Ridiculously easy and free ways to harness your super powers
Well let’s be honest the list for cons is short but the list of pros grows exponentially the better you breathe. I have an app on my phone (Mindful) that randomly alerts me to take a deep breath. My bf thinks it strange I need to remind myself to breathe but I think I’m a genius because whenever that alert sounds, I stop and take a big, luscious, deep breath in, an even slower one out and feel my whole body calm down. Before I talk about the breath itself let me give you a quick and very basic run down (I failed science btw so bare with me) on what happens when we breathe, prepare to be in awe of our amazing bodies.
How the breath fuels our body
Every function of the body from digesting food to thinking requires oxygen. Breathing generally happens subconsciously, most of us unaware it’s flowing in and out of our bodies all day and night. When we take a breath in, the dome shaped diaphragm muscle that sits under our lungs flattens downward. This contraction forces the oxygenated air outside of our bodies into the lungs. As the air comes down our windpipe, it divides off into the left and right lungs, then again and again into thousands of airways until it reaches the air sacs. This is where the magic happens.
Once in the air sacs, the oxygen passes through super thin membranes into the capillaries. Voila you now have oxygen swimming around in your blood stream hitching a ride on the red blood cells. At the very same time, the carbon dioxide that has been dissolved in your blood, high fives the incoming oxygen (carbon dioxide is what boots the oxygen off your haemoglobin-very important), passes through the capillaries then squeezes out that thin membrane and into the air sacs where they travel out the airways on your out breath.
Your oxygen rich blood is carried to the left side of the heart where arteries shimmy it through your body. Meanwhile carbon dioxide in the blood is carried via the veins to the right side of the heart, back to the lungs where the whole process of oxygenation starts again. Amazing! This is only one of the reasons breathing is a pretty good thing to do. Unconscious breathing is what allows our physical body to keep on keeping on day in day out. Now let’s look at Conscious Breathing.
In one corner we have the sympathetic nervous system-SNS (think adrenal stimulation, fear, stress etc) which also creates short, shallow, quick breaths. The other is the parasympathetic nervous system-PNS (think slipping into a warm bath ahhhh) which promotes slow, deep, breaths. The way I remember which is which is the para from parachute. When you open your parachute you stop panicking – unless you’re scared of heights…
The lungs sit inside roughly the top two thirds of our rib cage and when breathed properly can expand in all directions. Unfortunately most people only breathe into the top part of their lungs which is a short, shallow breath (sympathetic nervous system/adrenal stimulation/feeling stressed). To take a full, deep breath takes longer, expands the lungs and surrounding muscles to their full extent. This not only supports better oxygen/carbon dioxide transfer (remember how important that is for basic functions) but stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, releasing our parachute and calming down the adrenals.
Conscious Breathing
Our breath and our mind/body are so interconnected that they influence each other in both directions often without us realising it. When we feel stressed it effects our breathing but the great thing is we can turn it all around by controlling our breath. Slow down the breath and the PSS is running the show.
Conscious Breathing is exactly what it implies, breathing with awareness to notice how we are breathing and slow it down and expand it if needed. Learning to breathe consciously when we are in a calm state of mind will make it easier in the times when we aren’t so zen. Conscious Breathing not only stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, it increases oxygen absorption for a clearer mind and also gives the mind something more constructive to focus on.
When we create this calmer space in our mind we can practice responding to events rather than reacting to them. Living in prolonged adrenal stress is not a good place to reside. It can start to damage our organs, leading to sickness and disease, reduces our clarity of mind and generally puts us in a much narrower frame of thinking.
Using your superpower
There are lots of ways to practise Conscious Breathing which I’ll cover in more detail in another post but for now try this ridiculously simple one as many times a day as you can. Set a reminder if you’re like me and get distracted, commit to practising at every traffic light or when your phone makes a noise or before you make that difficult phone call, when you pee, when you take a sip of water etc. The more the better especially if you are free falling with no chute.
First of all check to see how you are breathing, how long is it and how far down is it travelling, then slow down the in breath….fill up the lungs in all directions-he lower lungs so the belly moves out, the side ribs, front and back of the ribs, the chest….slowly breathe out….repeat. Try to breath through the nostrils if possible and focus on the cooling and warming sensations as the breath travels in and out the nose. Aim for a count of 5 in and 5 out for around 5 – 10mins. If you’re not driving a car or something else that requires your undivided attention, close the eyes and place the hands on the belly and side ribs to encourage the breath down.
After a few rounds see if you can lengthen the breath a little bit more each time, especially the out breath. If you notice your attention drifting back to the monster under the bed gently bring it back to the breath. Stop if you feel light headed.
Imagine all that oxygen recharging every part of your body, clearing the fog around your brain, lifting the corners of your mouth and evening out that furrowed brow.
We can all breathe in a more conscious way, it costs nothing, can be done anywhere and has amazing effects on the mind and body. Every single one of us is walking around with this hidden super power, when we learn how to use our breath properly we can positively effect any mental mind set. Pow pow!
