The Wikiness

Do you need a lesson to perform what happens naturally?

I’ve read two books that got me to see my basic functions differently, and as a consequence, behave differently. The first was Zen Macrobiotics by George Ohsawa. I read it as a 24-year-old and it forever disenthralled me from the standard American diet.

I read the second one as a 63-year-old, Just Breathe: Mastering Breathwork by Dan Brulé, and it has made me aware of my breath and got me practicing conscious breath exercises through my day. 

Brulé developed his understanding of the untapped power of breath as a deep sea diver working for the US Navy. He learned to move and fight with his breath as a boxer does, and in his diver’s suit, he discovered that when he altered his breathing, he changed his mind, a vital measure of control when you’re in a pressurized suit at the bottom of the ocean and things go wrong, as they do. 

Brulé’s book has opened my land-lubber’s mind to this autonomic function controlled by the medulla oblongata, a function I never paid much attention to. It starts with breath awareness. Catch yourself, he tells readers,  in various situations, and notice how you’re breathing. Don’t judge your breath, just note it. I noticed that when I feel threatened or uneasy, my breath grows shallow and rapid. When I’m relaxed and in a “flow,” my breath gets deep and less frequent.

After a dedicated month of regular “breath watching,”  I now monitor my breath and employ some of the dozens of techniques  Just Breathe describes, Once aware of my mental state and emotions, I can now choose to deliberately use breath to enhance the enjoyable and minimize the unpleasant aspects of whatever I’m experiencing. These simple exercises, I’ve found, reliably enhance my mood and energy. Others give me a feeling of added mental acuity, and still others seem to superpower my performance in racquet sports.

Brulé admits that there is nothing new in his 200-page book. He reminds us that ancient human practices–yoga, martial arts, mindfulness meditation–all emphasize the centrality of the breath and that the word for spirit in many languages–the essential part of humanity– is breath. 

Brulé’s book is a valuable compendium of breathing lessons and accessible tools for the modern reader.

Here are a few I especially enjoy:  

To center myself in a stressful situation, “box breath,” or taking an in-breath to the count of 4 or 5, suspending the breath for the same count, then exhaling for the same count, and then holding again the same count before inhaling again. One or two minutes of box breath entirely settles my mind. 

To embody a feeling or quality, I combine thought with breath. I take a phrase of affirmation and repeat it with each breath. Breath the words into your being. For example, “I am always already free,” or simply “In a fundamental way, I am safe.” Or, one he got from Ram Dass–with each inhale, “Ihe power of God is within me,” and with each outbreath, “the grace of God surrounds me.”
To improve my ability to do physical work, I consciously link my breath to my movements. This is done as part of yoga, but I’ve found it works great in jogging and racquet sports.