The Power of Your Breath
James Nestor, author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, notes how binary our understanding of breath is - we breathe to live and when we stop breathing we die - which misses all the power that breath really holds. We can use breath to improve our waking health, sleep, energy, moment to moment presence, anxiety, sexual pleasure, relationship to nature…you name it, and an intentional breath can take you there.
Suggested activity: time how many natural breaths (a breath = an inhale + an exhale) you take in one minute. I got 12…
The ideal breath is a 5.5 second inhale and 5.5 second exhale. About 6 breaths per minute.
Why does this matter?
Short, hasty breaths serve as 911 calls to your nervous system. They engage the sympathetic nervous system (🏃fight or flight) which might leave you feeling alert, on edge, or activated.
If we can take longer, deeper breaths we engage the nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system (🙏rest and digest) located in the lowest lobes of our lungs. This is why long and slow breaths are relaxing.
Making sure our exhale is as long/longer than our inhale increases the amount of carbon dioxide in our bodies. CO2 reduces inflammation, supports recovery and muscle relaxation, regulates blood pH levels, and repairs skin and tissue. All the things your spa promises you, you have access to in one loooong exhale 💅
Suggested activity: try the ideal breath, in and out for 5.5 seconds, and note how you feel during and afterwards.
Most interesting to me was learning that breath through the right nostril activates the sympathetic nervous system 🦖. “Breathing through the right nostril will also feed more blood to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, specifically to the prefrontal cortex, which has been associated with logical decisions, language, and computing”, says Nestor.
Breathing through the left nostril, in turn, activates the parasympathetic nervous system 🕊️. “Left-nostril breathing shifts blood flow to the opposite side of the prefrontal cortex, to the area that influences creative thought and plays a role in the formation of mental abstractions”, states Nestor.
I’ve recently been exploring some energizing breath work in the mornings (here). Other types of breathwork include Wim Hoff (here) if you’re interested in more intense breath work (note: always gauge your own health and safety before doing breath work as it can cause light headedness, nausea, etc.) Holotropic breathwork is another, also known as psychadelic breathwork, which has potential to alter your state of mind - much like a psychedelic. I recommend the work of Stanislav and Christina Grof.
Happy breathing!
