BREATHING: A POWERFUL MIND-BODY LINK

May each breath be like a footstep bringing you back to the home of yourself. ~ William Wordsworth

Breathing occurs as a spontaneous flow in and out from the first inhalation at birth to the last sigh at the time of death. This automatic breath is the breathing of survival. It is not the breath of thriving with vitality as it is prone to unconscious automatized restriction during the course of life's trepidations.

In the first years of life, the whole body breaths and is bathed in the vitality of the free energetic flow of the breath. As the years go by, action and reaction has the breath ending at a point of constriction when the response to stress is negative. The higher the individual sensitivity to external and internal perceived negativity, the tighter the clench in the body. This clench claims and kinks the free flow of the energy of the breath.

To reclaim this vital force requires intention with conscious mindfulness and awareness. This simply is a willingness to remain present with the breath and witness it's flow or lack thereof. It is an attending with love to the process of unraveling the knots in the soul.

Unconsciously we take breathing for granted. Most remain unconscious to the breath most of the time until something occurs to markedly obstruct breathing. Then suddenly, breathing has our full attention.

The resting respiratory rate considered normal is 8 to 12 breaths per minute. More than this rate in a sustained pattern is considered hyperventilation. This state of hyperventilation is characterized by quick, shallow breaths from the top of the lungs. This pattern of breathing blows off more carbon dioxide than desired for homeostasis and causes vasoconstriction. This clamping down of the blood vessels restricts blood circulating the necessary oxygen and nutrients to keep the tissues of the body happy and cleared of waste products within and around the cells. This diminished flow of oxygen to the cellular level of the body turns on the sympathetic nervous system and produces a level of the "fight or flight" response with a increase in the production of the stress hormones, particularly adrenaline and cortisol. Habituated patterns of breathing of this type can produce a sustaining of these stress substances coursing through the body causing increased tension held in various physical structures and psychologically brings about anxiety, irritability, clouded thinking and memory, and a promotion of obsessive thoughts. Struggling with the breath to force it to slow down can produce a further constriction.

So what to do? Conscious breathing exercises and yoga can help to unravel the knots in the prana - breath flow. The attitude with which this is undertaken is most important. Neuroscientist Candice Pert, PhD, in her reporting of her research which she calls the Molecules of Emotion, says, "Enter the mind-body conversation without judgments or opinions, releasing peptide molecules from the hindbrain to regulate breathing while unifying all systems." She goes on to describe that it seemed to be key to be present with our breathing. This suggests an attending to the breath to bring about an open sense of ease and deep presence.

Relaxing the muscles of the face is important to allow the free flow of the breath. There is a decrease in diaphragmatic movement with tense facial muscles and locked eyes. Warning be for those who spend any extended amount of time at a computer. Frequently move the eyes and facial muscles while taking a few deep breaths.

It is important to breath through the nose primarily as the hairs of the nostrils are filters that decrease the amount of particulate matter that enters the lungs. The nasal passages and sinuses also warm and humidify the air before it enters the bronchi and alveoli of the lungs. There also is a role for nasal breathing in keeping a balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Recent research by Dr. Lee Berk and fellow researcher Dr. Stanley Tan of Loma Linda University in California shows laughter and rhythmic breathing exercises measurably reducing stress hormones in the blood stream. Ancient masters of body-mind synchronization practices such as the Tao linked laughter and breathing with the whole body to healing.

Pondering research such as these illuminates the power potential of such practices as breathing yogas, chanting, lujong, meditation, mantras, prayer, qi gong, spiritual singing, tai chi, and yogas of varying types that can synchronize the breath with body, speech and mind. To engage in these kinds of activities is to reduce the seeming power of the rapid fire stresses, either in the form of a person or situation, that may chance to hit us.

It may be helpful to think of the breath as the anchoring conduit into reality. Relaxing into the breath as it moves through the whole body has the power to reveal reality to us and where there are blockages to experiencing reality.

It may also be helpful to think of the breath as the pathway to revealing our deepest being as love. Our deepest core wants to open and be revealed alive as love. Seeing harbored pain held in the body as producing a web of fear can render the resultant superficial existence transparent. Insight into and through this can eventually free the power of the flow of energy that becomes suppressed in the body and the genuine spontaneity of love flowing from our core being. It is possible to see that the suppression of the breath comes about in part as a "protection" against that which has the greatest potential to open wide our deepest self. Opening wide our being is communion with God, the infinite, the unconditioned, which is not separate from the human heart. But with the ever vigilant ego refusal to divine openness and communion, our body and heart constrict. Then the kinks develop in our circuitry - neurological, lymphatic, cardiovascular, and at the very molecular level of the water in the body. Obstructions to spiritual expressions and consciousness take root in this anaerobic environment of constriction. Nothing outside of us has produced this. There truly is nothing outside of us that has the power to block our deep power and keep us suspended in the chaotic swirl of a superficial constrictied state. This realization is possible at any moment as it is the unconditional truth of things as they are, the power of now.