Breath Blog

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Feel the burn or just learn to breathe...

In Russia, apparently every doctor learns how to teach their asthma patients how to breathe away their breathlessness with the Buteyko Method.

Here in England, and in the USA and Canada, the London Daily Mail reported on Tuesday, that doctors are recommending their patients undergo a bronchial thermoplasty, a technique that burns away extra-thick muscle tissue which constricts the airways with “harmless” radiofrequency waves.

Recent patients have reported receiving relief from their chronic asthma.

Doctors, though, are not so sure what the long-term effects of thermoplasty will be. Perhaps airways will be become dangerously weakened by the procedure.

My point is not whether the surgery is good or bad, but that we are designed to breathe and we can re-educate ourselves to inhale and exhale breathlessness away. Buteyko trials result in reduction of medication use by over 75 per cent..

Doctors need to start understanding more about how we breathe, and how to breathe correctly instead of looking for high tech solutions or, worse still, prescribing drugs that lock their patients into life-long dependency. What is so difficult about trying a series of breathing exercises that take about just over half an hour in the morning and in the evening. Perhaps, it is a love of overcomplicating things - looking for solutions outside ourselves....

Apparently asthma was not a killer disease until the new drug regimes were initiated. Now 2,000 people a year in the UK die an agonising death from the disease.

I’m a long-time sufferer, now hopefully in total remission thanks to Professor Buteyko’s method. I know the fear and anxiety that not being able to breathe triggers…and the on-going insecurity that it entails, being reliant on blue and brown inhalers, and oral steroids in difficult times.

Of course, I have a measure of sympathy for any fellow sufferer who submits to thermoplasty, which requires three outpatient treatments.

But I really can’t help feeling really, really sorry for the 150 human guinea pigs participating in a clinical trial to test the efficacy of thermoplasty, because they will undergo only a phoney procedure not the real thing.

I can only hope the placebo effect comes to their rescue.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Well, it finally happened...and the vegetarian option


Yes, I have made a connection with another blogger... And I was thrilled to bits...

Christine, who posted a comment, was driving into a difficult situation and sought breath as a helpful companion. This for me is news I can use... My obsession with breath is mostly caused by my totally forgetfulness around my strongest connexion with the universe... Rather than surf on the wave of bliss that propels my being, I obsess and compulse over just about eveything, always trying to intercept the breath before it gets to me, always second-guessing what the universe has to offer, always conditioning what is on my menu for the day....

Not that I have huge angst to contend with. I'm not facing starvation, even hunger, or natural disaster. (Although we do live by the river Thames and three years ago were nearly engulfed by it.)

I've now been on the planet over 55 years, so decided it was time to box clever...and change the way I do things. Choice was, I felt, the most powerful thing I had at my disposal...

And then I reviewed my life to see where choice had been used creatively... I was a mite disappointed as I have been a bit of a drifter - helped my employers get rich, and just got by myself. More responsive to the needs of others, than conscious of my own. I even masked my needs in my spiritual practices - meditating became a way to maintain equilibrium in my wobbly world, rather than an end in itself - to drink in the here and now...

All was not lost, as I'd made a pivotal decision back in 1969, when I was living in the Carmel Valley in California, I became a vegetarian. And I've been one ever since.

I then reflected on how many times I had made positive choices around my food. In restaurants I always HAD to choose the vegetarian option, even when there wasn't one. And back then, there often wasn't - the monotony of cheese salads and omelettes eaten out of desperation was nearly enough to turn my back into a carnivore, but the thought of chewing dead cow never really caught my fancy again...

At times, the new diet made me feel awkward and out of kilter with the rest of the world, but I persevered and it is still something that I stand by and feel good about...especially when I look at a catalogue of bad choices I've made, especially when I was in OCD mode...

So to cut to the chase, I'm extending the vegetarian option to be the metaphor of my life... Whatever comes along that needs a decision, whether trivial or portentous, I'm looking for the "vegetarian option." Which is actually no big deal, other than making the best, conscious choice I can at any particular moment in time...which, in turn, bring me back to the indefatigable inflator and deflator of my lungs...

Interesting stuff on Buteyko - a bit of an unsung hero


"Buteyko’s theory is that at least 90% of the world’s population hyperventilates to some degree; this causes a deficit in the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the system, which in turn leads to less oxygen (O2) being released by the haemoglobin to the cells and tissue of the body, the Bohr Effect.. The central organs of the body begin to become starved of oxygen and soon begin to suffer; this in turn can lead to many chronic medical conditions."


Check out the rest of this posting out from Yoga Space

Sunday, May 28, 2006

I'm not holding my breath...


No, I'm not... I've been blogging for two months now...and on a planet with over six billion people - and many million internet users, eight people have viewed my profile...presumably they must have been breathing too...but chose not to post on the blog...

It might seem that I'm getting insecure about this, that my self-esteem is going through the floor - or whatever...

And you might well be right, partly so at least...

But the main purpose of the blog now seems to make contact with fellow breathers in a breathy sort of way...but with no heavy breathing... Just recollections and connections about the magically mysterious process of inhaling and exhaling.

To share any insights, revelations: subjective or objective, mystical or rational, cosmic or scientific, provable or ineffable, sublime or mundane...

On the breath front - for a change I can hear you saying as you read this post (fat chance), it's been good: a partially sunny day with a high pollen count - potentially triggering for both hay fever and asthma... But with a small measure of consciousness about my breath, I had another drug free day...nose breathing in a shallow way into my abdomen - feeling the gentle rise and fall of my diaphragm...

Pure, pure magic, while tending our magical rose and iris garden... We branched out too - buying a gorgeous small-leave, pink-flowered Himalayan shrub for the small desert where once a willow tree stood...



Lots of digging and earth moving, and lots of breathing...lots of gratitude too...for the moving beauty of the Great Spirit in action in our small plot, and then extending out into the farthest galaxy...

Friday, May 26, 2006

Trying to breathe life into my blog

My breath seems to be infinitely patient with me...a quality that I really don't share with it...

I am trying to breathe some life into this blog, but am feeling out a limb - can't make a connexion with anyone, can't get any comments...

So over the next three days (it's a long weekend here in the UK), I'm going to try to do something about it, by making a real attempt to get in touch with some like-minded breathers...who are blogging too...

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Holding my own...with my breath...

I've been testing my Buteyko control pauses, after my wife asked me why I'd stopped the regime.

I told her - I guess somewhat nervously, hence the testing - that Buteyko's number one student, Stalmatski, said that the actual aim of the method was to establish better breathing - in the form of shallow diaphragm breathing into the abdomen, as a way of life. And that's where I've been trying to take my breathing over the last four years.

So, how did I fare? Well, on two consecutive days - using seven control pauses as a benchmark - I started at 35 secs and finished at 45 seconds... And that's a good result for me!

It's now just a case of conscious breathing...at all times - a lovely aspiration, but still only that.

Not to do myself down, though, it's getting better all the time...as I am medication free!!!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

School, exams, stress and breath

I exchanged early morning salutations with the receptionist at the health club. Instead of the usual "Fine, thanks", she said: "I'm really stressed... I'm doing my A levels (critical UK exams that determine whether and where you'll go to university)."

I said: "Just try breathing gently into you stomach..." She did and a pall of stress lifted from her face...

Hopes she gets the grades she needs...

Talking of schools, also today I was reading the newsletter of the Association of Boarding School Survivors, Boarding Concern. As such a survivor - and also victim of abuse at the hands of two paedophile school teachers - I was concerned - and later relieved - after reading in their lead story: "Though linked with privilege, boarding schools were founded on a philosophy that excludes all that is vulnerable and voluptuous in life. In order to adapt, children have to make many self-betrayals and self-inventions, striving to banish whatever it is emotional or sexual, childish or feminine. A adults, they find it nigh impossible to unlearn the strategies once put in place."

I can own up to all that... But where my relief sets in is that I am slowing recovering from the cold, shut-off survival personality that I grew - out of self -protection. A major plank in my "unlearning strategy" has been breath work - in the beginning Buteyko and more recently, reading and practising around the subject....

Friday, May 19, 2006

One breath at a time

I believe the way we breathe is one of the benchmark's of measuring the quality of human being...

But Buddha saw things in a wonderfully different way.

I quote from a lovely book: One Breath at a time by Kevin Griffin:

One night, my teacher was talking about a sutta (a record of the oral teachings of Buddha) where the Buddha's cousin and attendant, Ananda, comes to him and says: "Venerable sir, this is half the holy life, that is Noble Friends and Noble Conversations." When my teacher read this, I thought that the Buddha was going to correct, saying that these things weren't that important. Instead, the Buddha responds: "Not so, Ananda! Noble friends and noble conversation are the WHOLE of the holy life."

-------

I think what Buddha is getting at is that my friends and words are a measure of my inner being and thus a magical, living mirror of where I'm at... And although it's a hard one to accept; I think he was spot on...as about so, so many other things...

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Intense situations need relaxed breathing

Just checking in during an intense meeting - and cooling down my breathing, so that I see, think and act more clearly...

Vipassana with Burmese master U Pandita


A while back, I mentioned a vipassana technique featured in Shambala Sun May edition, and I am just returning to it as a friend of mine asked me to recommend a meditation, which is not something I feel to do on a whim.

But I so like the gentle feeling of focussing on the breath raising and lowering the abdomen, that I went to Shambala Sun and am copying the basics of U Pandita's meditation from their May edition:

Basic Instructions for Insight Meditation...

Posture

Any basic sitting posture is all right, whether the legs are crossed or folded. One can be sitting in a chair, but if so, the back should not be supported. The body should be as upright as possible and the eyes should be closed (unless you are drowsy).


Primary Object


The main object of awareness is the natural breath, as it is. Do not try to control the breath, in any way, simply allow it to come and go while closely observing what happens in the area of the abdomen. The rising of the abdomen along with the in-breath, and the falling of the abdomen along with the out-breath, will consist of a variety of sensations and experiences. All of these should be noticed as continuously as possible. Let there be no gaps in your attention.

The observations of any object has three parts:

1. Occurrence: attention should arrive quickly, as close to the arising of the object as possible.
2. Labeling and observation: label the rising movement as "rising" and the falling as "falling." Observation should be careful and diligent, the label gentle and simple. It is not necessary to form elaborate concepts of what is going on. Labeling merely identifies the event and serves to direct the mind towards it.
3. Knowing the nature: in the rising and falling of the abdomen, one knows the sensations as they are. In the rising, for exampel, there are likely to be sensations of tension, tightnesss, stiffness and hardness. There can also be vibration and movement.

It is not possible to observe the rising and falling continuously for a very long time. Other objects will arise; when they do, it is often recommended to move the attention away from the breath...

The rest of the article is well worth reading if you can get a copy...

Monday, May 15, 2006

Mantras create brilliant counterpoint to controlled breathing



Here's a pic of the great Indian saint Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet. My question is always: What's he seeing that I'm not?


I used to be little snooty about mantras, but for the past year or so I've used a Tibetan Buddhist mantra - Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum - since attending a weekend with Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the inspiring and profound The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

The mantra is addressed directly to Padmasambhava, who introduced the Buddha's teachings to Tibet 1200 or so years ago.

According to Sogyal Rinpoche: The essential meaning of the mantra is: "I invoke you, the Vajra Guru Padmasambhava, by your blessiing may you grant us ordinary and supreme siddhis."

Again, in the words of Rinpoche: "Siddhi means real accomplishment, attainment, blessing and realisation. There are two kinds of siddhis: ordinary and supreme. Through receiving the blessing of ordinary siddhis, all obstacles in our lives, such as ill-health, are removed, all our good aspirations are fulfilled, benefits like wealth and prosperity and long life accrue to us, and all of life's various circumstances become auspicious and conducive to spiritual practice, and the realisation of enlightenment.

The blessing of the supreme siddhi brings about enlightenment itself, the state of complete realisation of Padmasambhava, that benefits both ourselves and all other sentient beings. So by remembering and praying to the body, speech, mind, qualities and activity of Padmasambhava, we will come to attain both ordinary and supreme siddhis...."

See what I mean - a good counterpoint to breathing to stabilise a weak chest and poor breathing, when there is a very real temptation to resort back to drugs that create an inevitable dependency - something that is denied by the UK medical profession, it seems.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Shallow abdomen breathing best for asthma

Now that my long-running British spring cold is nearly over, I don't why but I'm suffering from shortness of breath in the evenings again...

Last night I went to visit friends in Oxford - a forty minute drive - and en route I did Buteyko control pauses and eased my breathin that way.

But on my way home, I started to get heavy chested again. And then I remememberd that Stalmatski - I'm a slow learner on this score, I have to admit - said the goal of Buteyko breathing is the same as many meditative breathing teachings - slow, conscious breathing into the abdomen. Feeling the very pulse of life on the inhalation, the rising of the abdomen, and the exhalation, the falling.

I sat for half an hour before bed and was breathing calmly and easily...

So happy breathing to you all....today....

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

More breathing myths

The standard instruction often given a freaked out person is "Take a deep breath." But, so I've learned with my breathing work - specifically Buteyko, that can be the route to hyper-ventilation and an asthma attack.So it's actual counterproductive, although well intentioned.

Donna Farhi in her excellent "The Breathing Book" deals with a couple of others - holding your tummy in to look good and holding it in to prevent sore backs. She writes:

Two myths about your belly

1. Relaxing your belly will make it bigger.

There is a strong belief system in Western countries that constantly holding in the belly keeps the abdominal muscles strong. This belief rides in tandem with the notion that a pulled in abdomen looks better. A contemporary women's magazine featuring a truncated figure in "panty slimmers" lingerie, boasts that wearing a girdle will "target your tummy to control you where you need it most" and asks us to "think of it as a beautiful alternative to holding your breath." But we don't need panty slimmers. Most of us are already wearning a self-imposed psychic girdle most of the time that is far more damaging and powerful than any girdle - we walk around with our stomachs held in and don't even realise it.

The simple fact is that holding the abdominal muscles in a constant state of contraction causes them to WEAKEN. In order for any muscle to function effectively it has to completely relax between contractions. This holds true for the abdominal muscles. In free breathing they alternatively swell and retract, allowing fresh nutrients to circulate through the muscles, and toxic waste products to be flushed out. This not only keeps the abdominal muscles strong, it helps the body to assimilate and eliminate - both functions that aid weight loss. Relaxing your abdomen doesn't meant letting it hang out in a completely flaccid state; it means letting your belly move so that you experience both the relaxation and tonus phase of the breath cycle.

2. Holding the belly in will prevent back pain

If you've suffered from back pain at any time you may have been told to keep your abdomen pressed back toward the spine ALL THE TIME in an effort to stablilise your spine. It is true that strong abdominal muscles aid the spinal muscles in supporting the back and should be used especially when lifting to stabilise the spine. However, keep the abdomen contracted all the time INCREASES the tension and stiffness in the lower back muscles and if you suffer from back pain it can increase your pain levels. The diaphragm attaches along the front of the lumbar vertebrae, so any constriction in this important breathing muscle will immediately be reflected in the function of the spine. Ironically, the only way the intervertebral discs (the spongy cushions between each vertebrae) can remain thick and healthy is by imbibing fluid through movement since there is not direct blood supply to the discs after the second decade. We need movement to keep our back healthy and what better movement than the ongoing massage of our breaths? The oscillation of the breath also provides an effective means of giving traction to the spine, creating space between the bones and thereby reducing nerve impingement, bone degeneration, and arthritic conditions. Allowing your abdomen to move when you breathe is the most effective way to keep your back healthy.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Breath Blog

Breath Blog

Loss of focus on my breath actually means loss of focus on my emotions, my mental state and my spiritual equanimity... And I have been feeling adrift because of not returning to my breath - as the bridge between my limitedness and the limitless...

Monday, May 01, 2006

Breathing for Beltane

An exciting but mostly forgotten day today. The ancient cross quarter festival of Beltane, heralding the true arrival of summer, with the sun bringing the fertility of the earth to life.

A time to cherish the wonder of our ancestral lines, of their handed-down wisdom, a time to breathe in the intense, magical Beltance energy as I watch our garden start to bloom, a time to rekindle friendships, to share a breath or two with guests and passers by - and to wonder with gratitude at the bounty and beauty of our universe...reflected in the generosity of breath and the pristine presence of an iris pushing into bud, and rose arbors with slick shiny leaves preparing a panoply of blooms to intoxicate my senses.

I am taking a moment to concentrate on breathing in what the universe wants to give me, away from all my filters, preferences, likes and dislikes - the collective rag bag of my personality which I call my own personal flight simulator.

I'm trying to switch it off, and harmonise with the deeper resonance that visits me each breath, the mystery of my inner breath.

More blogs about breath blog.