What is stealing your breath?

I saw the question in Valerie Reiss' post on Belief.net. "What makes you hold your breath?" What a great question! We talk a lot about developing an awareness of your breath as a means to improved health, performance, and emotional wellbeing, but directing your focus to mentally note the things that steal your breath can be quite illuminating.

For one, notice the sheer number of times during the day and the strange things that cause us to temporarily stop breathing. My laptop is at the top of both lists. There are very few things that you can do on a computer that benefit from holding your breath. Have you ever experienced "email apnea?" I'm surprised at how often I find myself not breathing while doing almost any task that requires focus or concentration, especially when it is computer related. You know what? It doesn't help! And unfortunately, those are usually the moments when you can really benefit from being fully oxygenated and firing on all cylinders.

Secondly, once you start seeing the patterns, i.e. holding your breath before speaking at a meeting, or when dealing with bad traffic or holiday crowds, you can preemptively take a few deep breaths to break the cycle and take control.

Lastly, it allows you to ask yourself what it is about these situations that leads you to hold your breath or feel stressed. Once you shine the light of awareness on these fears and anxieties they oftentimes start shrinking or disappear altogether.

Now that we are in the thick of the holiday season, make it a point to notice the things that are stealing your breath so that they don't interfere or mask the things that take your breath away.

Happy Holidays!

New Perfect Breathing Workbook and Guided Relaxation CD NOW AVAILABLE!

Just in time for the holidays!

If you've been enjoying Perfect Breathing: Transform Your Life One Breath at a Time ($19.95), you'll want to pick up our new companion workbook, Perfect Breathing: A 28-Day Transformation to Better Living ($17.95), and our new Perfect Breathing Guided Relaxation CD ($12.95). Just head to the Products section of www.perfectbreath.com. We're now shopping-cart equipped!

Take advantage of our gift-pack specials: Get our hardbound Perfect Breathing book, the workbook and CD for only $39.95! If you already have the book, get the workbook and CD for only $24.95. Order now! Click here for all the details!

Digital downloads of our Perfect Breathing Guided RelaxationCD will also available shortly at CDBaby.com. click to www.cdbaby.com/cd/perfectbreathing

health science

From 'Economic Times': Watch the Breath. It'll Make You Smarter

Couldn't help but read a recent post in the Economic Times. It contained the usual stuff about breathing, that most of us breathe on average 15 times a minute, that slowing that rate down is better for you, that yogi masters like B K S Iyengar and Sage Patanjali have studied breathing for most of their lives, the latter mentioning that "it’s not for nothing that in the Hathayoga-Pradipika, Swami Swatvarama likens the taming of the breath to the mastering of wild lions, tigers or elephants, to be carried out gradually (shanai-shanai)."

But what really caught our attention was this comment by writer Vithal C Nadkarni: "Modern research has uncovered spectacular benefits of mindfulness breathing. One recent study found evidence, for instance, of daily meditation thickening the very parts of the brain’s cerebral cortex that were responsible for attention, memory and decision-making.

"Research has also indicated that meditation retards the natural thinning of the cortex that occurs with advancing age. Ironically, the same effects cannot be achieved by goofing off or by taking a nap. Doctors have found that meditation restores nerve cells much like sleep but without associated grogginess.

"That may explain why a growing number of MNCs [multi-national corporations, we assume] including Google and Hughes Aircraft are offering meditation classes for their workers. Their EQ soars.

"So watch that breath. It’ll make you smarter."

We've been saying that for years.

Read the full article here.

health science

Breathing Technique Could Control Asthma

We're always on the lookout for information regarding breathing technique and asthma. An RN named Kathleen Blanchard, writing for EMaxHealth.com, reports that: "Two researchers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas have developed a program that teaches a breathing technique to help control asthma. The study has received a $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, and should be completed next year. The technique is designed to change the way a person breathes during an asthma attack.

"The four week program seeks to help asthma sufferers reduce the severity and frequency of asthma attacks by teaching specific breathing techniques, and is designed by Thomas Ritz and Alicia Meuret, both in SMU's Psychology Department. The goals are to breathe more slowly, control stress, and prevent low levels of carbon dioxide that can lead to more difficulty breathing and increase the severity of future asthma attacks.

"Teaching breathing techniques to control asthma also reduces irritation to the airways that can occur with hyperventilation. Faster breathing can harm individuals with asthma by restricting blood flow to the brain."

Promising news. Read the full article here.

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6 Lessons from a Month of Better Breathing

Joe Kita, a respected health fitness author, wrapped up his month-long exploration of mindful breathing, and his verdict is in. Joe has been blogging his findings on his Core Performance One Small Change site using core info from our book, "Perfect Breathing."

We're happy to report that he found great benefit in breath awareness. Over the course of the month of July, he used mindful breathing techniques for Sleep, Game-Day, Pressure, Performance and Healing. Though his results ranged from spectacular to mixed (in other words, for him the jury's still out), he arrived at one thought that we felt was particularly salient:

"A yoga teacher once told me that control of the breath leads to control of the body," he wrote,
"which eventually leads to control of the mind. This experiment helped me understand more fully what she meant. When I was regulating my breath, I could feel my heart rate slow and muscle tension depart, which, in turn, helped me relax and focus."

For that alone, developing breath awareness and learning some simple mindful breathing techniques is worth the minimal effort it requires. And no gym membership, new sneakers or special diet is required!

We are thrilled and grateful for Joe's interest in our work. We hope you'll do your own 30-day breathing experiment. We think you'll find the results dramatic, and will give you a valuable tool you can use in everyday life -- even if you've never set foot in a yoga studio or studied meditation. Mindful breathing is for everybody.

Read Joe's full breathing series here. And don't forget to visit www.perfectbreath.com

health science

Joe Kita Uses the Breath for Healthier Travel

Health and fitness author Joe Kita has been blogging on his Core Performance One Small Change site about the use of mindful breathing and how it can be used in everyday life. Joe is using core info from our book, "Perfect Breathing," in his month-long exploration.

His post today talked about travel and how to stay healthy. Love his lead paragraph: "I’m sitting deep in coach between a fidgety three-year-old with a runny nose and, across the aisle, a middle-age woman with a frightening cold sore who for some reason keeps smiling at me. I’m trying to focus on my newspaper and not worry, but the lead story is about an outbreak of swine flu on a cruise ship.

"I’m doomed, I presume. Just about every time I fly I catch a cold or flu, and this time will probably be no different. Unless…."

Joe immediately begins using a technique we call "Healing Breath." (See the full exercise here).

His evaluation: "Although it sounds a bit out there and I worry that all the extra inhaling might actually bring in more germs, I give it a try. Besides helping take my mind off the kid and that woman’s lip, it settles and centers me like all the other breathing exercises I’ve tried so far."

And did it work? "Although it may be coincidence, 10 days later as I write this I have none of the anticipated sniffles or scratchiness from the trip. In fact, I’m intrigued enough to have written the drill on the back of a business card that I tucked into my travel briefcase. I intend to experiment some more the next time I’m at 30,000 feet."

Read his full post at here. And don't forget to visit www.perfectbreath.com

health science

Joe Kita Gives Performance Breathing a Try - And Likes It

Noted health and fitness writer Joe Kita continues his month-long exploration of the efficacy of mindful breathing on his blog site at Core Performance. His One Small Change column finds him investigating little changes he can make in his life.

For the month of July, Joe's been practicing conscious breathing, using core information from our book, "Perfect Breathing." This week he tried Performance Breathing, to try and improve his athletic performance.

Writes Joe, "In our single-minded pursuit of fitness, it seems we’ve forgotten that muscles need oxygen to perform optimally, and we get that nourishment through breath. Because he suffered with asthma, marathon great Alberto Salazar had to be particularly conscious of his respiration. He learned that by breathing more efficiently, he could “grow” his cardiovascular system so it could process and utilize more oxygen."

He continues, "Based on research and discussions with athletes like Salazar, Lee and his partner, Don Campbell, devised a drill called Performance Breathing. It’s best for any endurance sport that involves a repetitive motion (running, cycling, swimming…). It’s designed to help you find that sweet spot where the energy coming in balances the energy being expended, and you feel that tireless high so many athletes strive for. Here’s how to do it:

• Inhale through the nose for 2 seconds
• Hold for 2 seconds
• Exhale through the nose for 4 seconds

"The important part is to synchronize this breath with your activity. For instance, if you’re walking or running, inhale for 2 steps, hold for 2 steps, then exhale for 4 steps. Similarly, if you’re cycling, inhale for 2 pedal strokes, hold for 2 pedal strokes, then exhale for 4 pedal strokes."

His conclusion? "I tried Performance Breathing during a 20-mile bike ride over rolling terrain, and it was challenging to maintain. In cycling, your cadence changes so frequently that it’s difficult to find a consistent breathing pattern that doesn’t eventually leave you gasping. But I’m confident that with practice it will come, because I’ve had a similar experience in ashtanga yoga, where the breath must be controlled through a series of flowing poses. Although it seemed impossible at first, I can do it easily now."

Read the full post, and his others on mindful breathing here

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