Joe and I lived in South Africa for several years. It was stunningly beautiful, the politics and history are complex and the landscapes are as dramatic as I’ve ever seen. It was also dangerous. The need to mitigate one’s fear was a daily part of life. Conversations often began with news of someone’s misfortune and ended with the reminder to be safe. We acclimated, adapted our routines. Our neighbors banded together and hired a security guard. Despite the danger, we loved our friends there and the work we were doing. We stayed an extra year. And then another. It wasn’t until we returned to the states that I noticed that I could fully exhale. I knew that our vigilance was heightened, but because it was gradual and daily, I hadn’t noticed the toll it was taking. It was as though a perpetual low-grade fever had finally broken.
These past four years have called for great vigilance. In the past year, masks have served as a physical reminder of how alert we must be. Our amygdalas, the part of our brain that processes emotions and fear, have been in overdrive, activating our fight or flight response. It is almost impossible for pleasure to flourish under these conditions. But today, in this moment of transition, of hope and potential, we have an opportunity to release all that we have been holding. We can extend the pleasure of this moment by slowing down and exhaling fully, emptying our lungs completely. We can even linger there, at the bottom, and rest in that space of emptiness and stillness.
To inhale is to exert. Our diaphragm muscles pull our lungs open like an umbrella, expanding our rib cage, tugging on the muscle of our heart, and increasing the volume of our chest cavity. Some 17,000 times a day, air rushes in filling our lungs with nitrogen and carbon dioxide and sending oxygen into our bloodstream. This inhale is also known as inspiration. It makes sense, then, that at the top of our inhale we are most alert, and also the most scared. The exhale, or expiration, is the letting go. The return to center. It is on the exhale that we can sigh, moan, scream, sing or whistle. It is the forgotten miracle that is available to us every other moment. We come into this world on an inhalation and we go out on an exhalation.
Want to find more pleasure in your exhalation? Try this: Attend to your breath as you read the next few sentences. Notice that spot at the very tip of your nose, the last place your breath touches on its way out of your body. As you inhale, imagine oxygen filling your lungs and nourishing every cell. On your next exhalation, notice the texture of your breath, acknowledge our unspoken agreement with the trees and plants, the ongoing exchange of their oxygen for our carbon dioxide. On your next inhalation, slow your breath down even more. Enjoy the rise and fall of your chest, the taste and texture of the air as it falls out of your body. Close your eyes and repeat this for 30 seconds.
I have experienced this week as a collective exhale, a metaphorical syncing of breath around the world. This is not to say that an inhale isn’t coming. It always does. Soon, we will be in action—doing, exerting, pushing, expanding—creating the world in which we want to live. But for this moment, an honor to the exhale.
From the Institute for Pleasure Studies
Our breathing affects our emotional state, it regulates our insulin, our heart rate, and our anxiety levels. Here are some breathing techniques to research for yourself.
To slow down: 4-7-8 breathing. Expand your diaphragm and slowly inhale through your nose for a count of 4. Hold your breath for another count of 7. Open your mouth slightly and exhale for a count of 8. Repeat this cycle four times.
To calm down: Sama Vrtti or equal breathing. Breath in for 3 allowing the belly to naturally expand and then out for 3 allowing the natural softening of the relaxing diaphragm. Repeat four times. You can change the count to what is most comfortable for you.
To wake up: This one entails breathing in much more than you exhale. It increases oxygen in your bloodstream and gives a feeling of alertness. Definitely do this one sitting down. Inhale through your nose fully and with gusto, exhale through your mouth briefly, take a big inhale again, immediately. Repeat this 30 times. On the last inhale, hold your breath as long as you can. Enjoy the exhale.
With friends: If you are in proximity to a partner, try synchronizing your breath during a hug or as you fall asleep.
Alchemy of Breath is full of classes and resources for breathing practices in community.
In motion: In addition to exhaling, animals shake after a traumatic event, resetting their nervous system. It’s also being used in therapy now. Give yourself a good shake as you exhale audibly.
With feathered friends: Birds have to breathe at higher altitudes. And grasshoppers don’t have blood, they have hemolymph. This is how they breathe.
Want to see what it looks like under the hood? This short video of our respiratory system is beautiful.
