Kind of ironic as I've often been told by people - intending to compliment - that I'm effective, efficient and, one of my favorites - a very competent person!
Oh, how you make a girl blush!
But somewhere between using different breathing techniques for yoga, Pilates, meditation, exercise, and singing, I started doing this odd thing with my breath, especially during my morning tibetan five series.
I breathe in, then hold the breath in before exhaling.
Marcus has pointed out to me that I also do this when focusing on something, and for some reason when I'm doing my nightly bedtime routine.
This is a breathing technique in and of itself when intending to do so, but is not the ideal way to breathe during the tibetan five exercises or in everyday life. (Click on any of these links to KSW blog on Tibetan Five (TF) aka The Fountain of Youth for a reminder on these exercises.)
The ideal breathing for the TF, life and meditation is like waves in the ocean - flowing in and out with the movements without holding or pausing... so much so that you cannot discern exactly where the exhale stops and the inhale begins and vice versa.
Hmm. That is not exactly the way I've been doing it for the last 15 years!
Funny thing is, I've just passed the mid-point of my kindness fast, and honestly, I don't think I would've thought to ask for feedback to adjust my breathing were I not intentionally choosing kindness on a regular basis. Marcus helped me, of course, but when I'm in my not-so-kind-funks of the past, I might not have been open enough to even ask.
We're lucky as humans that we actually get to choose how we breathe. I've casually studied some on the evolution of humans and how we became less animal, more mentally and technologically advanced, and one of the recent theories I've come across is related to our ability to run. (See another KSW blog on the book Born To Run.) If memory serves, our ability to run long distances allowed us to track and run down animals, increase our protein and fat intake, which encouraged our brain to develop into the large, multi-processing centers that they are (relative to our body size and other mammals). But here's the intriguing part. Our ability to run long distances is unique because most animals have a diaphragm that is attached to their hind legs and therefore in sync with their gate. This connection between the diaphragm and hind legs makes animal running capacity finite - and it explains why certain animals can outrun us for short distances (cheetahs are a classic example), but we surpass them in long-distance running.
So our evolution - the things that make us unique, and unfortunately - sometimes horrifyingly human (in the case of murder, war, serial killing, treating the earth like it's our bitch to do what we please with) is our BREATH.
I wonder if it was an intentional, evolutionary design or a design flaw somewhere along the way when a cro-magnon mated with a neanderthal and poof!, we got a diaphragm that detached from our hind legs.
I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but I'm thinking my new ocean-wave inspired breathing technique is making me more human every day.
So...
How are you breathing?
Do you hold your breath when focusing, moving, or whatever because of tension or distraction?
Is your breathing like waves in the ocean - flowing in and out without stopping or pausing?
Be like the ocean, my friend.
(Anyone who comments below with the name of the famous person from whom I ripped that final line/quote off and added my own twist, gets a signed copy of our book What Women Never Tell You, release date TBD 2013!)
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