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breathing much more accessible and gave me a whole new level of composure and poise
Breathe through the nose as much as possible It calms your mind and turns your breathing
musculature into a powerful relentless irrepressible bellows
The Slowest Smallest Breath
When you breathe with a smooth flow rate you should feel that your breath proceeds at an
even tack You should hear and feel a constant stream of breath that doesnt vary in speed
think the best way to perfect a smooth flow rate is to inhale as little and as slowly as possible
When you do this the tumultuous discontinuities apneic disturbances discussed in Chapter
become magnified This enables you to perceive them and work to iron them out
Breathing Exercise The Slowest Smallest Breath
After a couple of deep breaths take a single inhalation that is a tiny continuous sip of air It
should be long in duration from seconds to a minute and deep from the bottom of your
expiratory reserve to the top of your inspiratory reserve Take in as little air as possible as
slowly as possible without pausing After you finish inhaling breathe normally for a few
breaths then repeat Steady your breath so that you override the shudders and shivers in the
flow of air It should feel like a long drawnout note on a saxophone a rocket ship sailing
smoothly out of the atmosphere or a slow ride down a gently sloped slide made from warm
butter Sometimes it helps me to visualize the slow but steady propulsion made possible by
hundreds of millipede legs working in unison Continue to practice this making your goal to
breathe slowly and evenly all the time
Breathing slowly like this feels dangerouseither like you are not getting enough air or like
it is too much work Some of the most archaic brain areas ring their alarm bells when they can
tell that the conscious system is imposing a slow diaphragmatic breath Deep down our
unconscious mind is afraid that the diaphragm will be overexerted and that this will lead to
death by some form of cardiorespiratory fatigue It is afraid that we will ignore the pain signals
from our weary breathing musculature and succumb to diaphragmatic failure And it is true that
if a person who is a heavy hyperventilator that takes in breaths per minute was forced to
switch to four breaths per minute without any deviation the abrupt change in demand could
lead to respiratory shutdown after many hours However a few minutes of diaphragmatic
fatigue is not going to kill you You dont want to push it too hard for hours at a time but you
must get past this instinctual dread of exerting the diaphragm
To do this embrace the feeling of suffocating yourself with the slowest smallest breath
exercise These breaths should feel like prolonged streamlined sighs that ooze in and out of
Chapter Breathe Less Nasally and without Pharyngeal Tension
your body Taking extremely slow inhalations will strengthen your diaphragm and teach your
mind to control it on a very precise and finegrained scale putting an end to hyperventilation
When you perform exercise above imagine that you are training to be the best in the
world Pretend that the national pastime consists of stepping up to home plate pressing your
nostril against a microphone and taking the smoothest inhalation and the smoothest
exhalation you possibly can You want to inspire the entire stadium as well as the folks
watching at home with how constant and unperturbed your breath is Of course we will never
get the opportunity to show off in this way However if you breathe as if you are training for it
the results will significantly affect your every word thought and action It will also make your
breath extremely quiet
Several Eastern arts such as tai chi yoga and qi gong recognize the importance of quiet
gentle breathing Japanese legend holds that samurai would be tested by placing a feather
under their nose If the feather wavered then they were not ready to progress Qi gong master
Chris Pei explains Generally speaking there are three levels of breathing The first one is to
breathe softly so that a person standing next to you does not hear you breathing The second
level is to breathe softly so that you do not hear yourself breathing And the third level is to
breathe softly so that you do not feel yourself breathing The Chinese practice of Taoism
defines ideal breathing as so smooth that the fine hairs within the nostrils remain motionless
In the thcentury BC Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said The perfect man breathes as if he is
not breathing
find these quotes inspiring and do believe that quiet breathing is an indicator of
diaphragmatic health and precludes hyperventilation However the breath cannot always be
inaudible When you first transition to nasal breathing it is often loud Dont necessarily
suppress your breath to make it quiet and dont be embarrassed by the sound of your
breathing Instead be proud that others will hear how smooth and deep it is
Calming Your Gasping Reflex
As discussed in Chapter your default tidal range can be expanded by taking longer deeper
breaths But your tidal range can also be reduced by teaching your body that it is safe to take
more shallow breaths When you first try to take several shallow breaths in a row your
diaphragm and other breathing muscles will stubbornly resist the process Again your nervous
system will be afraid to let them relax This is why breathing less feels uncomfortable and can
be downright scary It brings you face to face with your gasping mechanism
It is difficult to breathe in a tidal range that is shallower than usual as in diagram C in
Figure above because it exposes a reflexive gasp that powers your every inhalation Once
you are breathing more shallowly than usual you can feel the jerk from this gasp in your chest
It initiates each inhalation and is essentially a violent convulsion and another manifestation of
trauma keeping you in fight or flight The more time you spend breathing less the more you
experience it and the more you calm it Calming it will tremendously reduce your tendency to
hyperventilate You can use the following exercise to do this
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
Breathing Exercise Depowering the Heaving Gasp
For one or two minutes take breaths that are vastly shallower than you are accustomed to
Imagine merely taking in a few teaspoons of air Spend about between one and three
seconds on each inhalation and exhalation x to x When executing this pattern
the breathing muscles should be about as close to resting as they can be moving very little
You are hypoventilating
By the fifth to tenth breath you should feel a sense of air hunger This sensation of
suffocation or smothering is too soon to be a legitimate need for oxygen Instead it is the
feeling of your hyperactive breathing musculature fighting against your decision to breathe
less The discomfort should be centered around the beginning of the inhalation Your chest is
trying to involuntarily kickstart a gasp but you are not letting it It should feel a bit like a
hiccup coming on This should create the feeling that you need a deep inhalation and are
having trouble catching your breath
Become immersed in the sensations surrounding your gasp reflex and try to calm it for the
remaining breaths Once you have been breathing like this for twenty seconds to a minute
and the feeling of air hunger starts to kick in allow yourself to take a few normal deeper
breaths to reoxygenate and then try again Use this exercise to learn to feel comfortable
breathing much less and transform the violent spastic contraction that initiates your
inhalation into a gentle gradual one
think the exercise above brings you into contact with the cramp in your diaphragm It is
the portion of the diaphragm that is always heaving in an effort carry on with hyperventilation
It is trying to overpower your current rate It is doing this because your body is afraid that you
are not going to get enough oxygen to deal with the environment that it assumes is adverse By
ignoring the gasp and feeling the air hunger you get a panicky sensation By attenuating your
breath you ignore the panic You should get this feeling sometimes as you come down from
exercising Treat it as if that is all it is Even though you are not exercising feel comfortable