Right now, one of the hottest topics in nutrition and health is oxygen depletion. You can’t have energy if you don’t have enough oxygen, and you can’t get enough oxygen if you don’t breathe.
Breathe. Sounds simple. We all know how to do it, right? Well, maybe. Sure, we know how to breathe, but breathing the right way, well, that’s a different matter.
As babies we did it naturally, inhaling from the stomach, pushing our little bellies way out, and then exhaling just as deeply, expelling as much “bad air” as we could.
LET IT FLOW, LET IT FLOW, LET IT FLOW
Enter stress, anxiety, a harried lifestyle, and way too many hours hunched over the computer, and all of a sudden it’s a different story. Your chest tightens – your whole upper body gets tense. To make breathing matters worse, we such in our abs to look thinner, constricting our diaphragms and making it difficult to take slow, deep breathes – before you know it, we become shallow breathers. (I know, sounds like the premise of a Seinfeld episode. But it’s no joke).
When breathing emanates from the chest instead of deep down in the diaphragm, it restricts the amount of oxygen we inhale and the amount of carbon dioxide we exhale. Because oxygen is needed to fuel every cell and system in our body, over time fast, shallow breathing can lead to mental and physical fatigue and tension. The typical adult has a resting breathing rate of twelve of fifteen times per minute; the optimum rate is about six breaths per minute.
Inhaling through your nose and taking slow, deep breaths enables your lungs to fill with oxygen (as opposed to fast, shallow breathing, which fills only the top of the lungs with air), triggering the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation (which in turn means less stress and way more energy).
We used to know how to do that naturally when we were babies. But then we grew up.
EXERCISES IN AWARENESS
Getting back to our natural breathing pattern starts, like a lot of things in this book, with awareness.
“Unlike any other function of the body, breathing can be entirely voluntary or entirely involuntary”, says Andres Weil, M.D. Because we have control over breathing, we can also influence such functions as heartbeat, circulation, digestion, and, yes, energy.
By doing a breathing check every few hours, and incorporating breathing exercises into your daily routine, you can slow your breathing rate and graduate from the ranks of shallow breathers to those of deep breathers.
For relaxation, try this deep breathing exercise:
Sit (or lie down) in a comfortable position, with your back straight and your body relaxed. With one hand on your abdomen and one hand on your chest, slowly inhale through your nose. Keep your abdomen relaxed as you feel it fuly expand. Be sure to relax your face, mouth, tongue, and jaw. Hold your breath for 4 or 5 seconds, then purse your lips as though you were about to whistle, and slowly exhale through your mouth, retracting your abdomen completely. Concentrate on the air leaving your lungs. Pause, and then repeat this exercise four or five times.
Weil also suggests the following three exercise, any of which should have a huge effect on your energy levels.
EXERCISE 1: THE STIMULATING BREATH
The Stimulating Breath (also called Bellows Breath) is adapted form a yogic breathing technique. It’s aim is to raise vital energy and increase alertness.
1. Sit with your back straight and place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue behind your upper front teeth. Keep it there throughout the exercise. Inhale and exhale rapidly through your nose, keeping your mouth closed but relaxed. Your breaths in and out should be equal in duration, but as short as possible. (Be forewarned: This is a noisy breathing exercise).
2. Try for three in-and-out breath cycles per second. This produces a quick movement of the diaphragm, suggesting a bellows. You should feel muscular effort at the base of your neck above the collarbones and at the diaphragm. Breathe normally after each cycle.
3. Do not do this exercise for more than 15 seconds on your first try. Each time you practice the Stimulating Breath, you can increase your time by 5 seconds or so, until you reach a full minutes.
If done properly, you should feel invigorated. According to Weil, it’s a feeling comparable to the heightened awareness you feel after a good work-out. Try this breathing exercise the next time you need an energy boost and feel yourself reaching for a cup of coffee.
EXERCISE 2: THE 4-7-8 (OR RELAXING BREATH) EXERCISE
This exercise is utterly simple, takes almost no time, requires no equipment, and can be done anywhere. Although you can do the exercise in any position, sit with your back straight while learning the exercise.
Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there throughout the entire exercise. You will exhale through your mouth around your tongue; try pursing your lips slightly if this seems awkward.
1. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
2. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four. Hold your breath for a count of seven.
3. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
4. This is one breath cycle. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four cycles.
Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. Exhalation takes twice as long a inhalation. The absolute time you spend on each phase is not important, but the ratio of 4:7:8 is important. If you have trouble holding your breath, speed up the exercise but keep to the ratio of 4:7:8 for the three phases. With practice, you can slow it all down and get used to inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply.
This exercise is a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system. Unlike tranquilizing drugs, which are often effective when you first take them but then lose their power over time, this exercise is subtle when you first try it but gains in power with repetition and practice. Do it at least twice a day. You cannot do it too frequently. Do not do more than four breaths at one time for the first month of practice. Later, if you wish, you can extend it to eight breaths. If you feel a little lightheaded when you first breathe this way, do not be concerned; it will pass. (If it doesn’t, just discontinue the exercise. But it will).
Once you develop this technique by practicing it every day, consider it a useful tool that you will always have with you. Use it immediately after anything upsetting happens – before you have time to react. Use it whenever you are aware of internal tension. Use it to help you fall asleep. I can’t recommend this exercise highly enough – everyone can benefit from it.
EXERCISE 3: BREATH COUNTING
If you want to get a feel for this stress-relieving work, try breath counting, a deceptively simple technique used in Zen practice.
Sit in a comfortable position with you spine straight and your head inclined slightly forward. Gently close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Then breathe naturally without trying to influence how you do it. Ideally, your breathing will be quit and slow, but your depth and rhythm may vary.
1. To begin the exercise, count “one” to yourself as you exhale.
2. The next time you exhale, count “two”, and so on, up to “five”. The begin a new cycle, counting “one” on the next exhalation.
3. Never count higher than “five”, and count only when you exhale. You will know you attention has wandered when you find yourself up to “eight”, “twelve”, and even “nineteen”.
Try to do 10 minutes of this form of mediation.
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