Breathing and Brushing Your Teeth

I’m pretty obsessive about my breathing practice and I tend to over-analyze every session. “Why did it feel harder today? Was I breathing light enough? I need to increase my CO2 more…” It goes on and on.

Recently, however, I heard something awesome in a “+1” from Brian Johnson. He quoted a great passage from Herbert Benson in The Relaxation Revolution:

“Most of us are concerned to one extent or another with dental hygiene, but we don’t dwell on the tooth-cleaning process. We just work away with that brush every day. Almost no one evaluates the brushing, to say, “That was a good brush!” or, “Too bad—that was a bad brush.” We simply do it!”

I love that. When is the last time you analyzed your tooth brushing skills? Probably never. Yet, we count on it for dental hygiene. We trust that it’s working, whether we brush “good” or not.

In some ways, that’s what we have to do with our breathing practice. (Or any integrative health practice, such as meditation, yoga, or physical exercise.)

We can’t spend too much time worrying if we did it exactly right. Instead, we just have to do it. Every day. And know that it’s working.

Of course, we want to start with the right principles and not jump foolishly into something. But, once we’ve committed, sometimes we just have to trust the process without over-analyzing it.

Here’s to treating our breath/meditation/yoga practice more like brushing our teeth.

In good breath,
Nick

P.S. Here’s another gem from Herbert Benson on the same topic (my bold for emphasis):

“Similarly, if you’re taking a pill your doctor has prescribed for your cholesterol or blood pressure, you probably don’t wonder, “Am I putting this pill in the proper side of my mouth? Am I swallowing it correctly? Is it really going to work?” Again, you just do it—and that should be your approach to mind body treatments.”

Breathing Actually Reduces Oxygen (by 97%)

You’ve probably heard some variation of this by now: You can go weeks without eating, days without water, but only minutes with breathing.

But, have you stopped to think about what that really means?

I think we’d all agree that what we drink affects more than just hydration. (For example, weight loss and exercise performance.)

The same goes for eating. You would likely agree that what you eat is important to many aspects of health. For example, sleep and energy levels can be directly impacted by food.

However, when it comes to breathing, this is often overlooked. Most people think breathing is just about getting oxygen. But what if breathing actually limits oxygen?

Breathing: Is it Really About Oxygen?

Almost all “breathing techniques” are centered on oxygen. This makes sense. Oxygen is, after all, our #1 source of energy.

But what happens if we shift our perspective and look at breathing and circulation differently?

In the atmosphere, oxygen exerts a pressure of ~160 mmHg. In our cells, it exerts a pressure of ~5 mm Hg. From the time we inhale to the time the air reaches our cells, the oxygen pressure is reduced by 97%.

Therefore, our intricate oxygen transport system can be viewed as a way to limit the amount of oxygen getting to our cells. [1] Meaning, you can’t breathe more and “super-oxygenate” your body.

(Actually, breathing less is the only way to increase oxygen to your cells. But that only corrects under-oxygenation, it does not “super-oxygenate”.)

Breathing Goes Beyond Oxygen

I don’t think we’ll ever understand all of the functions of breathing. But, just like eating and drinking, breathing has impacts far beyond the obvious. Here are a few other reasons we breathe:

• Circulate nitric oxide

• Improve sleep

• Improve cardiovascular health

• Improve autonomic balance

• Improve digestion

• Increase energy levels (well, this is related to O2)

• Synchronize brainwave oscillations

• Improve cognitive function

• Improve emotional control

• Reduce stress and anxiety (or create it, depending on how you breathe)

That’s A Long List

And it should probably be longer.

But here’s the point: Breathing is Fundamental. It’s more important than what you eat, what you drink, or even how you sleep.

But you can’t just ignore these things either. In fact, I believe breathing should support you in your quest to optimize them. Health and well-being are not about any one thing. But, you have to start somewhere. So why not with your body’s most important function?

In good breath,
Nick

[1] This idea came from the great book “Oxygen” by Nick Lane. If you’re a super nerd, I highly recommend it.