired by my own personal experience and practice these last 16 years since my Yogalates training in breathwork; my experience as a Meditation & Breathwork Coach sharing these practices with thousands of students since, and their feedback; The book from my teacher training 'The Science of Breath, by Swami Rama' and more recently I was blown away listening to 'Breath. The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor'
