Breathing—can change your life
The key is HOW you breathe.
I have suffered from migraines most of my life. But guess what? They’re gone! (Almost.)
Maybe I better knock on wood (there, I just did), and I DEFINITELY won’t hold my breath—but it has been MONTHS! Months of significant relief from migraines.
And this includes a trip across the ocean during the summer. And if you know ANYTHING about migraines, long flights, layovers, and regular atmospheric pressure changes—you KNOW that a miracle has happened.
So, what’s the secret?
HOW we breathe is as important as breathing itself.
I hold my breath.
And I have been holding my breath for as long as I can remember.
I’m not talking about inhaling deeply and seeing how long I can stay underwater without popping up. I’m saying that I’ve had a long-standing habit of what I’ll collectively call SHALLOW BREATHING.
To cope with the amorphous stress of everyday living, I have been unconsciously regulating my breathing valve in a self-sabotaging way.
This includes:
“staccato” breathing
not breathing into the belly (the diaphragm)
(and yes, sometimes) flat-out holding my breath
Breathing is something we take for granted. And because it is such an unconscious process—bad habits can easily and gradually insinuate themselves into the process of breathing. But bad breathing habits undermine your physical and mental well-being.
CONSCIOUS BREATHING: Discover the Power of Your Breath - by Anders Olsonn
This is the book that helped me.
—I have no conflict of interest here; I am not getting paid to promote this book; and I have no connection to Anders Olsonn.
But here are a few of the techniques that I learned from this book that I have put into practice:
1. Breathing into the belly
It’s excellent that you breathe deep and consciously into your belly during meditation or exercise. But if you are only doing it then and are “shallow breathing” the rest of the time, you are doing yourself a HUGE disservice.
Inhalation should be calm and steady and should fill the belly—which means opening the diaphragm and allowing the air to fill your lower lungs. The lower lungs may not be getting the full extent of your breath.
This change of habit, alone, can make a huge difference in your life.
2. Breathe through your nose
The nasal cavity is a large, air-filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face. The nasal septum divides it into two cavities—a miraculous structure that has a well-designed purpose:
When you breathe calmly and exclusively through the nose (no mouth breathing!), nitric oxide (NO) gets released inside the nasal cavity—improving your ability to circulate oxygen throughout the body.
Olsonn’s book promotes the use of “sleep strips” (surgical tape that covers your mouth while sleeping). A quick online search shows many of these mouth-strip products, meaning people are doing it.
Mouth breathing during sleep can trigger a cascade of issues: snoring, sleep apnea, and a poor night’s sleep (which, in turn, shortchanges your day.) Mouth breathing during your growing years can negatively impact the development of the teeth and jaws.
3. Breathe in a calm, steady manner
What I call “staccato breathing” is what I know I do when working on the computer—especially when doing prolonged sound editing on video projects.
Calm and steady breathing sounds like a no-brainer—because it is a no-brainer (breathing is an unconscious process).
But are you doing it?
Through practice, we can retrain ourselves to breathe calmly, steadily, and more fully—into the belly. We can also bring consciousness to this unconscious process by taking a few minutes out of every day to listen and pay attention to how we breathe.
There is plenty of other information and lots of tricks and hacks in Olsonn’s book. And there are many other books and online articles on this essential subject.
I can’t stress enough how a few simple changes in my breathing habits have reduced the stress of daily living. And the migraine thing was an unexpected surprise!
And as always, I’d like to give a brief, seemingly disparaging shout-out to my good friends in the “New-Age” metaphysical community for their somewhat compulsive search for pricey magical talismans and costly miracle advice—by ending with this:
Sometimes, the most effective solutions in life require a little effort—and are free:
We spend an enormous amount of money on the quest for improving our health, our looks, our weight, our fitness, our sleep, our energy and our sex lives. But the fact is that we already have the secret key to better health, better looks, better sleep, more energy, reduced stress, a fitter body, and amazing sex—namely our breathing. And the good news is that it’s absolutely free, we have it with us 24/7, and the results are a happier, healthier, longer, younger and more satisfying life.
—Olsson, Anders