We all know the subtleties and intricacies of the breath, from sighs of relief, to gasps, laughs, and the tight, pained, barely-there breathing of high-stress states. Our breathing reflects a manifold of emotional states, but crucially, our breathing also induces emotional states.
Breathing techniques that take advantage of this principle are drawn from disciplines including Qi Gong/Tai Chi and Pranayama, a tradition originating from India. These techniques are generally geared toward one of two desired outcomes: increasing energy, or effecting relaxation.
How to Breathe
As you may or may not know, there are broadly two ways to breathe: with chest muscles (chest breathing) or with the diaphragm (belly breathing).
While babies breathe with their belly, over time, most of us unconsciously default to chest breathing. This moves less air and can trigger the fight-or-flight response. According to the Mayo Clinic, it even exacerbates medical conditions including GERD, sleep apnea, and COPD.
Belly breathing, meanwhile, stimulates the rest-and-digest signal in the nervous system, reducing heart rate and blood pressure. It even tamps down activity in the amygdala, the seat of fear in the brain, according to Psychology Today.
Which way do you breathe? If you place your attention on the torso, the clues are obvious. Chest breathing causes the diaphragm to contract and the chest to slightly puff out on inhalation, while belly breathing greatly expands the diaphragm on inhalation.
Not to worry - if you find you’re a chest breather and want to revert to belly breathing, engaging with conscious belly breathing multiple times a day will shortly induce belly breathing by default. If you have any of the medical conditions above (or anxiety), reverting to belly breathing is a relatively low-effort and worthwhile intervention.
Befriending Carbon Dioxide
We’re all familiar with Co2 as a waste product expelled by the lungs, but this is only one shade of its impacts. Since most of us live in a habitual state of relatively rapid, shallow breathing, little carbon dioxide builds up in the body. This makes us hypersensitive to the molecule as a suffocation signal, driving rapid, shallow breathing in a vicious cycle.
Increasing Co2 tolerance with traditional breathing techniques supports oxygen delivery in the body and cognitive function, reduces anxiety, and improves breathing while asleep.
If anyone is intimately familiar with the cognitive effects of carbon dioxide, it’s those who practice extreme breath-holding under water, who as of writing hold their breath for up to 24 minutes (!) and report that Co2 buildup is euphoric.
Incorporating Breathing Practice
How you approach a new breathing practice is an individuated affair. I personally prefer to use guided meditations in bed as that appears to be one of the most effective ways to induce sleep. You might prefer to have a morning meditation, yoga, or Qi Gong practice, and if you’re a highly active person bored by the concept of serenity, more active practices like Tai Chi may be more your speed.
We’re fortunately now awash in apps and practitioners who provide guided practice for free or at a low cost. Check out the Insight Timer app, which is a completely free repository of thousands of meditations you can sort by practitioner, tradition, and more. What's most important is simply to experiment until you find something that appeals, then implement that practice daily to build benefits over time.
Learn more about the benefits of oxygen therapy at camdenhyperbaric.com.
