Most of us didn’t have to learn how to breathe. In with the new, oxygen; out with the old, carbon dioxide. Even our house plants and the trees in our yards and woods do it. It’s one of the most elementary reflexes of life, breathing.
Who knew that breathing could be controversial. How we do it, that is. I can’t say that there is a right way and wrong way to do it, but there is a better way and a worse way to breathe.
My doctor tells me that a massive percentage of people in our area suffer from sinus infections. In fact, eleven to twelve percent of adults in the United States are affected by chronic sinusitis and nine percent of adults have asthma. Snoring, sleep apnea, and emphysema are increasing in the modern age.
I’m learning some new information about how we habitually breathe, which hinders our health and well-being. Part of this information is from a book gifted to me by a dear friend, titled, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor (2020).
Mouth-breathing is a major culprit in our battle for health and wholeness. Surely you know all about mouth-breathing, the only way to do it when it’s cold and flu season. Or, maybe it’s 24/7, 365 allergy season for you – indoor and outdoor allergies to dust, pollen, cat dander, and any number of other natural or synthetic substances. It’s frustrating to eat, speak, and breathe out of the same orifice.
Use it or lose it is the rule as to nose-breathing, which is the ultimate way to breathe your way to better health, I’m told. I’m no health expert, but I am a keen observer as to what’s what with people.
Back in the early years of the new millennium, I learned from fitness guru, Leslie Sansone, that if you lose your breath during a workout, exhale, don’t inhale. It’s contrary to one’s instinct to blow out a puff of air when you’re feeling breathless; you want to frantically inhale some more oxygen. But, the fact is, once we blow out some carbon dioxide we can bounce back to our rhythmic workout breathing, if we practice. Now, it’s second nature, for me.
I watch a television show called 911: crisis center. One of the most oft used sages of wisdom offered by the 911 first responders is, “take some deep breaths.” And, “just breathe” follows directly behind that advice, for anyone enduring super-stress.
People hyperventilate sometimes when undergoing heaps of stress. We over breathe. We forget to exhale, something I was once told to remember to do, by a prayer partner.
Poor breathing probably stems somewhat from the fight or flight stress response inherent in modern life. We’re triggered to over breathe and breathe too fast by any number of stressors coming at us from our phones, computers, telemarketers, unhelpful customer service representatives, and anything electronic in our lives, not to mention people, usually with good intentions.
It’s not a dismissive comment toward someone who is stressed, to say “just breathe.” Instead it’s a mantra of a mental health movement trying to teach us to slow down our breathing. Breathing slowly and deeply helps with the general well-being of any and all human beings. You don’t have to be a basket case to benefit from slow, deliberate, deep breathing.
There is a 5.5 rule which suggests that we breathe in to a count of 5.5 and breathe out for the same 5.5 beats. This is a nice training tool to help us consciously slow down our breathing; a helpful change of pace from the breathe in, in, in, of hyperventilation or the equally frantic, second-in, second-out repetitive breathing associated with an imminent panic attack, or exertion without conscious breathing.
Another technique that I’m told is used often by military personnel is the 444 rule, box-breathing or square breathing. It’s a simple process to calm your mind and body, improve your focus, and reset your nervous system. Inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold for 4, equal counts. Repeat.
I wonder if Edwin Hatch, writer of the 1878 Hymn, Breathe on me, Breath of God (fill me with life anew), had the biblical book of Genesis in mind, recounting God’s having breathed life into the first man, Adam. According to this account, the first human was made from the dust of the ground and God breathed into his nostrils, the “breath of life,” making him a living soul.
It makes one ponder the fact that all of that dust and earth that we’re made of shouldn’t be making us sneeze out of our God-breathed nostrils. Our very substance is linked to the earth which is today filled with allergens that cause us to breathe out of our mouths instead of the noses which I would like to see fulfill their potential for breathing freely.
That’s such a life-affirming phrase, “breath of life.” It is my sincerest hope and heartfelt prayer that commencing in 2026, you will think of every yawn you breathe, every gasp you push from your lungs, every utterance from your mouth, and every unobstructed inhale and exhale from your nose, as a renewed “breath of life.” It would be a glorious 2026 if all of our respiratory illnesses were relaxed and we could shout along with Martin Luther King, “I’m free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I’m free at last.”