Breathing 101
My Personal History in Consciously Breathing
My very first encounter with breathing techniques, occurred while I was taking a singing class during the mid 90s. Learning how to breath may have or not helped my singing abilities, but I believe something more important as a consequence of this happened. During the same time period, I had started to turn into a mellower person from my more hyperactive initial nature. I’m not sure how much of it was due to the natural hormonal transition as I was leaving my teenage years, and how much of it was due to me learning how to breathe. One thing is certain, I did change and become a calmer person. I also went from mostly playing and listening to Trash and Heavy Metal to Post-Rock.
Consciously breathing was brought to my attention again, not long ago during a Yoga class I took with Fabio Filippi. Prior to the Yoga class, when we first met in the Bains des Pâquis in 2016, we had a little conversation about detoxifying the body. I remember him saying something like “Detox is all about breathing”. It did not make much sense to me back then, but today with the knowledge I have accumulated on how our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system work, I understand better what he probably meant.
My Understanding of How Breathing Affects our Body
The way I understand how this system works, is that when we are active physically or mentally our sympathetic nervous system is at work. Similarly, when our body is resting, digesting, or healing itself, it is the parasympathetic nervous system which is working. In order to detoxify, and regenerate, the body needs to be at rest, thus in a state that allows the parasympathetic nervous system to be activated. Unfortunately there’s no manual switch on our body to pass from one state to the other. The only way we can have control over our nervous system is by consciously breathing.
Breathing Helped Me Overcoming Inner Negativity
Since December 2017 I’ve been doing some very simple breathing exercises at key moments during the day. The results I got from this routine were pretty astonishing. I feel like I was able to take control over “my biggest enemy”: The little voice living inside of me generating all the negative thoughts. I’m not saying that I am today completely free from those negative thoughts, but they tend to occur less frequently, and when they do occur they don’t affect me as much as they used to.
I am able to switch from a negative thought to a positive one more quickly. I also have to say that I have learned and convinced myself that negative thoughts are bad form me, and dwelling on them do not solve the real problem. This is why I think that in addition to the support I get from the breathing exercises, I have also gained some awareness in that area. When a negative thought crosses my mind, I feel that today I am way more proactive in fighting it, and canalize my energy to either solve the problem, or think about something that will affect my mood positively.
Strategic Moments Throughout the Day for Breathing Exercises
The worst time for me in terms of having negative thoughts is when I wake up in the morning, and I am a bit in a groggy state of mind. To counter this situation, I got into the habit of starting my day with a 15 minute Yoga session, and I allow five more minutes to do breathing exercises after the Yoga session. This 20 minutes of daily time investment has been generating great returns on the way I feel all day long. (As a note: The Yoga routine I started it in November 2016, and the breathing exercises in December 2017.) I also would like to mention that since I have started this journey in April 2016, although I still feel a bit groggy in the morning at times when I wake up, I have made enormous progress. I wake up more rested and me being a bit groggy does not last very long in comparison to my life prior to April 2016.
An other key moment to include breathing exercises into my routine is before having my first juice, or first meal of the day. By doing this, not only I have the sensation of supporting my body to be in a better state for digestion, but also I think that I am able to tame down my emotions towards food. Since I quasi do a intermittent fasting everyday, rush and excitement can occur for the first sip of liquid intake of the day.
In addition to those two strategic moments of the day, I never miss the opportunity to do a breathing exercise when I am closer to nature.
And finally, I find breathing exercises to be a great tool for helping me switch from a stressful activity to a relaxing one, or before starting to work on something that is going to require mental energy and concentration.
Cardiac Coherence
I am far from being an expert when it come to breathing exercises. The few that I know have been working extremely well for me so far. The one I use the most is the 5/5/5/3/365. It is called the cardiac coherence. The idea is to inhale on a count of five, then exhale on a count of five, for five minutes, there times a day, 365 days a year, in order to obtain the best results.
This approach makes sense if we consider the fact that when we inhale we activate the sympathetic nervous system, and when we exhale we activate the parasympathetic one. Having them on equal footing with a count of five for each, will logically create a certain coherence within our system. I discovered this technique from the Terra Incognita 2017 of Therry Casasnovas (The Video is in French). I highly recommend this practice. It’s extremely easy to include it into a daily routine, it does not cost anything, and the returns for the invested time have been great for me so far.
My Conclusion for Now
There are tons of breathing and meditation exercises out there. At this point with my little experience on breathing, I would say that each exercise that puts us in a situation where we breath consciously can only have a positive effect on our body. All I know is that since I’ve included consciously breathing exercises into my daily routine, I’ve been reaping a lots of benefits from it. I think that consciously breathing is often overlooked, and it may be one of the main pillars for optimal health. I am amazed how extremely simple practices that come to no cost such as consciously breathing, or dry-fasting can have a huge positive impact on or well being. Thank you nature!
I AM NOT A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I would like to make it very clear that I am only sharing my own experience on this website, and have no intention to give any specific advice on health. Please read the disclaimer section for more information.
