Review #6

Do your best to spend a little quiet time each day. Focus on the sound of your own natural breathing or pick a single point for visual focus. Unlike the hunter/gatherer/farmer of several generations ago we rarely spend a quiet moment. Even as they sleep, city dwellers are washed over by the constant sound of traffic, sirens, planes, the hum of their own appliances, garbage collection, newspaper delivery, etc. Your deep inner voice will not shout. You must listen carefully to hear.

Proper posture is essential for efficient breathing. The bones should be lightly balanced one on top of the other so that muscles can remain relaxed. A rule of thumb when sitting or standing is to keep your head over your tailbone.

Get to a respiratory specialist for up-to-date testing and diagnosis if you have a chronic cough or other breathing problems. Unfortunately, lungs aren’t able to rebuild themselves (yet) so until that day comes we need to diligently protect what we’ve got.

Controlling air pollution, in homes and workplaces, is time consuming, complicated and terribly costly. The only thing more expensive is not controlling air pollution. Industry will only improve when faced with the overwhelming tide of public pressure. Vote and make your voice heard.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Complete Breath

The Complete Breath massages and cleanses all the nooks and crannies of both lungs. It isn’t often necessary during a typical day to function in “full lung mode.” Most of the time you can do well enough by deep breathing without activating the tight narrow upper chest.

However, when you dash up the stairs (for those of you who still dash) or chase after a two-year-old, you need additional oxygen so you ADD mid-chest and collarbone breathing TO the deep breathing (NOT INSTEAD OF). It is, however, essential that you exercise every square-inch of your lung tissue regularly to keep it clean and elastic.

1. Empty as much air as is comfortable while keeping a straight and balanced spine. As you inhale slowly through your nose, let the first bit of incoming air expand your lower ribcage.
2. Continuing with that same inhalation, ADD a bit more of breath #1 to the mid-lungs (behind the breastbone).
3. The final bit of air fills the tight narrow upper lungs. Raise your shoulders slightly to make space. This single incoming breath should flow seamlessly without strain or exaggeration. Do not overfill!
4. The outgoing air follows the same pattern – empty the bottom first, then the breastbone area and finally the small amount of remaining air from the narrow and restricted upper lungs. If you have been lazy-breathing for sometime, Complete Breath may make you cough once or twice as you clear all the lazy bits.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Review #5

It is imperative that you see a pulmonary specialist for evaluation if you have chronic breathing problems such as a cough or wheezing that hang on for more than a couple weeks.

If you, or anyone in your family, have been diagnosed with a chronic condition, you are not alone. There are countless national support groups, organizations and foundations available at no cost. Your search will lead to a wealth of the latest scientific information that can help you ask better questions and make better decisions. Never take at face value any online treatment advice without first running the suggestions or products by a doctor who knows you and is familiar with your medical history.

Colds and influenza come from viruses, not from bacteria. Antibiotics are effective only against bacteria. Inappropriate overuse and careless disposal of antibiotics have led to strains of superbugs that are always one jump ahead of our medical arsenal.

If you decide to skip a flu shot, let it be because you have concerns about the efficacy of the serum, not because you were too busy or forgot.

The breathing exercises are merely colors on your palette, not to be confused with the painting itself. The exercises themselves are neither magical nor mysterious. Their purpose is simply to re-introduce you to yourself. Without regular practice they are merely words on a page.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Review #4

What happens if I begin with one breathing exercise and it changes into a different one?

My hope is that you will learn to trust your instincts better than you have in the past. Go with the exercise that your mind/body has handed you. Remember that your brain processes countless bits of incoming data every split second and it gives you its best guidance at any given time. Breathing training and meditation both make us better listeners to internal and external wisdom.

What happens if I run out of breath before I have finished a movement?

This cannot happen because you establish the breathing pattern FIRST and then move to that rhythm! It is typical in a gym to see people set up their movement and then hope the breathing will keep pace. Not a good idea. Remember that breathing is the music and the movement is the dance.

Why am I so tired by the end of the workday?

There is a tendency to build and hold tension from the armpits up. The neck and head muscles are tiny, demanding and sophisticated. Since we are a very visual and very talkative species our speech and vision muscles are pretty pooped by the end of the day. Add to this the invention of the computer which means most of us forget to keep our 12 to 20 pound head directly over our tailbone. All this tension messes with circulation, with joints and with breathing. Take frequent breaks (less than a minute will do) to breathe out all the stale air. Rebuild your posture.

Be well Breathe beautifully.

Muscle Duty

Your breathing muscles are able to survive a lifetime of perpetual motion because they have a very brief moment of rest each time you exhale and before you begin your next intake of air.

In order for you to inhale, your intercostal muscles between ribs lift your ribs slightly out and up. At the same time your diaphragm (the elastic floor of your ribcage) flattens down. This results in a slightly larger ribcage that creates an imbalance of pressure and new air is sucked in. This is the busy, working, active stage of each breath cycle.

The resting stage means that all breathing muscles simply let go and relax. The ribs drop down once more and the diaphragm domes upward into its resting position. And there we have an exhalation as the breath is squeezed out.

The distance the diaphragm must move from its domed up relaxed position when the lungs are relatively empty to the flattened position of inhalation is only about half an inch. However, this slight change of total volume is enough to move all the air you need.

Your breathing muscles also have somewhat easier duty during sleep when you tend to breathe more efficiently.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Review #3

How long must I practice?

You are in charge of your own evolution. Mindful breathing practice moves your mind, body and spirit in an exciting direction so I would hope you would practice regularly the rest of your life. Without regular practice students often forget their breathing until they are neck deep in a personal or professional crisis. Only then, in desperation, do they try to summon a breathing exercise that they remember reading about, but never truly made their own. Learn to swim before you fall (or are pushed) into deep water.

How do I know if I’m advancing?

Don’t think about it. You aren’t being graded here. Tiger cubs, practicing their survival skills through play focus on what they are doing. Most of our greatest accomplishments have come through a sense of wonder and playfulness. So long as you are focused and are not in any way uncomfortable, then you are advancing.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Easy Come Easy Go

Lung tissue has a full-time job just getting oxygen out of the incoming air and into your blood stream while it simultaneously grabs up the spent fuel from the blood so that can be dumped from the body.

It is left to your breathing muscles to actually move air into and out of the body. Muscles and lung tissue of course take orders from the brain where a second-by-second record is kept on exactly how much oxygen is needed by each muscle and body process at any given moment. A pretty fancy dance when you think about it. The brain sends orders for faster or slower breathing down to the respiration department.

A double layer of intercostals muscles is sandwiched between each pair of ribs and the big elastic diaphragm stretches across the bottom rim of your ribcage. To draw a breath in, the intercostals lift and swing your ribs gently out and up while the diaphragm flattens down. This effort creates a slightly enlarged ribcage. Fresh oxygen-rich air rushes in from outside the body to fill this new vacuum (similar to the action of a syringe or a bellows).

To exhale, the intercostals and the diaphragm simply relax and collapse. The ribs drop down out of the upward flare while the diaphragm rises to its domed-up resting position. This overall relaxation results in a slightly smaller ribcage with smaller capacity. There is no place for the contained air to go but out. Exhalation is simply a letting go of the breathing muscles without slumping the spine. Inhalation is active. Exhalation is letting go of that action.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

After The Crisis

Slowing down your rapid breathing is like pumping your car brakes to come to a gradual, controlled and safe stop. If you are racing to catch a bus you will, of necessity, breathe hard and fast for the moment because your body demands that extra measure of oxygen. However, if you find your heart racing when you are doing nothing at all, it is time for a chat with your doctor. Rapid breathing to accommodate activity is part of your inherited innate fight-or-flight ability to survive.

Unfortunately, there are so many aggravations and pressures in your professional and personal life that, too often, the body sometimes can’t perceive that the actual crisis is over. Your muscles remain tense for hours and your breathing stays shallow and fast. Eventually the brain accepts rapid shallow breathing and residual tension as the norm!

This unproductive post-crisis tension screws with your body’s chemistry. Eventually the system that was designed to protect you begins to eat you alive.

As always, change begins with awareness. This week, pay attention to how your ribcage expands. How fast are you breathing? How do you breathe when your supervisor is talking to you? How do you breathe when the line in the bank is moving too slowly? How do you breathe when a stranger is rude to you? Your homework this week is simply to BE AWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOUR BREATHING.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Review #2

How long should I continue a breathing exercise?
You can stay with it for as long as you feel mentally and physically comfortable. Working mindlessly is a waste of your time and does not honor the subject. If you lose focus, stop. Rest a few moments and begin again. This isn’t a race. It's an adventure.

How long should I wait after a meal to practice my breathing exercises?
Remember the diaphragm (your main breathing pump) is stretched directly over top of your stomach. I suggest that you give your food the right-of-way for a couple hours after a full meal. Both your digestion and your respiration are incredibly complex processes. Each needs to take its turn at center stage.

How do I find a proper breathing rhythm?
Unless otherwise suggested, allow your breathing rhythm to be set by your brain. Your natural feelings take into account the ever-changing needs of your body and mind. Breathing by the numbers dictated by someone else is like painting by the numbers. . . a respectable way to pass the time, requiring only that you follow orders.

Ancient Wisdom: There is no need to push the river. It will flow by itself.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

LINK: Review #1

Review #1

Define a “single breath cycle.”
One inhalation + a comfortable pause (full) + one exhalation + a comfortable pause (empty) = one cycle or one breath. A pause is not forced in any way but rather a natural turning point in the cycle. The air (as Nature intended) can change direction smoothly without jamming on the brakes.

Does attitude matter?
Of course. Breathing training is delicate, powerful, complicated, important and joyous work. You will be richly rewarded if you approach your studies with a sense of humility, respect and gratitude for your potential. Actually that’s a good way to approach all living beings.
Ancient Wisdom: Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.

What should I be feeling as I do breathing exercises?
There is never a need for even the slightest physical or psychological discomfort with advanced breathing training. If you ever feel uncomfortable or apprehensive during an exercise, STOP. Re-evaluate your technique and your feelings. Begin again only when you feel completely comfortable.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

LINK: Review #2

The Elegant Engineer

Mother Nature had to engineer a system that would (24/7) feed oxygen into your blood stream, remove the spent carbon dioxide as the same time, scrub, warm and moisten all incoming air, press down gently to massage your guts every few seconds and upwards to massage the lower lungs and she had to do everything within about a 12-inch stretch from nose to lungs as the crow flies.

Nature also had to compensate for the human body moving at vastly different speeds and stretching into extreme positions. The design had to compensate for the fact that some of us are quite small and some are huge (some start small and become huge) and some are two years old and some are ninety.

Some live in the desert and some live where the snows rarely melt. Some live below sea level and some at 12,000 feet. Nature had to find a way to mend broken ribs stronger than new.

The entire pulmonary system had to function either on automatic or manual, as necessary, and as life evolved, the system had to be stable and yet adapt to changing external conditions over time.

Mother Nature is determined that you Live Long and Prosper. May you be worthy of Her brilliance.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Deep Breathing – When?

When you sleep, you breathe deeply, slowly and beautifully. Once you awaken and you are slammed by your hectic day, your breathing begins to creep uphill into the narrow, rigid and tight upper ribcage. By dinner the stress of your day is written all over your upper body - clenched jaws, hunched shoulders, tight neck muscles and shallow erratic breathing.

Shallow inhibited breathing changes the cadence, tone, pitch or your voice and people do react subconsciously to the quality of your voice. As the day progresses, you are working harder and harder for less and less oxygen and your blood is burdened with spent fuel. It is important to break this tension cycle.

Deep slow breathing gives you maximum oxygen and cleansing power for minimal energy expended. Stop frequently, close your eyes, relax your shoulders and your jaws and lower your breathing into your lower elastic ribcage. All systems will relax automatically. It takes only a few breaths to re-boot your machine.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breathing Trumps Movement

When you are practicing a breathing exercise that involves physical movement (such as the Shoulder Lift) BREATHING GUIDES MOVEMENT, not the other way around. The average person tends to concentrate on setting up a graceful movement and then hopes that their breathing will eventually keep pace (if they think about their breathing at all). Remember that BREATHING IS ALWAYS THE FIRST HORSE OUT OF THE GATE!

Always establish a comfortable breathing pattern FIRST and THEN build the movement on that breathing pattern. In other words, breathing is the music. Movement is the dance. That is often more difficult than it sounds because we are a visual species and the internal stuff demands a sharper focus.

The timing and rhythm of your breathing is calculated and automatically adjusted for you by your beautiful brain. Your brain takes into account gender, posture, medication, hormone levels, age, weight, state of mind, content and location of your last meal, ambient air temperature, fitness and very likely a dozen subtle things that man has yet to discover. Our responsibility is to be aware and respectful of the process! Start breathing and THEN move.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Elastic Cage

Although your bony ribcage serves you well as chest armor, taken alone this assembly of bones is unable to draw in or release a single breath. To turn this bone-vessel into a breathing-machine, Nature first lays down two layers of muscle (the intercostals) that crisscross each other between adjacent ribs. One layer helps with inhalation and the other with exhalation.

In addition to the intercostals between the ribs, the multiple-muscled diaphragm stretches like a complex, elastic floor across the bottom of the cage, and serves as the most powerful and important breathing tool you have. Now your bony cage, with its strategically placed muscles, has become a powerful pump, able to move air in and out of your body, on command.

The elusive muscle floor of the diaphragm attaches around the bottom rim of the ribcage, and to the waist-level lumbar spine at the rear. This big diaphragm serves simultaneously as the elastic floor of your ribcage, and the elastic ceiling of your abdominal cage.

The constant rising and flattening action of this powerful sheath as it pumps the air in and out, gently massages the heart and lungs as it rises, and in turn, the stomach, liver, spleen and intestines as it flattens down. Absolutely amazing! We won’t spend much time with anatomy but you will be well served to have some understanding and control of your main breathing muscles.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Sandwich Muscles I
Upside Down Breathing

Deep Breathing – Why?

Lung tissue is composed of trillions of fragile microscopic bubble-thin air sacs that are tightly packed inside your bony ribcage. Since lung tissue itself has no power to breathe but must be breathed into, it makes sense to work WITH rather than AGAINST Nature’s design.

Your ribcage is shaped like a bell or a birdcage, narrow and rigid at the top, wide and flexible around the bottom circumference. Unlike the bell or the birdcage, your ribcage has a stretchy powerful muscular floor (the diaphragm) that plays an incredibly important role in your respiration.

The upper cage is small and tight with the higher short ribs anchored directly to your breastbone. Don’t be fooled by the width of your shoulders! Gently poke around and you will find the actual cage just below your throat isn’t much wider than your hand is long. I regard the upper cage as a kind of additional reserve tank to be used primarily when you are moving fast and you need more oxygen than the main (lower) tank can provide.

Unfortunately, we tend to “shallow breathe” when we are tired, bored, stressed, or glued to the computer for long hours. When you use your “emergency” tank as if it were your main tank, you are forced to expend lots of energy for few rewards. Fewer air sacs in the upper chest mean less oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange. Rigid upper ribs mean less pumping action.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Snot Is Your Friend

OK. OK. I know that was a cheap shot but this is a really important subject and I really need to get your attention. Sorry about that.

Mucus often gets a bad rap. The only time we pay attention to mucus is when we have hay fever or a nasty leaky cold and at that point it seems like the attack of the glob. You just want it to go away.

If, in fact, your wish were to be granted by the cold-medicine fairy and snot did go away completely, I doubt that you would be around for your next birthday. You are pretty much lined with this glistening magical traveling stuff that keeps your delicate vulnerable inner tissues moist, clean, and warm.

The trick is to keep the mucus moist enough so it moves along easily but gelatinous enough to trap the bits of junk and microscopic critters that would otherwise dig dangerously deep into your vulnerable lungs and possibly kill you. Be judicious about cold and sinus medications that could dry out your bronchial passages. Stay hydrated. Wear a dust mask when you are exposed to airborne irritants that can overrun the mucus blanket. Treasure this super barrier.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breathing Basics 101

Position
The first few times you practice a breathing exercise (unless otherwise instructed), sit squarely on the front edge of a straight chair seat. Rest your feet flat on the floor about hip-distance apart. This position discourages the temptation to doze off or the possibility of losing your balance if you were to stand. Once you are comfortable and confident with the exercise, practice it in any position that keeps your chest open and your spine straight. Again, unless otherwise suggested, breathe through your nose.

Pauses and Cycles
A “breath” or a “breath cycle” means one inhalation plus a natural pause, plus one exhalation and a natural pause. In–Pause–Out–Pause equals a single breath cycle. The pause is not a hold. It is a natural turning point allowing the breath to change direction comfortably.

Names of Exercises
I have chosen particular names because they are descriptive and easy to remember. You may have previously learned a different name for a similar exercise while exploring a different discipline. Remember that breathing exercises and meditation rituals are not like secret handshakes or passwords that somehow give us elevated status. Eventually, you are free to rename all the exercises as it suits you.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breathing Brooms - The Cilia

You are certainly familiar with the clear, warm, sticky blanket of mucous that lines most of your respiratory passages. The multipurpose mucous layer protects the underlying tissues of your nasal cavities, sinuses, throat and descending bronchial passages that wend their way between your nose and your delicate deep lung tissue.

Mucous is a super “fly paper” that releases moisture into the incoming dry air while at the same time grabbing up a billion bits of airborne bouncing garbage before it finds its way into your delicate lungs. Mucous is great stuff but once it has picked up a full load of garbage, you don’t want it hanging around.

Sprouting outward from the walls of most of your respiratory tunnels are millions of microscopic hair-like projections called “cilia” that beat and sweep like tiny brooms. A healthy cilia-covered wall resembles a microscopic wheat field in a stiff breeze. These extraordinary pushy little brooms beat as many as 50,000 times per hour to push along your mucous layer.

Under ideal conditions old polluted mucous is regularly dumped out through your nose, mouth or digestive tract. At the same time new fresh clean mucous is produced by tiny goblet cells embedded in your bronchial walls. For this defense system to work effectively the mucous layer must be moist enough to be pushed along easily and the sweeping cilia must remain strong and active. Infection, smoking, lack of fluids and allergies can stun or cripple the cilia and can halt the movement of the mucous in its tracks.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.