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fluctuations in anticipated danger In the short run this would have helped our prehistoric |
ancestors prepare for the increased oxygen requirements they would need for fight or flight |
maneuvers Sadly most of us live in this mode even though we are no longer protecting our |
bodies from predators or clubbearing maniacs The modern world has tricked our bodies into |
thinking that our environment is too stressful to breathe peacefully when the opposite is true |
Distressed Breathing and Social Rank |
If you would like to experience pronounced thoracicclavicular breathing watch an internet |
video of a violent street fight and pay careful attention to your breath The shallow rapidity will |
become apparent You could achieve a similar effect just by watching an internet video of an |
argument between two people This is because in primates social confrontation dysregulates |
breathing nearly as much as physical violence When you feel disrespected cheated |
or compelled to explain yourself you enter a state of respiratory distress When this happens |
people usually act at two extremes either becoming conflictavoidant submissive or quick |
to anger |
Respiratory distress is marked by breathing so shallow that it interferes with your speech |
causing your voice to falter You may feel like you are choking and suffocating at the same time |
It is usually apparent to those around you and most people are embarrassed when it happens |
to them The truth is that awkward social encounters cause most of us to experience a state of |
respiratory distress throughout the day |
My experience is that most people have little interest in using breathing exercises to |
deepen their breath until explain to them that deep breathing is a dominant trait Then they |
become eager Our respiratory behavior affects our social standing and how we are treated and |
perceived People hear changes in the cadence and pitch of your voice that are caused by |
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body |
distressed breathing and use them to make judgments about your level of confidence |
Breathing is one of the most common markers of social rank |
Diaphragmatic breathing retraining will make you practically immune to respiratory |
distress With enough retraining people will be able to tell that you have little susceptibility to |
it When your breathing shows no signs of distress people will not want to challenge or |
provoke you because they realize they will reach respiratory distress before you do As you |
develop your capacity for diaphragmatic breathing you will come to understand that the |
people around you are constantly fighting wars of attrition to see who will show signs of |
respiratory distress first |
We also breathe shallowly in a distressed manner to communicate friendliness Because we |
dont want to come across as overbearing or audacious or because we want to make others |
comfortable we shorten our breaths and disengage the diaphragm In other words we breathe |
in a distressed manner when we are afraid when we are mad and when we are being nice No |
wonder it seems inescapable |
Stifling and Neglecting the Diaphragm |
Social and environmental stress are not the only causes of distressed breathing It can also be |
the result of surgery or injury After colon surgery a gastric bypass a Caesarean procedure |
or an appendectomy for instance the patient will have an incision wound on their abdomen |
It is common for recovering patients to inhibit normal abdominal expansion during breathing |
to avoid the pain of having their injury disturbed They learn to actively stifle diaphragmatic |
movement out of fear of pain or stitches bursting at the incision site This learned pain |
avoidance can be longlasting causing the patient to neglect the diaphragm and adopt thoracic |
breathing as a fixed habit Chronic shallow breathing can result along with breathlessness and |
anxiety It is uncommon for such patients to revert to diaphragmatic use even after the pain |
from the surgery is gone unless breathing retraining therapy is undertaken You may have |
never had abdominal surgery but to some extent past trauma and submissive signaling have |
stifled your diaphragm in a similar way |
Fortunately we have good models available for how to reinstate diaphragmatic use The |
best of these is recovery from a ventilator In situations where medical patients are having |
trouble breathing a machine called an artificial ventilator can be used to move air in and out of |
their lungs When a doctor takes a patient off a ventilator they need to assess the persons |
breathing mechanics to ensure the breathing musculature is strong and coordinated enough to |
support unaided breathing Withdrawal from mechanical ventilation is known as weaning |
Think of your thoracic breathing musculature as akin to a ventilator from which you need |
to wean yourself Years of stress have caused the thoracic muscles to take control and your |
diaphragm has weakened through atrophy caused by disuse The good news is that the |
diaphragm can grow stronger quickly When you first start breathing diaphragmatically |
it will be difficult It will feel as if you have been taken off a ventilator the muscles you are |
forcing to breathe for you are not yet up to the job You will need to wean off thoracic |
breathing by training the diaphragm encourage you to use the exercises in the rest of this |
chapter to remove the ventilator of thoracic breathing and plunge headfirst into strengthening |
your diaphragm |
Chapter Breathe Deeply Smoothly Slowly and on Long Intervals |
The Four Rules of Diaphragmatic Breathing |
In the thick of my anxiety could tell that my breathing was highly dysfunctional used myself |
as a model for what not to do and slowly made inferences about how to do the opposite of my |
acquired tendencies read copiously about ventilatory mechanics and experimented with |
numerous breathing styles Slowly after ten years of research introspection and trial and |
error developed eight rules of diaphragmatic breathing This chapter will address the first |
four which are |
Breathe Deep high volume Breathe nearly all the way in by the end of each inhalation and |
all the way out by the end of each exhalation |
Breathe Long low frequency Engage in longinterval breathing breathing in for four to ten |
seconds and breathing out for six to twelve seconds at a time |
Breathe Smooth continuous flow Breathe at a steady slow nearly constant rate during |
all breathing |
Breathe Assertively confident Do not permit social concerns or life stressors to conflict |
with the first three rules |
Shallow Breath Short Breath Rough Breath |
Distressed |
Breathing SN |
Deep Breath Long Breath Smooth Breath |
Diaphragmatic |
Breathing |
Figure A graphical representation of the first three rules of diaphragmatic breathing The vertical axis |
designates the depth of inhalation or volume of air in the lungs the horizontal axis designates time |
A helpful way to improve your ability to monitor your breathing is to draw your breathing |
pattern on paper Use the examples in Figure to work through the exercise below |
Breathing Activity Draw Your Breathing Pattern on Paper |
Sit down with pen and paper Become curious about your breath as if it is a phenomenon you |
have never encountered As you observe each breath graph it with a free hand Make the |
vertical axis correspond to the depth of the breath and the horizontal axis to how long each |
breath lasts In other words volume on the yaxis and time on the xaxis Take different kinds |
of breaths at different depths and frequencies Depict each as a curve on paper in real time |
Just taking a few minutes to represent your breathing in this way will increase your breath |
awareness helping you better visualize and monitor your breathing |
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