THE BREATH IS WHERE THE PARTY IS AT....
When we come into this world we receive our first breath, when we leave this world we offer up our last breath. The breath is our life force – as we develop from infancy to adulthood we are in a continuous relationship with the forces of our breath, our nervous system always sensing and monitoring our needs. Breathing is an extraordinary process.
As human beings we posses the unique capacity of dual breath control, both voluntary and involuntary. To understand this explore what happens when you breathe in and hold the breath and then breathe out and hold the breath. How did it feel? At what point did you realise you were still holding on and when did the natural desire for the next breath take over? For as much as we are able to control our breath there will always be a point when the nervous system will kick in and take over, the next breath will simply arise.
I am no expert on breathing but I find the breath fascinating, I find the anatomy of breathing both beautiful and astounding and if I allow myself to think about it for too long it starts to blow my mind. We breath without even having to think about it, it is a highly complex and finely tuned process, breathing keeps us alive and in our bodies, it is simply amazing.
So here are some fun facts about breathing
It is a myth that breathing is simply an exchange of O2 and CO2
Breathing is not just about breath moving in and breath moving out
The breathing mechanism is dependant upon having sufficient levels of CO2 in the system as it is CO2 that triggers the brain to breath, so the more we breath the more we need to breathe.
The medula in the brain reads the CO2 levels in the system and regulates our breathing by determining what levels of O2 need to be released into the tissues (https://ki.se/en/news/new-brainstem-model-reveals-how-brains-control-breathing)
If CO2 levels drop too low, the energy of the body will be lowered as the body will become un-oxygenated (http://sundurancehealth.com/chronic-fatigue-and-carbon-dioxide-depletion/)
Conversely if the levels of CO2 are too high then the body will have too much O2 in the system which will lead to anxiety, panic and disorientation.
CO2 is a natural antioxidant (https://www.normalbreathing.com/co2-antioxidants-free-radicals.php)
CO2 controls the PH balance of the blood and so an inbalance of PH can be created by an inbalance of CO2 and O2
It could be said then that breathing and its delicate balance is pretty vital to living a full and healthy life.
How we breathe though is habitual, it is determined by both external and internal influences, and it can have a huge impact upon the state and balance of both our physical and mental health. Because like all things, if we only ever breathe in one way, we become stuck into that groove and unable to find a different path. So, for example, when anxiety strikes and the breath becomes challenged, when we find ourselves unable to find the air, gasping for breath, we have no tools to reach for to help us, our breath is not resilient to stress. We become filled with fear and the long term consequences of this fear will have a profound effect on how we inhabit our body. Healthy breathing is adaptable breathing. A healthy mind and body arises out of an adaptable breath.
The day I really began to understand the profound impact yoga could have on myself was when I understood that yoga was nothing to do with the postures and everything to do with the breath. As I say to people all the time in class now – the breath is where the party is at folks. But as is always the way, there is no end to the learning, just as we unwind one old habit, another one will invariably rear its head. It is a continual process of becoming unstuck and unbound to the tools that free us. The breath will always be a mirror to both the internal and external and so we have to let our yoga practice become cleverer than our habits, else our responses will always be the same; growth as we know happens only when we venture into the unknown, when we get out of our own way enough to see that change is possible.
In yoga we practice various breathing techniques, all of which are helpful and are designed to teach the body to breath effectively but we must be careful to not get caught up in the idea of rules and dogma over the breath. So whilst I could expound here on the different practices of breathing, that is not my aim, my point is merely that if we move through life without ever bringing awareness to our breath, then we stand in danger of moving through life without ever being aware of life itself. Remembering that our breath is our life force and so to never stop and ask the question “How does it feel if I do this?” or “What happens if I breathe in this way?” is to never stop and ponder how does it feel to be alive and in our bodies.
This is why yoga is such a transformative practice, because it asks us to breath and move with conscious awareness at the same time. This is not always easy, we frequently become unstuck with this and yet over time as we train ourselves to breath we build up a greater connection to this immense organism that we call the human body. We become aware of the beat of our heart, we become aware of the feeling of blood moving though our veins, we sense the strength and solidity of our bones, we develop internal perception to all our senses and more. We become finely tuned to our needs, our intuition allows us to discern between what is real and what is an illusion, what is our ego and what is our true self.
Peace
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