04 Allow Deep Breathing

The goal of this podcast is to help you get in touch with the core of happiness, stillness and peace, that always resides within you, and which is a source of gentle wisdom and clarity, to help you in your day-to-day life.

This episode, "Allow Deep Breathing" is an audio recording that I made after I had a lung-related illness. For a few months after that, I didn't feel well, and one of the ways in which I did not feel good seemed to be that I found myself mostly taking shallow breaths. This was paralleled with muscle tension, particularly in my shoulders, as well as - feeling annoyed quite often! 

Going with the belief that all these three were connected, I looked for a way to breathe deeper and encourage more oxygen - more oxygen in each breath, more oxygen to be fully absorbed by my lungs, and more oxygen transported around my body. I'd read that many people unconsciously take shallow breaths, using the muscles of their shoulders and ribs, and ignoring their diaphragm muscles, which are really important muscles. The use of deeper, diaphragmatic breathing also encourages oxygen exchange, of the alveoli near the base of the lungs functioning well, and thus the blood being able to draw more oxygen from the lungs, to spread round the body. According to what I read, for many people, only the top part of the lungs are being helpfully used in this way.

So my goal was to increase my ability to breathe deeper and send more oxygen around my body. But although I had tried deep breathing, and slow breathing, and counted breathing, I would forget about these after a while. I also didn't like the idea of controlling my breathing. I feel that breathing is a gift for us, and so how would my conscious mind, know better than my inner system, how to breathe?

When studying the Alexander Technique, they say, that if you just bring more attention to the out-breath, you will start breathing deeper on your own, the next inbreath will naturally be deeper. This episode is based loosely upon this principle, of bringing awareness to all the places in our body that could be reached by plenty of oxygen, but for some reason, they are perhaps not receiving enough. Is this because we have somehow, mentally blocked this flow? Is this a form of self-punishment, or perhaps self-preservation, reserving oxygen only for the vital parts of us? Is it habits we have sunk into in our modern lifestyle? Is there a way to exercise the part of us that habituates deeper breathing?

I do not know what causes shallow breathing, but I also had the thought that inadequate oxygenation of our brain and body can cause stressful thoughts and stressful relationships. It made sense to me that my annoying thoughts and feelings, might not be so much connected to what was actually happening to me in my life, to my stubbed toe, or the people around me, but were somehow mostly internally generated.

I also know that the brain needs oxygen to function well, and to see things clearly. Mental health even can be impacted directly by a dearth of oxygen. So I wondered, how can true wisdom and clarity of thought develop within us, when parts of us do not have the building blocks of health within us (oxygen)? So it seemed imperative to me to find ways to relax tense muscles and encourage oxygen flow. So that I could see life as it really was, and not through the blur of inadequate oxygen, or tense muscles of my shoulders, and tight nerves. 

I created this audio to help people bring attention to the parts of their body that may not be receiving enough oxygen, and thereby, the natural state of healthy oxygenation would have more of a chance of reasserting itself. In this way, just noticing, helps the conscious mind, and the Inner Health System, work together, for optimal health all round. Including mental calm.