Healing with Breath
photo by Chance Jackson
How are you breathing today?
Have you even thought about it? When was the last time that you did?
It may seem obvious - that we’re always breathing, being that it is required to stay alive as a human being, but because its a function of our autonomic nervous system (aka it happens automatically) most of us probably haven’t given it a whole lot of consideration recently…. or ever.
I personally didn’t give it much thought until my very first yoga teacher training when I learned about the function of the diaphragm and the power it can harness when used in a conscious way. It’s the largest muscle we have - the PRINCIPLE muscle of respiration (yes, even outdoing the lungs) and plays a major role in so many of the other important systems and mechanisms of the body.
To list a few, a well-functioning diaphragm is vital for :
the nervous system, because of its relationship with the Vagus Nerve
the digestive system, because when used properly it stimulates and massages the organs involved
the endocrine + lymphatic system because it acts as a pump for certain lymph nodes, one of them being the adrenal glands which play a major role in our energy levels, hormone vitality, etc -
the immune system - because proper use alleviates STRESS (which I’ll touch on later), etc
All of this significance and yet, most of us aren’t consistently breathing in a way that maximizes our potential for optimal health, nor have we ever been taught how to do so!
Assuming you have a moment (since you are reading this blog post), let’s do a quick breathing experiment :
pause and take a moment to find what feels like a good seated posture. You can sit on the ground or in a chair, wherever is comfortable, and simply take some breaths at your normal pace without actively changing anything.
Once you feel settled and in tune with your breath, become aware of what parts of your body are moving (specifically in the torso area) when you inhale and which ones move when you exhale
Also notice which side of the breath is the longest (inhale or exhale)
Repeat a couple of times until you are confident in your answers
For the most part when I ask these questions, the answer to the question of ‘what moved’ is generally the chest and shoulders go up and out on the inhale and fall back down and in on the exhale. Sometimes it’s the rib cage expanding out to the side, or the belly moving in and up on the inhale and out on the exhale. Sometime, even, the answer may be that there is no noticeable movement at all.
Unfortunately for those breathers, these types of answers tell me that their diaphragm is not being used properly (or even at all) which can be extremely detrimental to their health and keep them in a state of constant, chronic stress. If you haven’t researched what kind of havoc stress can and does wreak on our human forms, I highly recommend heading over to Dr. Google for a quick dive in. For starters, there’s this : “Chronic stress has a significant effect on the immune system and ultimately manifests as illness.” For more detailed research on this topic in particular, there’s a great book that I think every breathing human should read at some point - it’s called Breathe by James Nestor. He goes deep into the biology, anthropology, anatomy, and physiology of all things breath and credits a variety of differing opinions for the sake of being thorough. There really is so much more happening in these intricate machines we get to walk around in every day than we could ever believe! In my opinion (and his) the more information we can collect about our personal and unique vessel in a lifetime, the better!
Back to breathing correctly :
Contrary to what you may have been conditioned to believe, your stomach is actually supposed to move out/expand on the inhale and pull back in/contract on the exhale. Try to think Buddha Belly as opposed to Barbie (or Ken) Belly. This provides space for the diaphragm to drop and expand out of the ribcage. This is imperative because that expansion, when repeated for at least 10 rounds of breath or longer, stimulates a lot of things, including the Vagus nerve which has a major effect on the state of our nervous system. It goes without saying that when we are stressed from something external, our breath becomes shallow because there are a lot of other important things happening to prepare for and respond to the stressor. But the reverse is just as true - constant shallow breathing can put and keep the body in a state of chronic stress - almost like one big feedback loop. And actually, chronic or long-term stress is much worse for us than acute (or short-term) stress!
Our Nervous System has two states (you’ve probably heard of at least one) :
Fight, Flight, or Freeze is the one we’re most familiar with. Scientifically known as the Sympathetic State. This one, as it may sound, is quite stressful on the body. When in this state, the body is basically preparing for the worst and how to save us from it - epinephrin and cortisol are released from the adrenal glands (also known as adrenalin), heart rate and blood pressure increase to get blood and vital energy out to the necessary muscles so they can perform at optimal levels in the face of “danger”or attack, the pupils dilate, the digestive tract squeezes, melatonin (the sleep hormone) gets more and more depleted, the list goes on and on. Ultimately, this body-intelligence is designed to protect us from danger - It’s just doing its job and quite frankly, it’s genius, but we don’t need all of that happening when we’re nervous to open an email or anxious for days when our boss asks us to come in for a meeting. A large percentage of Westerners live in a constant Sympathetic state - meaning a constant or chronic state of stress, and the ever-increasing chronic disease rate and prescribed pharmaceuticals reflects just that.
Rest, Digest, + Restore is the second state, or the Parasympathetic State. This is the mode our body NEEDS to be in in order to do all of those aforementioned ultra important things listed first. Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t all happen while we’re sleeping. Definitely some, but to be fair, a lot of us do not get proper or sufficient rest, even while sleeping. This state (which can be accessed by many practices, including yoga, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, etc) affects EVERY aspect of your well-being! Digestion, detoxification, and immune functions are ONLY turned on when your body is in a Parasympathetic state. This is because stress inhibits or prevents any parasympathetic response because of its need for energy to be dispersed elsewhere. All of the body's essential healing processes are shut down…. remember that feedback loop? Getting your body into a Parasympathetic State is the way to out of it!
Let’s do a second and final experiment :
take a moment to assess which state you might be in currently. Here’s how :
If your jaw is clenched, shoulders elevated, brow creased, muscles tensed, or if your heart rate is hovering somewhere over 75 bpm, you are probably in the sympathetic state.
If you feel as cool as a cucumber and your heart rate is below 75, congrats! It’s likely you’re already resting and restoring!
Either way, let’s try a breathing exercise to be sure:
Ideally, I’d have you lie on your belly on a flat surface but if that’s uncomfortable, you can stay seated up-right with one hand resting on your belly or diaphragm (it’s slightly higher, but beneath your ribcage)
Take 10 slow deep breaths expanding your diaphragm and belly on the inhales and contracting it on the exhales.
Breathe into whatever is touching your abdomen (whether its the ground or your hand) as much as possible before filling the chest + lung space and then reverse it exactly as you breathe out.
Focus on extending the exhales as much as you can so that they eventually become longer than your inhales (carbon dioxide carries waste out of the body, so the longer you exhale the more you are detoxing!) You can try counting how long each side of the breath lasts to help with timing and track your progress.
After at least 10 rounds, check in and see how you feel. If you’re really curious, monitor your heart rate for a minute or two and see if it has dropped at all. If so, congratulations - you are now in the parasympathetic state, where your body can take over and restore itself!
If you made it this far and find yourself even more curious in the anatomy and physiology of breath and how it can benefit your life, there’s an opportunity coming up to fully dive in at our Breathe Into Wellness retreat out at the ranch this September with YogaKoh, led by Jolie Manza and me, Cici! If you’d like to get to know more about me and/or take my classes, head over to my channel library - its full of all my favorite practices + tutorials! You can also connect with me on social media - IG : cici_flows. Let’s stay in touch!
Thanks for breathing with me!!!
xoxo,
Cici
