Lessons

Lesson Info

Breathing

So now, we're going to get into the value of breathing more effectively. So one of the things that would be invaluable for all of us to start tapping into is the power of nose breathing. So our nose is structured to breathe. Our mouth is structured to eat. There's over 30 different specific functions that we won't get into here, they're all in the book, and the YouTube, and all the other places. All we need to know for now is it's really important that we breathe through our nose. One of the things that's relevant for that is an increase in nitric oxide. The production of nitric oxide is supportive with cardiovascular function, with vasodilation, with overall circulation of blood through your body. And also energy levels, immune system function, things of a sort. It's also supportive if you care about the structure of your mouth, and your jaw, and the orientation of your teeth. So malocclusion, or crooked teeth, is associated to (breathes) this mouth breathing pattern. Your tongue acts...

as a natural retainer to create outward pressure or space in your upper pallet. So if throughout the day you are (breathes) in that position, then literally you have the connective tissue and the muscles around the face, they're pulling in on the jawline, but you don't have that outward pressure or that retaining value of the tongue. So throughout the day, it's important for the straightness of your teeth, it's important for the function of your immune system, your overall energy levels, your cardiovascular function, your blood pressure. Literally every function in your body is tied back to the breath. And so throughout the day, just a thing to start to ponder on is, notice yourself, am I breathing through my mouth at that time when I was just standing at the bank or just hanging out? Or can I start to bring that calm, relaxed breath into the nose? So what's really interesting about breathing, not just from a physiological perspective of your overall health, but it also has immense effect on our emotional state. And so, if you're ever feeling really stressed out, a beautiful opportunity is for you to start to emphasize a specific style of breathing, to start to down regulate or calm your nervous system. So what you can do with that, is you can emphasize the exhalation. So that's the first tip, takeaway tip here, is emphasizing that exhalation is gonna start to activate or engage that calming side of the nervous system, referred to as the parasympathetic side. So, feeling stressed out, you got a big date comin' up, you drank too much coffee, anything of a sort, you've been exposed to a bunch of blaring blue lights in a Walmart or something like that, you walk out and you're just like, "Oh, I feel frazzled." You could do a long (breathes) exhalation. So something you could do, starting off with breathing, on how to calm the nervous system with our breath. You could do something that I refer to in the book as aligned box breathing. So aligned box breathing, is you're going through a very simple breathing cycle, and you're just emphasizing an elongated exhalation, so we're gonna breathe out for seven seconds. So starting off breathing in for four seconds, so you have some air. You're gonna hold for four seconds, and then you're gonna breathe out for seven seconds. Hold for four seconds, breathe in for four seconds, out for seven seconds, so everything's four seconds, but you're just gonna do it elongated exhalation, so it's gonna look like this, exhale (breathes). (water trickles) Hold. Breathe in for four seconds. So, even just after doing that now, I notice my whole body feels a little bit more (breathes) calm. So there's interesting research that came out of Japan, actually, to suggest that you can actually change your blood pressure just by augmenting the way that you breathe for only six simple breaths. So, slowing down that breathing pattern, emphasizing that breath through the nose, emphasizing that exhalation, is gonna be an amazing way to change your emotional state, and also change, literally, the function of your whole physiology. Next, if we want to start to stimulate ourselves, maybe we don't want to just pound a bunch of coffee, you know, or maybe we wanna have a little bit more clarity, maybe better word recall, just feeling more grounded in our bodies. But you also wanna be energetic and stimulated. You can do the opposite breathing pattern of elongated exhalations, slow nasal breaths. That's crucially important for the bulk of our day. But sometimes you actually wanna have a little spike. And so what we can do when we wanna have a spike moment, is we can start to implement what many people might know as Wim Hof style breathing, or maybe you could call it holotropic style breathing, or different forms of pranayama. There's a lot of different names for how to breathe. But the important thing is to know that if you are breathing in a way, that would simulate, say, what you would do if you were exercising a lot, for example, or maybe you're at the top of a mountain, and you're just barely making it up top and it's high altitude and you're (breathes). That's sending the signal to your whole physiology, and your emotional state, the way that you feel, that, oh, it's time to go. We really need to up regulate all the hormones and the neurochemicals to make us feel really stimulated, present, it's go time. So what you can do with that, is we're just gonna take you through, now, simple little breathing practice to start to stimulate your nervous system. So you're just gonna do 30 big breaths, through the mouth now. So the reason we're going through the mouth now, is, when as you're breathing through the mouth, it's starting to send that signal to your physiology, that it's sympathetic overdrive time, like, oh boy, we're workin' really hard right now. So the mouth is a powerful tool to use on occasion. The nose is what you wanna be using for 95% of the day. But when you're in that like fifth gear, max effort, then using the mouth to get more air, faster, can be supportive. And it's gonna send the signal to your whole physiology that it's like, okay, it's kinda like stress time go, we gotta get up and at 'em. So what we're gonna do. Sit in a nice upright position, raise your hips up above the height of your knees. And you're going to actually bring your hands on your lower ribs. So the reason that we are doing this, is because as we're breathing, even if we're huffing and puffing we still wanna have nice balanced orientation of our pelvis in relation to our respiratory diaphragm. So we're gonna bring your hands down on our lower ribs like this, and we're gonna start a kind of a hectic breathing pattern, just for 30 times. So it's gonna go (breathes). Long exhalation. And then a breath hold for 30 seconds. Breathing in through the nose (breathes). Filling up those lower ribs, breathing horizontally (breathes). Horizontally meaning out to the side (breathes). Even filling up air in the back (breathes). Hold that, while you're in this position, really fully expanded breath, take a few more sips of air. (breathes) Now from this position, you're gonna get as long as you can in your spine, imagine there's a string pulling your head up towards the ceiling. I'm gonna subtly tuck your chin back. You're going to actually squeeze your P muscles, pelvic floor muscles, imagine you're squeezin' all those muscles in case you really had to go. And you hold this position, and just create elongation from the pelvic floor all the way up through the spine, up through the throat, up to the head. Hold that for about 15 seconds. Keep holding, squeeze tight. Elongation through the neck. Take a normal breath, let it out (breathes). (breathes) Shake it out. So that is what I do before pretty much every podcast episode that I record. So in the Align podcast, oftentimes I like to record inside of a sauna, or maybe outside is a great experience as well, get natural sunlight. And before we do any podcast conversation, I will almost always go through a really basic, simple breathing practice like that. So if you guys did that with me at home, what you probably feel is you feel this sensation of just groundedness, you could say you feel more comfortable, and your body more spacious, more cognitively clear. You might notice your tone might change, make it a little deeper. The way you speak might kinda slow down a little bit. But you also feel stimulated. So you feel very clear, very open, yet very calm at the same time. The reason that there's that combination of feeling very stimulated, yet also very calm, is 'cause we stacked some layers of breathing. So the first breathing pattern, we're (breathes). That's how you would breathe. if you were in some almost panicked type scenario, or just overworked type scenario, your fifth gear, we refer to it in the book. And then following that with the breath holds, and then also the contractions, elongations to the spine. It creates a really beautiful almost sandwich of stimulated, up regulated, while also feeling calm and centered. So, those two breathing practices represent the calm, down-regulated side of breathing, throughout the day, most of the day we wanna be in that calm, down-regulated side. Emphasizing nose breathing pretty much all the way throughout the entire day, unless you're in that max fifth gear type mode. When you are exercising, it'd be a good idea to start to play with going to your limit that you can nose breathe. And starting to really just focus in on that nose breathing process. So push your cardiovascular limits, keep the breath going through the nose, and it's gonna be very supportive for your overall health. And the next thing is actively leveraging this fast-paced mouth breathing pattern. You could also breathe through the nose in that fast-paced style, like we did, big breaths, really fast, kinda strong, to start to stimulate your body like you're drinking a cup of coffee. Next thing that's very relevant to help support this journey towards breathing through the nose, is some handy dandy mouth tape. So this is just basic Rite Aid bandaid, whatever brand tape, there's different brands out there that you can get. This, I think, is maybe five bucks or so at any Walgreens, wherever you go. And you just take a little bit like this. It's very small amounts, it's not a big deal, when people think of the idea of mouth taping you think you're gonna have this huge thing and it sounds almost barbaric, horrific. It's just a very small amount, pop, like that. And it can just go directly over your lips, like so. (mumbles) And so this is a beautiful practice to implement into your sleeping, sleep time, dream time. And so while you are sleeping, the tendency for many people, especially if you're a snorer. So if you're in a relationship, this could literally save your relationship, is going to be to let the mouth start to hang open. And now, all the way throughout that night, you're starting to down regulate the production of nitric oxide and the things that we mentioned previously. It messes with jaw function and facial structure. So if you wanna have a strong, stacked, aligned facial posture and jaw posture, and also have more nitric oxide-rich blood, better blood pressure, just overall better health and wellbeing, nose breathing throughout the night is gonna be absolutely mandatory. So this is a beautiful tool to start to implement. And then following that same concept into your daily life, just bringing that breath through your nose is gonna make a major difference. So if this was supportive, the big thing to realize, is your breathing is a massive part of the way that you think, the way that you feel, and the whole overall structure and function of your physiology. You can calm your nervous system down, very quickly, just by going through slow nasal breathing. Emphasize that exhalation is going to help with downregulation, calming, parasympathetic (breathes). You can an even add an audible exhalation, it's gonna be a very powerful tool. And you can, I mean, you do three to six breaths like that, and just try it yourself, and you will feel a dramatic difference, it's kind of almost weird. And then the next side is, okay, I can also stimulate myself by doing these more fast-paced, bigger breaths, and you can even tap into mouth breathing, to go kind of like high-end, fifth gear realm. So that is all for breathing, I hope that is supportive, and I'll see you guys in the next lesson.