Dear Health Conscious Reader,
Today I want to talk to you about breathing.
Few things are more important.
Have you ever thought about how our terms to describe breathing are tied to life: respiration has the same root as spirit and inspire… inhale and exhale have the same root as hale, meaning exceptional health and vigor.
There are plenty of examples in our language of words related to breath that mean life …
But in the modern world, we’re so distracted, we sometimes take our breath for granted.
After years of focusing on people’s health, I’m going to show you how to focus on your breath. It’s easy and fun.
Your body has a thousand different autonomic functions going on all the time that you’re mostly unaware of. Your nervous system is a balance of those autonomic functions – the “fight-or-flight” sympathetic system, and the relaxing para-sympathetic system.
The two autonomic functions you probably know best are your heartbeat and your breathing. Normally you breathe without thinking, and you have a balance of the sympathetic and para-sympathetic.
When you breathe in, it’s sympathetic – fight or flight. One example would be gasping in shock.
When you breathe out, that’s para-sympathetic – relaxing. Again, it’s in our language. For example, “breathe a sigh of relief” or “waiting to exhale.”
In today’s world, you can be under a lot of stress, and you’re body can respond by staying in a sympathetic state. You can change this. It’s as simple as focusing your attention on your breath. This is what makes breathing so effective at resetting the balance in your autonomic nervous system that you have conscious control over.
You can, if you want to, focus your conscious intent on your breathing, and control it voluntarily. And as you do that, you bring your conscious mind into contact with that autonomic function.
The ancients knew this: Almost every ancient system of health has something to say about breathing. The Vedic and Chinese systems both focus on exhaling. Even the Japanese martial art Karate uses breathing techniques in their forms of movement called “Kata.”
One of the most effective ways to touch your autonomic system in order to restore your balance and relax is cadence breathing. What you do is breathe in to a count of four, hold your breath to a count of seven, and exhale to a count of eight. This was developed through trial and error over millennia, but it makes you exhale for twice as long as you inhale, and that’s the key.
Here’s how you do it:
The first step is to clear your mind. The goal is to get rid of all the excitatory energy that your environment is pummeling you with all the time.
The second step is to focus your conscious attention on your breathing. Think about the cadence of your breath, and exclude other thoughts. Constantly re-focus your attention on the breath.
This is the way you train your mind – by constantly clearing your thoughts and re-focusing on your breath. Distractions are going to happen. But you don’t waste any energy over them. You don’t form an opinion on whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. Each time it happens, you gently redirect your focus back to your breath.
And each time that happens, you can take a little credit, because you’re gaining more and more control over the process.
Step three is to observe your breathing. Observe how long it takes you to inhale and exhale. You’re not trying to influence it yet; you’re just trying to observe the cadence. Where does inhaling stop? Where does exhaling begin? Focus on the change and how it feels to go from inhaling to exhaling.
The fourth step is to elongate the exhalation. This is where you start to exert control over this autonomic function, and influence the para-sympathetic system to help you relax. Make sure you’ve inhaled fully, using your abdomen and lungs. Then, push out all of your breath slowly and fully.
The more you do this, the more proper breathing will become habit. This will help your body recover from the stress of the modern world and get back the balance nature intended for your autonomic system.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD