Choice 14
Breathe with Healthful Discipline
. . .the breath is always here, right under our noses. You would think just by chance we might have come across its usefulness at one point or another.57
—Jon Kabat-Zinn
Let’s start with a question: “What is the most powerful choice you can make to exercise emotional discipline through your body?” The surprising answer is “Breathe!” Of course you probably have already encountered the breathing challenge before in something you read, stress management training, health lectures, or wellness programs. It goes something like this.
Yes, we all breathe, but we don’t do it in the natural healthy way we were born to breathe. As babies we do it instinctively but somewhere in the course of growing up we learn to breathe in a restricted unhealthy way that is detrimental to our relaxation and health. The bottom line is that we need to relearn how to breathe in a healthy way and even more importantly do it on a regular basis in our daily lives.
It is fascinating that something so basic and seemingly automatic is such an important part of life and a key choice for exercising emotional discipline. The Time-Life home health book The Medical Advisor, for example, prescribes breathing exercises and techniques as health remedies or treatments for a wide range of physical problems including stress, anxiety, panic attack, emphysema, insomnia, and Parkinson’s disease.58
So what are the secrets to this most basic of human functions? A source that I have found to be especially good for outlining alternative breathing techniques is the best-selling book by well-known natural and preventive health expert Andrew Weil, Spontaneous Healing.59 Weil claims that the way we choose to breathe can enable us to regulate some of the most fundamental functions of our bodies such as digestion, heart rate, circulation, and blood pressure and consequently enhance our healing system. At the beginning of Chapter 9 on meditation I described one of the most basic and effective forms of breathing, abdominal breathing. Here I will provide examples for two additional practical and effective techniques, but I encourage you to explore other sources such as Spontaneous Healing for more advice on healthful breathing.125
It was the end of a long hectic day. Before he left for his home, Gerard lay quietly on a couch in his office. He knew that he could practice his breathing lying, sitting, or even standing, but since everyone else had already left the office and he was alone he decided to lie down. He began by touching his tongue to the upper roof of his mouth just above and behind his two front teeth, as he had learned in a yoga class. Then Gerard breathed in slowly and quietly through his nose to the count of four. He held his breath to the count of seven before exhaling slowly and audibly through his pursed lips to the count of eight.
He repeated this process eight complete cycles while his tongue continued to touch the point just behind and above his two front teeth. He knew that four cycles was usually enough to become much more relaxed, but today he felt he needed eight. After he completed this exercise Gerard returned to normal breathing and slowly sat up and prepared to leave for home, feeling much more relaxed and refreshed.
Andrew Weil has prescribed this kind of breathing technique to many of his patients and describes it as a tonic for the nervous system. His patients report that it has cured a wide range of physical ailments from anxiety and stress to high blood pressure and cardiac arrhythmia. The following example describes yet another, less structured, type of breathing.126
Marta sat quietly in her hotel room and practiced her breathing to prepare herself for the meeting she was about to attend. She wanted to center herself and calm her nerves before her important presentation. She began by concentrating on her exhalation, experiencing it as the beginning rather than the end of the breath cycle. She had learned from previous training that the musculature is stronger for controlling the out breath than for the inhalation. By concentrating on moving more air out of her lungs she automatically took in more air without even trying. This gently deepened her respiration, which increased her intake of oxygen and calmed her. She concentrated on pushing the air out of her lungs and letting her inhalation naturally follow for a few minutes until she felt relaxed, refreshed, and more focused.127
These breathing techniques are just a couple of the many effective strategies that are available. By learning and practicing on a regular basis (preferably daily) healthy breathing methods that you find very beneficial, you can significantly gain the power to choose how you feel. So the next time you are struggling with a difficult situation that is bringing up challenging emotions, I encourage you to make the choice to breathe with healthful discipline.