A systems view of biological health

Section 4: Application and Practical exercises

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Your breath can be a useful way to help find sensory and physiological stability and a general awareness of safety. The breath is very complex, and some people spend (literally) a lifetime studying it and learning how to use it and to make it more effective! So here we will look very simply at this vast topic.

If you are already quite well emotionally resourced and relatively calm, and feel generally safe, then it is possible to use the breath to deepen that:

1. Simply start to be a little more aware of your breath - its rhythm, the sensations of its inflow and outflow in your air passages, the motion of your ribs and collar bones and belly (or not!) - spending a few minutes allowing whatever it is doing to do its thing without any interference. This ability to observe the body without deliberately directing/changing it is an important basic skill that takes time to develop and that has a whole host of important applications. When the body is observed without being changed the observation becomes part of a feedback loop and the body then changes itself(!) - achieving far more powerful and lasting effects than would be possible by direct wilful intervention.
2. Next gently bring the breath into a cycle with a rhythm based on 5-seconds : 10, 15, 20 (etc) seconds to take the whole breath. 10 is usually easiest. Stay with this for about 10 breaths, and then let it go.
3. Finally, become interested in the effect of that on your general "texture of presence" ... how your body feels as a general presence and which parts of it your attentiopn tends to settle into?, how your general mental-emotional-sensory system feels?, the quality of your thought-space (is it busy, quiet, etc?) This is another feedback loop. If some part of you feels more present or peaceful or energised or available, you can welcome it home.

starting from a less well regulated breath

On the other hand, if there is some anxiety, the breath tends to be short and fast, and the lungs tend to only inhale and exhale at the top or bottom. Then an increasing reservoir of carbon dioxide builds up in the periphery of the lungs - which then creates an excess of oxygen in the body, along with a state of physiologically-induced anxiety!

This is yet another feedback loop in the body. Most people who are breathless are stuck in an in-breath, and actually need to breathe OUT first - so that they can breathe new air in. Therefore (unless you are already so calm you dan't actually need this resource!) the first thing to do when deliberately using the breath to become calmer is to EXHALE all the stale air from all the peripheral corners of your lungs.

This is achieved by :

1. first, focus on achieving a very deep extended exhalation lasting somewhat longer than you think you can exhale, well past the point that you normally think is possible (!)
2. When your body decides it has to breath in (!) then allow your body breathe itself on the inhalation. Join in with that "natural" in-breath so that it goes slightly past the natural turning-point.
3. Repeat this several times, remembering that the out-breath is the most important part of all this..
4. After about 10 breaths you can begin to "help" the inhalation to be slightly more full for about another 3 breaths.
5. finally settle into an easy unforced natural breath - however your body wishes to breath.
6. Similar to the first exercise, taking conscious note of any positive effects (how do your eyes and attantive clarity feel? how do your energy levels feel? what is your state of general activation/regulation? etc etc) is also useful and can increase the benefit.

This procedure will help to clear stagnant carbon dioxide, and replenish the lungs with oxygen. This simple extreme exhalation followed by unforced recovery can produce a sense of energised calmness. The effect can be increased if you follow this clearing-out with a couple of minutes of 10 second breath cycles. i.e. 10 seconds = 4 seconds out, 1 second pause, 4 seconds in, 1 second pause.

Do NOT attempt to use the breath if you are feeling very anxious, or if your breathing is permanently restricted to the top of the lungs. If you are not sure about either of these, better not to bother counting the breath at all. But it is still always useful to exhale long and deeply to clear out any stagnant air.