Heroes Not Zombies

In the A to Z of Becoming, the second verb is “breathe”.

You might think, ‘well that’s easy, I do that all the time!’ But I don’t mean automatic, unaware breathing. I mean the kind of breathing we choose to do.

Think of these two different kinds of breathing – primarily using the muscles of your chest, or primarily using your diaphragm. It’s this latter form of breathing which I’m going to focus on this week. Diaphragmatic breaths tend to slower, deeper and fuller than the more automatic chest muscle form. These deeper, fuller breaths change the balance of oxygen, and carbon dioxide in our lungs, and so affects the balance of chemicals in the blood. This has far ranging effects on your body, and your mind.

Here are two simple suggestions.

First, awareness of the breath. At any moment, in any place, turn your attention to your breathing. Without trying to change anything, see if you can just notice how you are breathing. How fast is your breathing? How regular? How deep?

Secondly, take three diaphragmatic breaths. Fill your lungs by breathing in as much as you can breathe in. Now breathe out, slowly, evenly, and as completely as you can. Once you have completed this out breath, breathe in again, again completely filling your lungs. Breathe out, slowly, evenly and completely a second time. And now do the same again a third time, once more filling your lungs to the top, and slowly, evenly breathing out to empty them.

Notice how you feel. How does your body feel? How does your mind feel?