I started reading James Nestor’s book, The Lost Art of Breathing, mainly as I had come across breathing a lot more recently and its impact on our daily lives. Nothing is more necessary for maintaining our health and well-being than breathing.
Every breath we take affects our anxiety levels, blood pressure, and heart rate. We breathe 25,000 times every day. This book makes the argument that people have forgotten how to breathe properly. Our physical health and factors like our jaw shape have been impacted by losing this skill. Nestor hunts down individuals who are investigating the undiscovered science that underlies traditional breathing techniques like Tummo, Sudarshan Kriya, and Pranayama. Additionally, he subjects his body to stress by agreeing to participate in cutting-edge studies examining the effects of breathing techniques.
Because they frequently mouth breathe, over half of all people are constantly worried and weary. According to James Nestor, mouth breathing causes your body to release different hormones than nose breathing does. James offers numerous studies that back up the advantages of breathing through your nose. With particular, nasal breathing can lower blood pressure, support steady heart rate maintenance, and even aid in memory consolidation. Mouth breathing, on the other hand, is the single strongest indicator of dental decay. Therefore, mouth breathing has a bigger effect on the likelihood of tooth decay than sugar and skipping a toothbrush. Nestor also relates our habitual jaw misalignment to mouth breathing. Only humans, out of the 5400 species of mammals, consistently have mismatched jaws.
James goes into detail in the book about how he tested this theory. He chose to work with Stanford University’s Sinus Center to finish an experimental piece of study. James offered to take part in the experiment voluntarily. He intended to solely breathe through his mouth for a month to observe the effects on his body. James’ vital signs were constantly being monitored by Nayak, a specialist at the sinus centre. James could only last for ten days, despite the experiment being meant to last a month. The first day, his blood pressure increased by 20 points.
James doesn’t snore, but he started doing so for four hours every night. James experienced sleep apnea as well. His blood oxygen levels were 90% as a result of the sleep apnea. They ought to have ranged from 95 to 100%. However, his friend also took part in the experiment and had nearly identical results, therefore these outcomes were not accidental.
James Nestor felt normal again after just a few hours of nasal breathing once more. His physical measurements returned to normal, and his mental clarity improved. James made the decision to tape his mouth shut while he slept after that. He would be forced to breathe via his nose while sleeping by this tiny piece of tape. This tiny bit of tape allowed him to continue cough or speak, but it promoted nasal breathing.
James’ snoring went from 4 hours per night to to 10 minutes per night after just a few days of nasal breathing as he slept. James woke up feeling rested, which is important.
The advantages of nasal breathing are related to the air’s purification, heating, moistening, and pressurisation. The oxygen absorption is increased by about 10-15% as a result of these modifications to the air. Furthermore, nasal breathing causes nitric oxide levels to rise by a factor of six. Nitric oxide, according to James, is linked to improved blood circulation. Having more energy all day is correlated with better blood circulation. James also advises that during nasal breathing, you occasionally make a tiny noise at the back of your throat. Nitric oxide production may be increased as a result of this procedure. As an alternative, you might hum while exhaling nasally. James notes that studies have shown that humming while inhaling raises nitric oxide levels by a factor of 15.
James asks his audience to visualise themselves on a boat. You can get by with a lot of short, shallow strokes, but you won’t be as effective as you could be. Instead, using lengthy, deep strokes will enable you to get there more quickly and with less effort. You want to make things as simple for your body as you can. As a result, breathing deeply and slowly will be more effective and less taxing on your lungs.
Our mainstays are shallow breathing and brief breaths. We continue to breathe in the same way that our predecessors did to survive. This does not imply that they are ideal though. Shallow breathing will reduce our diaphragms’ range of motion and lung capacity. For instance, the typical adult only uses 10% of their diaphragm. Both poor posture and respiratory issues are brought on by this breathing. Additionally, it can overwork your heart and leave you experiencing mild worry and stress all the time. Shallow breathing might be encouraged by anxiety. Shallow breathing might therefore feed anxiety sensations. Consequently, belly breathing can assist in retraining your breathing to be deeper.
Join me in the October Challenge – I will use the form of box breathing – 3:3:3:3 in : hold : out : hold repeated for 5 minutes then 4:4:4:4 repeated for 10 minutes daily, once.
You can log your progress here – how will you feel? There is a link to the box breathing on the xcel sheet