The secrets of breathing

I don’t know why this information isn’t more widespread, it seems to be of utmost importance to many many of us. I learned about the breath and the power of breath control through Yoga. The practices take time to really get down and embody. All that time is well spent.

Most of us are not trained to breathe. We are told to “take a deep breath” when we need to calm down, or “just breathe” if we’re anxious. These are not great cues a lot of the time (we’ll see why shortly) but the reminder to come to breath is very wise.

Pranayama (प्राणायाम)

This is the sanskrit name for “extension of the breath”. “Pana” means “vital energy” and “ayāma” means “to extend or draw out”. It is sometimes translated as “control of the breath” where “yama” is control. This is useful if you’re going to Google it and do more digging. It’s also the essence of the intention:

To amplify your life force.

A remote control to your nervous system

Breathing is something we do without thinking about when we are good and healthy. If you draw your attention to it, your will know that it fluctuates with your emotions. You breathe a certain way when you’re angry, excited, anxious or tired. It works the other way too: you can breathe a certain way to energise and relax yourself.

The breath is intricately linked to the autonomic nervous system. It works all by itself without you thinking about it. It’s divided up into the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic nervous system regulates your fight, flight, freeze response. This can be triggered too often through a fast paced stressful life. It can lead to breathing very shallowly, never really getting a full breath, and even unintentionally holding the breath.

The parasympathetic nervous system is all about “rest and digest”. It takes care of salivation, lacrimation, urination, digestion, and defecation. When this is triggered you’re chilled. Your breath is calm and relaxed, your system is at rest.

If I was to say that you could automatically put your system into calm mode before a huge presentation or a difficult conversation, I bet you’d want to know more.

Your breath (in short)

It has 4 parts:

1. Inhalation
2. Internal retention
3. Exhalation
4. External retention

If you take a good full breath in and then out, and then go again a few more times…see if you can notice the very gentle retention at the top of the inhale and at the bottom of the exhale. They’re there.

Breathing through the mouth is not considered great because you can swallow insects and inhale a lot of germs. You’re better off breathing through your nose. Breathing through the nose also triggers the nadis.

The nadis are primary channels that lie along your spinal column. Two of them intertwine around your spinal column and terminate in the nostrils. “Ida” on the left, “Pingala” on the right. The third rises straight up your spine and ends at the base of the nose, it’s called “sushumna”.

If you check your nostrils now you’ll see that one nostril will be more active than the other. Your dominant nostril should alternate every 90 minutes.

Ida (left nostril): this one is cooling. It’s associated with the cognitive senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing). You should feel a cooler breath through this one than the right nostril.

Pingala (right nostril): this one is warming. It’s associated with the active senses (locomotion, manipulation, communication, elimination, reproduction). In this nostril the air should feel warm.

During moments of transition between left and right, they become equal. This has an effect on the nervous system, you are more likely to feel good at that point. If you are very dominant on one side and it doesn’t switch…you’ll feel good less often. If you’re very dominant left, you are more likely to feel down or passive. If you’re very dominant right you’re more likely to feel agitated and angry. We’re looking for a really good balance.

The practical bit

Here are a few experiments to do for yourself, so you can put it into action right now and get a little taster of what it can do. All of these practices are best done somewhere quiet by yourself to begin with. Once you’re very practised it’s easy to do them even mid conversation.

You should not do these if you have sinus issues, a fever, you’re really tired or it feels uncomfortable.

Calming down quickly:

Basically what you’re going to do is trick your system out of nervous mode and into “rest and digest”:

• Bring your awareness to your breath and notice the quality of the breath: is it fast, hot, jagged, smooth, short, long…
• Now inhale counting slowly to 2 and exhale counting slowly to 4
• After a few rounds pause very briefly at the bottom of the exhale
• After a few more rounds, work on extending your exhale beyond 4, can you get it to 6?
• By now you should be feeling calmer. You can go further though by extending the pause on the exhale a few counts as well

What this technique does is trigger the parasympathetic nervous system. easy :)

Energising yourself:

Imagine it’s after lunch and you have a tonne of work to do. You’re feeling sleepy and unmotivated. What we’re going to do is change that in a couple of minutes:

• Bring your awareness to your breath and notice the quality of the breath: is it fast, hot, jagged, smooth, short, long…
• Now inhale counting slowly to 4and exhale counting slowly to 2
• After a few rounds pause very briefly at the top of the inhale
• After a few more rounds, work on extending your inhale beyond 4, can you get it to 6?
• By now you should be feeling more energised. You can go further though by extending the pause on the inhale a few counts as well.

Did you notice this is the same technique as above but the focus is on the inhale? That’s because the inhalation is the domaine of the sympathetic nervous system. You’re ticking your system into “on” mode.

Balancing your system:

There are many many many techniques for both of the above example and also for this too. A very well known technique is called “Nadi Shodhana” or ‘Alternate nostril breathing”. Remember we talked about the nadis? This is why they’re useful to know about.

• Inhale through both nostrils, then close one nostril and exhale and inhale smoothly and completely through the other
• Now change sides, and complete one full breath with the opposite nostril
• Continue alternating between the nostrils until you’ve completed a full round — three breaths on each side, for a total of six breaths
• When you’ve done that, breathe gently and smoothly three times through both nostrils

Make sure the breath length is the same for the inhale and the exhale. You can use counting to 4 if that works for you.

What you’re doing here is creating a balance in your system. It is a very calming, soothing and relaxing breath that bring focus.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. There is a huge amount of teachings and knowledge available on Pranayama. Like with everything, it’s easier and more effective with a great teacher!