Excerpts from ‘The Art of Breathing’ by Jessica Wolf
Preface
Our breath is indispensable and ever-present.
It happens automatically, and most people never think about it.
We are always being affected by it whether we’re aware of it or not.
… although breathing is involuntary, we can become conscious of how we breathe.
And when one is conscious, one can make choices.
Breathing helps us to live fully in our body and our world. At the same time, when our breathing becomes compromised, it causes problems in our physical and emotional well- being.
When we choose not to hold our breath and instead invite the breath to move, we find ease in our body and our voice.
The BREATH is the power that allows us to express ourselves, and connect to each other and to our world.
The breath is the healing fuel.”
Peak Efficiency
Breathing is indispensable, and it works best when it is effortless.
Most of us do not think about the way we breathe. We usually take breathing for granted; we do not realize the harmful effects that faulty breathing can have nor the freedom we can gain by improving how we breathe.
Most of us begin life breathing fully and without strain. As we age, our natural breathing abilities and rhythms become compromised, for many different reasons. But we can return our breathing to its inherent ease and maximal flow.
Ironically, the respiratory system reaches its peak efficiency when we do less. In fact, the less you do, the better the respiratory system functions.
So the trick is:
How to do less?
How do we get out of the way of our own breathing?
The Most Adaptable Fuel
Oxygen is a basic necessity of life and an inexhaustible resource, filling our lungs and generating energy for our bodies.
Breathing is a most adaptable, responsive, and always available way to fuel the body by carrying oxygen into the lungs.
Breathing is ongoing; we are either letting the breath out or allowing the breath in. We breathe new life into ourselves anywhere from eight to eighteen times a minute.
We never have to worry about our next breath; it has a quiet presence, and is in perpetual motion.
It is inspiring to know that our breath responds naturally and spontaneously to our every thought and feeling.
Stress...and Ease
Unfortunately, due to unconscious habits and other stresses on the respiratory system, we have lost our natural breathing rhythms.
In today’s world, respiratory complications come from a myriad of causes: environmental pollutants; stress; neuromuscular and skeletal problems; illnesses such as asthma, headache, backache, or gastrointestinal problems; and last but not least, emotional ups-and-downs. And then there are the various medications prescribed to treat these symptoms, which often interfere with natural breathing rhythms.
We have an internal landscape that is always in motion. Food is being digested, blood is circulating, and nerves are passing messages. The lungs are either inflating or deflating and the diaphragm is either descending or rising. This coordinated breathing actually massages our internal organs (the stomach, the intestines, the kidneys, the pancreas, the liver, the spleen). Alexander referred to this as the“visceral massage,”the result of the diaphragm moving between the thoracic and abdominal areas. Gastro-intestinal discomfort, for instance, is often a result of stress and clenching around the digestive organs.
By releasing the breath and allowing it to move freely, we enable this visceral massage to soothe the tension around these constricted organs. Breathing is our body’s natural way of healing and restoring harmony.
Holding the Breath
Walter Carrington writes:
“In Alexander terms, we all worry about the neck and the neck being free. It’s difficult to know about your neck; you can’t really tell by feeling. It’s very difficult to be sure whether you’ve stiffened your neck or freed your neck. But you can know whether you’ve stopped breathing. Nobody really has any justification for doubt as to whether they’re holding the breath or not. That is absolutely something that you can register.”
When we hold our breath, we interfere with internal movement. Holding the breath also creates a backlog of carbon dioxide, which is a known stressor to the nervous system. In addition, holding the breath weakens the respiratory system by reducing the muscular tone of the diaphragm.
First let’s acknowledge that we all hold our breath. This is a common response to stress.
You know those moments when you tighten in preparation to speak? Or the times that you find yourself slumping and feeling sluggish with fatigue? You are probably holding your breath; or if not holding it, you are certainly interfering with it.
The breath is an accurate barometer for identifying the habits that create roadblocks and constrain our lives.
If you can observe yourself holding your breath, you can then ask yourself to stop holding it, to let the breath out. And if we can learn to let the breath out (exhale) to avoid the unconscious holding of the breath, we will all feel a whole lot better.
Anatomy of the Breath
Let’s take a closer look at the anatomy of the breath.
We need to remind ourselves that the body is three-dimensional and that breathing functions all the way around.
The motion of breathing begins with the diaphragm in the middle of the torso, and expands throughout the abdomen, ribs, and back.
The diaphragm––a flexible dome lying just below the lungs and heart, separating the chest from the abdomen––is primarily responsible for the filling and emptying of the lungs.
Its upward movement helps move air out of the lungs, and its downward movement creates space for the lungs to fill.
Intercostals, abdominals, and back muscles are equally important to breathing coordination.
Back motion, often neglected, is vital.
There has been an overemphasis on the breath in the front of the body (i.e., belly breathing and chest breathing), but there is actually a lot of movement in the back, and it is closer to the source.
There is more lung tissue in the back of the body, and the diaphragm itself originates on the lumbar spine. That is why doctors first listen with their stethoscopes to our lungs from our backs.
As breathing becomes better coordinated, the diaphragm’s range of motion is increased, integrating muscles of the pelvis and increasing spinal movement and mobility of the ribs.
If you pull down or collapse (slump), or overcorrect (arch), you interfere with the diaphragm’s range of motion, and the mobility of the muscular-skeletal system. You are also reducing your vital capacity (the amount of air that can be taken in by the lungs) because you have literally reduced the volume of your torso.
Breathing is at its best when it is synergistic––that is, when it is working in coordination with not just the diaphragm, not just the lungs, not just the abdomen, but all the muscles of respiration throughout the whole torso. It is best not to isolate any of the muscles of the respiratory system. We do not want to think in parts because breathing is a coordination of the whole, top to bottom, front to back, side to side.
Coordinated Breathing
Coordinated breathing is easy. It is not necessary to suck air in or to push air out.
When we force the breath by over-muscling, pressure is created which can cause a fight, flight, or freeze response––including a tight chest and a restricted airway. This is at quite an oxygen cost––dramatically reducing the fuel available to us.
As it turns out, the key to coordinated breathing is an easy exhalation, which prompts a full and easy inhalation.
We’re often told to “Take a deep breath.” But if a container is going to be re-filled, it must first be emptied. Trying to “take” in new air on top of stale air is like wiping a counter with a waterlogged sponge. When we breathe out, we are letting go of stale air (the stressor carbon-dioxide).
Everything depends on how much air gets out, so that a full, easy, automatic inhale can occur. The new fresh air arrives without over-muscling in response to the full release of the breath.
THE BREATH AS A VEHICLE FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
I often ask myself whether efficient breathing begins with dynamic alignment or whether balance and coordination rely on efficient breathing.
…people think they have to do something to breathe.
It is the breath that gives us a three-dimensional experience of the torso and it is the breath that supports our muscular-skeletal framework.
Breathing is not mechanical.
It is constantly changing, adapting to the individual’s shifting needs both physically and emotionally.
It is best not to think about the breath as a sequence of events, but as the simultaneous, multi-dimensional interdependence of breath and body.
INTERFERENCES
We’ve been indoctrinated with so many suggestions like: “Take a breath,” “breathe into your belly,” “don’t let your chest move,” “hold your ribs out,” “relax and breathe.”
These common misconceptions suggest that we need to do something to breathe.
Actually, nature regulates our breathing. It is reflexive and under autonomic control.
In reality, our job is to do nothing.
Any attempt to make the breath occur or change will feel forced and therefore have the effect of producing tension.
Rather, all we have to do is to learn to let the breath out.
Then autonomic regulators go to work increasing our chest volume and decreasing pressure, which allows for the new, fresh air to rush in and fill the vacuum created by the out-breath.
The most common pattern of interference is holding the breath.
Everyone holds their breath from time to time, and certainly during physical and emotional stress the breath is momentarily held.
When the system is healthy, a brief stop in motion will not aggravate the coordination.
However, if this response becomes habitual it will weaken the respiratory system by interfering with the muscles of respiration, which need to move in order to maintain strength and tone.
Another pattern I frequently observe is that of over-breathing.
This is when people take in more air than they let out which actually increases the sensation of breathlessness.
Contrary to general belief, it’s neither necessary nor efficient to take in great volumes of air.
Breathlessness does not indicate, as is often supposed, the need to fill the lungs. I call the amount of remaining air “residual volume.” Only when this air has been removed in sufficient quantity can the automatic inhale occur and satisfy the person’s need for oxygen.
Of course, it is only through indirect means that we can re-develop our breathing coordination.
If the lungs are not reasonably emptied, trying to take air in is like wiping a counter with a waterlogged sponge. Learning to fully extend the breath out will ensure that the body’s need for oxygen will automatically occur and be satisfied.
…. the voluntary aspect of the diaphragm is extremely subtle. Any attempt to exercise voluntary control over the breathing will bring voluntary muscles into play. Viewing the diaphragm as completely involuntary has profound and beneficial consequences. The lungs, the ribs, the intercostals, the extensor muscles along the spine, and the abdominal muscles are the secondary muscles or what I call: the supporting actors in the breath play. The excursion of the diaphragm, the filling and emptying of the lungs, the swinging of the ribs, and the expanding and falling of the abdomen must all occur for the respiratory system to be working efficiently. The whole torso and everything from the soles of our feet to the top of our head participates in both the inhalation and exhalation.
Breathing coordination does not require active “doing” but it most definitely requires intention.
Breathing happens spontaneously in response to all our thoughts and feelings.
Our body moves in response to the breath - we never have to move our body to breathe.
… visualise the breath as a fluid current capable of creating a visceral massage, internal support, and on-going regulation and exchange between oxygen and CO2.
Now conversely, from the outside in, the body’s muscular-skeletal framework will directly affect the quality of the breath.
When we experiment with the effects of shortening the stature by collapsing into a slump or by hollowing the back, we instantly notice the need to give our body space for the breath to occur.
We know that unproductive movement that collapses the spine and challenges the poise of the chest reduces muscle flexibility. The same goes for stiffening the chest and bracing the shoulders; the mobility of the breath is always compromised. The springiness of the system depends on a dynamic balance of structural support and flexibility and a well-coordinated use of the whole body.
The redevelopment of the diaphragm must occur through indirect means, and the most direct way to accomplish this is by learning to breathe out. Rather than working with any kind of “breathing exercise,”
The respiratory and nervous systems are intimately connected.
I think the diaphragm is the main muscle of emotion.
It gets a good workout when we laugh or cry and it clenches when we get a knot in our stomach. Fear always evokes the startle reflex and a response in the diaphragm. As we communicate and express our feelings, our diaphragm is set in motion. Access to our inner life, what is happening in the landscape under our skin, encourages us to make choices about how to use and how to think about the breath.
We have only to look at what happens to our bodies when we hold our breath and, conversely, what happens when the breath is fluid. The breath responds organically to the person’s needs and at the same time, the body shapes itself around the breathing mechanism. Shape changes are affected by the psychological problems of anxiety and depression, which also have a profound impact on the respiratory system. Holding the breath—a common response to emotional problems—reduces the turnover of air causing the excursion of the diaphragm to be reduced, which negatively affects posture and disrupts the coordination between the breath and the voice.