Don't Forget to Breathe Deeply: A Quick Anatomy Lesson
BY MINA HAMILTON, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION
There are one or two shorter Take-a-Breaks that involve breathing because it's such an easy way to slow down quickly. However, sometimes a deep breathing break lasts a bit longer and is better. And while you don't need us to tell you that breathing is much better than not breathing, we think it's a good idea for you to know the physiological benefits of deep breathing, which takes a bit longer to explain.
Fortunately, this moderate Take-a-Break, which comes from Serenity to Go: Calming Techniques for Your Hectic Life , is one of the best plain-spoken explanations on why deep breathing is an essential component for living with serenity.
Why bother to become aware of the way you breathe? Why focus on changing your breathing habits? Deep breathing is a vital component of relaxation techniques. A few facts on anatomy and physiology will explain why this form of slow, steady breathing helps us become calmer, more serene — even in crises. Of course the skill is learning to do deep breathing regularly throughout your day. The meditations and calming exercises in Serenity to Go: Calming Techniques for Your Hectic Life will teach you this skill.
Deep or diaphragmatic breathing enhances something sometimes called the relaxation response which is basically the opposite of the flight or fight response, which is what happens when your body gets ready to respond to an emergency, such an out-of-control car veering in your direction. In that case your body gets ready to leap to safety; your respiratory rate jumps (as in short gasps), your heart rate increases, your blood pressure zips up and your system is flooded with adrenaline and other stress hormones. Your pupils dilate (so you can see better), your sweat glands spring into action (that's why you literally get hot under the collar). It's a highly desirable response for a true emergency (the veering car).
In the relaxation response your physiological system does almost the exact opposite of the flight or fight response. Your respiratory rate slows, heart slows, blood pressure dips, pupils contract, you sweat less. In short, your body comes out of emergency mode. You start calming down.
What's astounding is that you can at will initiate this calming response by changing your breathing pattern. It's because the act of breathing has a very special property. Normally we all breathe unconsciously. No matter what we're doing, sleeping like a log or dancing up a storm, our lungs suck oxygen in and pump carbon dioxide out. It's what anatomy books call an automatic function. Just the way the heart, with no say-so from us, keeps the blood briskly circulating or the liver squirts out enzymes, the lungs automatically does its inhale-exhale thing. The oddity is that although we breathe automatically we can also control the breath. Hence we can hold our breath as we dive underwater to look at a coral fish or slow it down to deliver that high note in chorus. And we can change the quality of our breath, as in slowing it down, to help ourselves be more serene in the midst of what a moment before was a "crisis."
Let's experiment for a moment with the quality of your breath. I'm not talking about mouthwash! But the tempo, the rhythm, the feeling (rushed or slow) of the breath. Either seated position or lying down deliberately decide to take in quick, ragged, shallow gasps of breath. (If you have asthma or emphysema, or are subject to panic attacks please skip this exercise.) In short order, you'll start feeling anxious, hyper. Probably you'll notice your chest and shoulders becoming quite active. Please don't do these fast, rapid breaths for more than a few seconds. You might get dizzy.
Now return to more normal breathing. To a longer, steadier breath. A fuller, more relaxed breath. To a deeper, abdominal breath. Even if you don't yet have the knack of diaphragmatic breathing (you'll probably need more practice) almost immediately you will feel calmer. You'll note how quickly the body responds to a different way of breathing. Pretty amazing! Of course the skill is learning to do deep breathing regularly throughout your day — and in crises.
The other advantage of deep breathing? It improves the efficiency with which we breathe. It works like this: As you breathe, oxygen enters the lungs and travels into millions of alveoli, or tiny air sacs. These delicate membranes are surrounded by a myriad of blood vessels. Here oxygen is transferred to the blood stream. The arteries zip the oxygen out to brain, muscles, nerves, and internal organs, fueling a host of vital functions.
If you're breathing shallowly, the flow of air, including that nifty oxygen, tends to concentrate in the top two-thirds of the lungs. This area is less blood rich than the lower part. Therefore, when breathing shallowly, you have to breathe more rapidly to get the proper amount of oxygen out into the body. This means the lungs and heart have to work harder than would be the case if you were breathing deeply. The result: your pulse rate goes up and even your blood pressure rises. Maintain this pattern of breathing over time? You'll start feeling both anxious and tired.
But breathe deep into the lungs, and there's a rich concentration of blood waiting to transport the oxygen out to the far corners of the body. In this case, your heart beats much more slowly to send out an equal amount of oxygen. The rate of your pulse slows down, your blood pressure is decreased. Presto: less strain on the heart and less fatigue for you.
Another way to look at this? The number of breaths you have to take per minute and per day when chest breathing is predominant, versus when diaphragmatic breathing predominates. In the first case, sixteen to twenty breaths a minute or 22,000 - 25,000 breaths per day. In the second case, six to eight breaths per minute, 10,000 -12,000 per day. With chest breathing you are working twice as hard to achieve the same result! That's a heck of a lot of extra and unnecessary work.
Another key factor: In shallow breathing, you negatively affect the balance of gases in your blood stream. You're inefficiently cleansing the body of the waste product, carbon dioxide. Excess carbon dioxide in the blood stream can adversely affect the blood's acidity. The result? You feel fatigued and nervous. Shorthand: you feel stressed.
All of these are great reasons to breathe deeply. The finest reason? You feel better.
© Copyright 2001, Mina Hamilton |
