He lives most life whoever breathes most air. ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Before you dive more deeply into this blog post on Conscious breathing, I’d like to invite you for a few moments to become present to your breath, without attempting to alter or change it in any way. You may close your eyes, if you wish, or gaze at a focal point out ahead of you, once you have read this paragraph through. Observe the inflow and the outgo. Notice the quality of your breath, its cadence or rhythm. What is its texture? Does it seem to flow freely within you, or are you experiencing some turbulence or resistance? Where do you sense internal movement which each cycle? Which areas of the body are highlighted by the inhalation and exhalation? Now explore perhaps 10 cycles of breath and notice what you notice.
Breath is life. All life forms breathe, from the simplest organisms to the most complex, in both the animal and plant kingdoms. It is what ushers us in at our birth, sustains us through our growth into physical maturity to the end of our days, and signals our departure when we finally drop the body at the point we call death.
Have you ever watched a baby breathing? If you haven’t done so in a while, or ever, I invite you to make a point of it. Assuming, there are no anomalies that impact its ability to breathe, a baby is the perfect breathing machine. It breathes freely, and optimally. Consider how much growth occurs in the first year of a baby’s life? What do you suppose fuels all that expansion? Breath.
Breath is the single most effective means we have at our disposal to promote our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. It is our internal barometer that clearly shows us our current state of being. Breath is also the most important function of the body, as all the others depend upon it. It evident the body can survive for perhaps weeks without food and days without water, but only mere minutes without life-giving breath.
There is a Vedic story from the Hindu tradition about prana (breath), found in the Upanishads. According to these sacred texts, the five main faculties of our physical nature - mind, prana, speech, the ear and the eye - were all arguing over which was the best and most important. To resolve their conflict, it was decided that each would leave the body and then it would be determined whose absence was most critical to the wellbeing of the whole.
First speech left, and the body continued to function, though mute. Then the eyes left, and the body continued on blind. The ears left next, and the body kept on going, though deaf. Subsequently, mind left, and the body carried on in unconsciousness. Finally, prana began to depart, and the body quickly started to die, so all of the other faculties started to lose their energy. Immediately, they all rushed to prana and begged it to stay, hailing it as supreme among them.
Prana, breath, is the Life Force, which provides the energy for all our physical, emotional, and mental faculties, without which they could not function. If we do not honor prana/breath first, there is no energy with which to do anything else. Thus, breath is life.
What is life? Simply defined, we might say life is movement. It is the Vital Life Force pulsating through us, the vibration of the Universe stirring creation into being. In the Yogic tradition, as previously mentioned, this biodynamic force is called prana; for the Chinese it is chi or qi, and the Japanese name it ki.
Our breath is ruled by the autonomic nervous system, which means it is automatic. We don’t have to think about our breath. It is an unconscious process. If we consciously had to think about breathing, we would not be able to do anything else. More importantly, if breathing were ruled by the conscious mind, when we went to sleep or lost consciousness, we would stop breathing and die in mere moments.
Simply because we don’t have to think about breathing, we tend to take it for granted. Consider for a moment being in relationship with someone, and perhaps this may have been your experience. What if you began to take your partner or friend for granted, as other concerns or interests held your focus and you started to call them less frequently or ignore their communications? What would happen to that relationship? It would begin to atrophy, to wither, and eventually it would disintegrate. Our breath is an integral part of our existence, and yet, most of us simply pay it no mind. Most of us are breathing at a subsistence level, enough to survive, but nowhere near what we require to thrive. Our most significant primary relationship is with our breath.
Some might say, they feel their relationship with the Creator, the Divine, to God, or whatever you like to call it, is their most important relationship. I would say, there is no difference. Consider that the Greek word for breath is pneuma, which also means “soul” or “spirit.” In Latin, breath is spiritus.
A few years back, I was reading an interview in a magazine with the actor Bradley Cooper. In the piece, he was discussing how his father’s death had impacted him. Responding to the question, had it made him more religious, I was struck by his answer. After paying homage to his father for planting the seeds of faith in him through his Catholic upbringing, he concluded by saying, “Am I a spiritual person today? Yes. I don't know how I could not be. It's like saying, "Do you breathe?"
Not only does the breath keep the body alive, it is our consciousness, the essence of the indwelling spirit, which quickly departs when breath ceases. All that is left is an empty, rigid vessel that quickly decays, when the animating principle of spirit or breath vacates.
We are all spiritual. Whether or not we know it or believe it, because we breathe, we are spiritual beings. The breath that fills our lungs, that nourishes our bodies is the breath of the Cosmos. You might say our inhalation is God’s exhalation. Through the breath we comingle with the Divine. Breath is sound vibration, the music or underlying soundtrack that accompanies the dance of life.
I’ll repeat Cooper’s question, “Do you breathe?” “Well, of course I breathe,” you would say. But, really, do you breathe? Do you breathe? What is it that breathes? Do you consciously say to yourself, “I am inhaling; now, I am exhaling.” That would be ridiculous and debilitating. Fortunately, the breathing, along with all the other functions of the body, is governed by the subconscious mind, one aspect of the Higher Self or Super-Conscious Mind.
In essence, the breath breathes us; the Universe or the Divine is breathing us. This Divine Life Force animates, supports and sustains us. We are, or rather this body is a conduit the vital energy may flow through, for the purpose of experience in the material plane.
Firstly, it is important to recognize just how intimately connected the breath is to our greater health and wellbeing. So many are adversely impacted by the stressful conditions we have come to accept as the “new normal.” When we are living with elevated levels of stress in our lives, we are in a chronic state of “fight, flight or freeze mode,” governed by the sympathetic nervous system, which directs the body’s involuntary response to stressful situations.
When we are experiencing heightened levels of stress, certain physiological markers are triggered: our heart rate becomes elevated, which increases the blood pressure; muscles contract, so we can stand and fight, high tail it for the hills, or get very small and hide (creating physical tension in the body); stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are pumped into the blood stream, other bodily functions, that are not immediately essential for our survival, like digestion, slow down, and the breath becomes more rapid and shallow.
Of all those functions, the only one we have any control over is the breath. When we become conscious of its rhythm and begin to slow it down, we activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which governs the “rest, digest and heal” response. Slowing the breath, which means elongating the inhalation and, particularly, the exhalation, sends the signal to the brain we are in a state of calm and ease, and all the other physiological functions begin to normalize.
Now, this vessel must be in a condition suitable to house the Life Force/Spirit. When there is contraction or constriction in the body, emotions or mind, the Life Force becomes obstructed. When this occurs chronically, the body moves into a state of imbalance, or disrepair. Should this continue unresolved, the Life Force can no longer be properly supported and will, eventually, leave.
Contrary to what many believe, it is not the lungs that breathe, but rather the cells. Every cell of the body breathes. Every cell requires food to function optimally. Oxygen is the primary fuel that activates every cell. Each cell cries out for oxygen. Like the monstrous plant , Audrey ii, from Little Shop of Horrors, they say, “Feed me! Feed me!”
Our ability to breathe is affected by the functionality and effort of every cell in the body. Generally speaking, we only allow a fraction of the cells in the body the oxygen they require; most are sorely neglected. For cells to function properly, they must be able to access their food/ fuel, the oxygen, from the breath.
If the cells are not working, they are not “hungry”, and therefore do not draw in the requisite fuel or oxygen necessary for their vital function. If the cells do not “eat” or take in oxygen and then release their waste, such as carbon dioxide, they die. When the cells die, we die.
If we do not work our body, our hunger diminishes. Consider what happens when someone is depressed. They are likely, before long, to become lethargic, and very soon may follow a loss of appetite. If our cells are inactive, they too lose their appetite for life force energy, their desire for life.
How do we encourage the cells to “eat”? We must encourage their appetite for oxygen, which means we must get them moving. Certainly exercise is one primary way to get the body’s cells moving - that is, functioning to their full capacity - firing on all pistons, you might say.
All the body’s cells engage in cellular respiration. They use oxygen and glucose, a sugar found in many foods we eat, and convert them to ATP (adenosine triphosphate), or cellular energy and carbon dioxide. ATP transports chemical energy within cells to support the metabolic function. This is how a cell eats and then excretes its waste. If that is not happening in a balanced way, the cell becomes poisoned and dies. Imagine what would happen if we ate but were unable to properly eliminate the waste. Our body would toxify and we would become very ill and ultimately expire.
The cells receive their nutrients through a continuous interplay between the blood and lymph, which is a salty liquid that bathes the cells. The lymph carries toxins and waste away from the cells and transports infection fighting white blood cells through the body. In addition to the rhythmic contraction of the lymph cells, the abdominal muscles serve as a pump that helps move the lymph and blood into and out of the abdominal and chest cavities to other parts of the body.
Cells are microscopic, tiny little living beings. We must feed them oxygen in increments they can handle. If we were to eat without chewing our food, we would choke. If we were able to get the huge pieces down, the body would not be able to effectively absorb all the vital nutrients contained in the food.
Similarly, if we were to drive a car, alternately flooring the accelerator and then jamming on the breaks, not only would we get really car-sick; pretty soon, the car would revolt and stop functioning. This, in essence, is what occurs with our breathing, when we are consumed by, or stuck in a pattern of what might be called “negative” emotions, such as hate, anger, fear, anxiety, depression, or grief, to name a few. When in these states we are caught in a pattern of choking or interrupted breathing. Remember that poor car from a moment ago.
When we stop and start the breath in an arrhythmic pattern, we can vacillate between high and low blood pressure. Sometimes we hold the breath and the carbon dioxide too long in the body, causing an overly acidic environment, creating inflammation, which leads to dis-ease. And very often, the body is too tired to work, incapable of taking in the required oxygen. Regardless, one or all of these scenarios will eventually kill us. So, in order for the body to remain in optimal working order, we must move it regularly, encouraging the cells to work, and we must breathe mindfully, slowly and rhythmically, so the cells can readily absorb the oxygen that nourishes them.
An article in Time Magazine written by Clare Grodon posits, “when choir members sing together, it’s not just their voices that join in harmony.” According to a study published in the journal Frontiers of Neuroscience, when choir members sing together, their heart rates tend to synchronize and beat as one. A team of Swedish researchers discovered this synchronicity induces a sense of calm, consistent with the effects of the practice of yoga.
This is how it works: A long nerve called the vagus nerve — Latin for “wandering” — trails down from the brain stem into the torso, where it enervates the heart along with other visceral organs. Exhaling activates the vagus nerve, which slows the heart’s pulse. So, if a group’s breathing is in sync, then it makes sense that the beating of their hearts will be too.
According to the study, the unified heart rate isn’t just a nice warm fuzzy — it has real, emotional effects. The vagus nerve conveys sensory information about the state of the body’s organs to the central nervous system. So this primary nerve that affects the heart plays a major role in a person’s sense of arousal or calmness.
The more slowly and rhythmically we breathe, the more easily it is for the cells to take in oxygen, so they can function maximally. The slower the heart rate, the easier it is to initiate the relaxation response, the antidote to the fight, flight or freeze reaction. It is a “physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress.”
In the Yogic Tradition, we have a practice known as pranayama. Prana, as previously stated, is the Vital Energy in the body. Prana also means breath, the vehicle by which the Life Force circulates through the body. Yama means to control or to direct, in this case. Through many of these breath practices, we can initiate the relaxation response, which raises our quality of life immensely, as well as our longevity.
Practice the following simple breath pattern, to awaken your awareness of the Life Force, to amplify the Vital Energy, and then direct it through the body for purification and healing.
Visualize the breath fill the torso from the bottom up, moving through the pelvis into the abdominal region, and finally up into the chest cavity. Let the belly be soft, as you inhale richly and deeply, and then gently contract the abdominal muscles throughout the exhalation, drawing the navel toward the spine. Inhale smoothly and fluidly for a count of 4. Then hold the breath, with full lungs, for 4 beats (less if you find you are straining). Finally, release the breath gradually and completely for 4 counts, or until you can exhale no further. Repeat for 4 cycles. Observe how you feel physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, after you complete the practice. Gradually, as you explore this pattern more often, lengthen the number of cycles and the duration you inhale/hold/exhale. Eventually, you will find an ease of breath to be able to exhale about 1/3 longer than you inhale. This particular ratio really serves to enhance the relaxation response.
BREATHE. LIVE. BE. PEACE.