Just Breathe

One of the best things you can do to improve your health and well being is something you are already doing. This simple act not only keeps us all alive, it also determines the difference between living with anxiety, stress, and stagnation versus living a life of peace, relaxation, and growth. Breathing is an activity your body performs on average sixteen times per minute, 23,000 times a day, and over 8 million times per year.

Breath is governed by the part of the nervous system that typically operates outside the realm of conscious control, regulating unconscious processes such as digestion, heart-rate, perspiration, and salivation. But, respiration is unique in that it works together with the conscious mind.  Ultimately, we have overriding control over this important process because without it, even for a matter of minutes, we die or suffer permanent brain damage.  

This usually unconscious part of the nervous system, called the autonomic nervous system, divides itself into two completely different sets of reactions in your body – sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) responses. When you feel stressed or anxious, your sympathetic response kicks in and readies your body to evade a perceived threat. Alternatively, when you feel safe and unthreatened, your parasympathetic nervous system takes control. We need both of these systems to thrive. Recall the reactions that happened within your body the last time you almost were in an accident – your heart begins racing, you mind is hyper focused on survival. The sympathetic response is fine-tuned to help you respond in the best way possible in the face of true danger. However, it is not a sustainable state in which the body can remain. Learning how to bring your body back to rest, back to a parasympathetic response, is an important tool for stress release, full body health, and happiness.

Yoga, meditation, and regular exercise all help relieve stress in part or in full because they regulate breathing and signal the body to relax and enter a parasympathetic state. One of the eight limbs of yoga, called pranayama, consists of breathing exercises meant to extend (or draw out) life energy. Prana is the described as the vital force, the life energy, and is gained through inhalation. Likewise, elimination and clearing of spent energy happens with exhalation. This is called apana. Meditation often involves attention to the breath and a single-pointed focus on observing the breath without judgement. Sometimes in meditation breaths or inhalations/exhalations are even counted. Cardiovascular exercise also often involves breath attention and synchronization.

A simple pranayama to begin to grow more mindful of your breath is called ujjayi (victorious) breath. Ujjayi is also called ocean breath because it allows the breath to become audible and can sounds like ocean waves. Ujjayi is practiced through constricting and narrowing the throat. This technique is best demonstrated by the action your throat would perform to fog a mirror. However, ujjayi is usually practiced with a closed mouth and breath enters and leaves the body through the nose. Try first to observe your breath as it occurs naturally and then move into synchronizing in and out breaths when practicing this pranayama.

Mindful breathing is an effective and relaxing tool that can quite literally change your life. It can be discretely and seamlessly incorporated into daily routines such as commuting to work, showering, or even tying your shoes. And you can call upon its power and grace in stressful, yet non-life threatening situations. Try for yourself committing to a practice of mindful breathing. Whether you choose yoga, meditation, regular exercise, daily breath work in conjunction with your normal routine, or a combination of these, your body and mind serve to benefit from regular attention to the nourishing, life-sustaining, and all-important breath.