Breathing
By Ric Light
In karate all students must learn to control breathing and use it to be better at karate. Knowing how to breathe well can help stay calm under pressure and focused, to be alert and aware of what is going on around you, to recover when tired, and to act more quickly and effectively.
We all breathe about 25,000 times a day but it not a passive process of just breathing air in and out. It is far more than just supplying oxygen for our body, but we humans are the worst breathers of all animals on earth. It is essential for good health and functioning as something that civilisations thousands of years ago focused on and knew the importance of, yet in modern societies it is a ‘lost art’. Books dating back to 400BC in China focused completely on breathing, how to control it and how it can heal us or kill us. Predating this time, Ancient Hindus saw no difference between breathing and spirit with Buddhists using breathing to attain higher levels of consciousness. In all these cultures and religions breathing was used for healing, health, self-improvement and as a form of medicine but does not attract much interest of modern medicine.
Breathing is not just needed to stay alive. It can be used for a wide range of healing and for promoting good health and wellbeing. Many modern illnesses, physical and mental, can be cured, reduced, or reversed by appropriate breathing. Changing how we breathe can help us live longer and live a better life. The billions of molecules we breathe into our bodies every 3.3 seconds build bones, muscles, blood, your brain, and organs for decades from now.
There is a huge difference between inhaling through the mouth and the nose. Inhaling through the nose cleans the air you breathe, heats it, and moistens it to increase absorption into your blood stream. Absorbing the air that is around us can be considered as our most intimate connection with our environment and is something we should be aware of and get the best from. Inhaling through the nose brings fresh air full of oxygen and energy for the body into the lungs where it is absorbed. Exhaling removes carbon dioxide from our bodies and rids us of fatigue and negativity. Generally, we should breathe slowly and avoid over breathing. When you breath in slowly and gently you give your body time to absorb oxygen and ideally you should take 5.5 seconds to inhale and 5.5 (5-6 seconds) to exhale but make it a smooth process. It may take time to adjust to this slow breathing but the more you practise it the better you get. If you find it difficult, you can start with 3 second inhale and 3 second exhale, or 4 second breathing
Inhaling through the mouth is unhealthy. It has a negative affect that reduces vitality and power. You should always inhale though your nose with your nostrils central to the development of a range of health issues and treating them. The main nostril used for inhaling through the nose switches around every 40 minutes with the use of each nostril having different responses and results.
1. Inhaling through the right nostril stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. It heats the body, creates an elevated state of alertness and readiness.
2. Inhaling through the left nostril stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. This cools the body, helps relax, reduce anxiety, lowers blood pressure, and encourages creativity.
Day to day health and wellbeing benefits from a balance between action and relaxation with the development of clarity from alternate nostril breathing. Native Americans believed that mouth breathing sapped the body of strength, caused disease but that inhaling though the nose increased strength, beauty, and made people disease free. The air inhaled via the nose changes as it moves down into the lungs and not breathing through the nose makes the nose atrophy (become smaller).
Breathe in slowly and smoothly through the nose and down into the tanden (centre of the body) to fill it to capacity from the bottom up for four or five seconds then allow it to escape slowly and smoothly from the bottom up and feel the top of your head. Good breathing relies on the use of the diaphragm which is a large dome shaped muscle that sits under the lungs and controls inhalation and exhalation. It flattens out when you inhale to allow the lungs to expand and pushes up against them in a dome shape when you exhale. You must learn to use the diaphragm effectively and strengthen it. Do not raise your chest when inhaling. Focus on breathing into and out of your tanden and slowly.
The transformative power of full exhalation is the most important part of breathing so make sure you empty your lungs/tanden, but do not force it. Use your diaphragm to breathe in the energy of oxygen but do not raise or expand the chest area or breathe in too much air. When you exhale, breathe out carbon dioxide, negativity, and tiredness through your mouth in full breaths but smoothly and slowly. The diaphragm works like a ‘second heart’ but when exhaling, do not force any air out, unless doing a kiai when you also tighten your abdominal muscles. Big heavy breaths are bad for you. Efficient breathing should energise you and relax you at the same time and on each outbreath feel yourself relaxing and feeling grounded with each breath. Through this process you will develop awareness of your whole body, your inner being, and develop good health.
