Smoke is in the Air
Alberta is in the midst of incredible wild fires. Nearby areas began evacuations April 29, 2023. Three weeks later, the City of Edmonton and other areas are now enveloped in smoke. How to breathe?
“Breathe light to breathe right”1 is the mantra running through my head, which I first heard about through Patrick McKewon during covid.
The Basic Practice - breathe light to breathe right2
stress and breathing
Observe how you breathe under stress:
Is it mostly through the neck, shoulders and chest?
Through an open mouth?
Is the breathing pace fast like over 20 or more breaths per minute?
Are the exhales short?
Can your breathing be heard across the room?
Without our conscious awareness, these stressed breathing habits listed above can slowly become part of our regular breathing habits. These above listed breathing habits also keep our bodies in a constant state of low level stress.
It is important for one’s long term health, to observe with kindness and compassion one’s own breathing habits.
With non-critical judgement assess for yourself your breathing habits. Be kind with yourself. Know that through simple practices and conscious awareness, we can gently improve our breathing habits and our overall lives.
intention of today’s practice
The intention of today’s practice is to reverse ‘stress like’ breathing habits and replace them with nose breathing and diaphragmatic abdominal breaths that are:
- slow
- gentle
- easeful
- relaxed
- calm
- quietParadoxically this is done by creating ‘air hunger’ which resets your breathing centres (in brain and body) and improves your body’s tolerance for carbon dioxide. Contrary to common knowledge, carbon dioxide is not evil and is needed to release oxygen into the blood and body. More on this in the ‘Discover Amazing’ section near the end of the post.
Today’s practice is intended to be done for short time periods. Begin with creating ‘air hunger’ for 20 seconds and gradually build up to 3 to 5 minutes of being in a state of ‘air hunger’. Afterwards return to your current normal inhales and exhales through the nose.
respect your limits, modify where needed
At any time during the practice you are feeling:
- lightheaded
- unwell
- anxious
STOPReturn to your normal breathing habit.
Then determine if you wish to continue or not.
Perhaps try a previously shared practice called ‘pause after the exhale’.
Or practice tongue placement and nose breathing as outlined in today’s “Explore Movement” section
posture set-up
sit in front of a mirror (optional)
allow your shoulders to relax
feel yourself sitting tall, crown of the head rising upwards
place one hand on your chest and other slightly higher than navel
breathe light to breathe right
feel your abdomen gently moving outward as you inhale and gently moving inward as you exhale for about two or three breaths
then as you continue to breathe,
gently begin to exert pressure with your hands against your abdomen and chest
this should create resistance to your breathing
breathe against your hands
concentrate on making the size of each breath smaller
with each breath, take in less air than you would like to
make the in-breath smaller or shorter
keep it gentle and soft
breathe out with a relaxed exhalation
allow the natural elasticity of your lungs and diaphragm to play their role in each exhalation
imagine a ballon slowly and gently deflating of its own accord
now gently slow down and reduce your breathing movements until you feel a tolerable ‘air hunger’
⭐️ remember you are trying to create an air shortage that is tolerable but not stressful
know that at any time you can STOP the practice
If your stomach muscles start to contract or jerk or feel tense, or if your breathing rhythm becomes disrupted or out of control, then the air shortage is too intense. In this situation, abandon the exercise for 15 seconds or so and return to it when the air shortage has disappeared.3
when the in-breath becomes smaller and the out-breath is relaxed, visible breathing movements will be reduced
with kindness, notice what breathing movements you notice in the mirror
aim to maintain a tolerable ‘air hunger’ at first for about 20 seconds
as you practice more, aim for 3 to 5 minutes at a time
practicing 2 sets of 5 minutes of ‘breathing light’ daily is enough to help you reset your breathing centre and improve your body’s tolerance for carbon dioxide4
signs of practicing ‘breathing light’ correctly are when you notice the following physiological changes without being stressed:5
a feeling of increased warmth resulting from the dilation of blood vessels
a rosy red colour coming into the face
increase production of watery saliva in the mouth, which is an indication that your body is going into relaxation mode and activating the parasympathetic nervous system
Explore the Movement - tongue placement; tape lips
tongue placement
place tip of tongue behind and slightly up from front teeth (not on the teeth); this part of your mouth feels bumpy and you feel the mouth curve upwards
😊 make the sound of ‘N”6the rest of the tongue is ideally to be sucking up flat to the roof of the mouth; feel like cotton balls are in your cheeks helping to push the tongue upwards; feel like you are sucking on a candy; the upper and lower teeth are slightly separated; tongue to rest upwards and nestled inside the teeth; feel a sense of tallness in the mouth; notice how this positioning helps open up nasal air passages
😊 make the sound of ‘NG”7
tape lips
a great way to test how well you are breathing through your nose is to put tape over your mouth
a nice compromise is placing the tape up and down, see picture below
make sure the tape you use does not cause a rash (I use scotch tape)
if you are really adventurous, tape your mouth for when you sleep
our brains and bodies take in information 24 hours a day
what you do in your sleep affects your day and vice versa
Everyday Living
Yesterday it was covid teaching us how to breathe. Today in Alberta, it is the smoke in the air teaching us.
Yoga Practice
Use the ‘breathe light’ as an opening breath practice.
Use the tongue placement in your yoga practice. It helps support the head and lengthen the neck.
Explore a yoga practice with your mouth taped closed 😊
Discover Amazing
Our bodies and brains are designed to function using opposites. In the case of breathing chemicals, the pair of opposites are oxygen and carbon dioxide. Both chemicals provide ideal conditions in the body when they work in partnership and harmony with one another. Continual stressful breathing habits (also known as over-breathing and as are described at the start of today’s post), cause our bodies and brains to adapt to a less than ideal breathing patterns.
We inhale to receive in oxygen and exhale to release carbon dioxide. What is truly amazing is what happens inside the body and tissues. Hemoglobin, a protein in the blood, carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and cells. In order for the hemoglobin to open its gates to release oxygen, it needs to be in the presence of carbon dioxide (the waste gas produced in our tissues and cells). However when we are in a stressful over-breathing habit, we are blowing off too much carbon dioxide without giving it a chance to work with the hemoglobin. Thus we may have high oxygen levels in our blood but the oxygen cannot be released because there is not enough carbon dioxide in our tissues/cells to help open the gates within the hemoglobin.
There is like a thermostat in our brain that is constantly reading carbon dioxide levels in the body. With habitual stressful over-breathing, the thermostat subconsciously adjusts to a lower tolerance of carbon dioxide in the body. This sends us into a deeper loop of stressful over-breathing habit. The purpose of today’s ‘Breathe Light to Breathe Right’ practice is to break this loop and retrain the brain and body to tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide. In a sense, to restore the right relationship between oxygen and carbon dioxide gas exchange in the lungs and tissues and cells in the body.8
The amazing good news is that we can consciously restore and improve chemical balances in our brains and body through some simple practices (even just focusing on nose breathing). Furthermore, I have personally found I don’t even have to be perfect in the practice to obtain positive results.
Explore and experiment with a gentle curiosity some of today’s practices. Invite yourself to discover amazing within you.
Namaste
(the Light in me honors the Light in you)
keep moving, keep healthy, keep smiling
In this post all the pictures were taken by me with my handy iPhone. (Except the one mouth picture gleaned off the internet.9)
Discover amazing treasures in the Archive:
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Disclaimer: Be safe, know your limits and move wisely without causing harm to yourself. Information provided in this newsletter is for you to explore and discover how your body works. It is not to diagnose any medical condition. Please consult with a physician or physiotherapist if you have concerns.
Found this video from Patrick McKewon during covid.
Exercise instructions come from Patrick McKewon, The Oxygen Advantage, page 74 to 78.
Patrick McKewon, The Oxygen Advantage, page 76
Patrick McKewon, The Oxygen Advantage, page 76
Patrick McKewon, The Oxygen Advantage, page 76
David Wilson, The Wilson Method, The Embodied Voice for Singers and Speakers, page 13
David Wilson, The Wilson Method, The Embodied Voice for Singers and Speakers, page 13
This section is a rewording of information found in Patrick McKewon’s book The Oxygen Advantage, pages 21 to 31.
Image off internet from “Smilemyotherapy.com”. I modified image by adding text for step 1 and step 2 using cues from David Wilson, The Wilson Method, page 13