What Your Breathing Says About You - Episode 3

Relearning to Breathe Consciously

In the end, the question is perhaps no longer:

“ How do I correct my breathing? ”,

but rather

“ How can I help my organism discover that it can breathe differently? ”

It is an essential nuance, because one does not correct an adaptation; one gradually offers it the possibility of becoming less necessary.

Like an invitation to our body to discover another way of functioning.

Another way of regulating itself.

Another way of inhabiting the present.

From protocol to posture

Three principles before any technique:

Settle first.

Every breathing practice begins with something other than breathing: with the act of sitting down, of ceasing to move, of withdrawing one’s attention from the screen or the conversation under way.

Without this prerequisite, one breathes mechanically.

Breathe through the nose.

Unless otherwise indicated, nasal breathing is almost always preferable to mouth breathing. The air is filtered, warmed, humidified.

The nasal breath naturally engages the diaphragm, and it promotes a local production of nitric oxide that contributes to vasodilation.

Lengthen the exhalation.

When we breathe in, the sympathetic nervous system activates slightly. When we breathe out, it is the opposite: that is the moment when the parasympathetic tone takes over.

Lengthening the exhalation means giving a little more space to regulation, with each cycle.

These three principles are enough, on their own, to noticeably change the general state.

The techniques that follow are in fact only variations built around them.

 

Three techniques to explore according to one’s intention

• Cardiac coherence: daily regulation

It is one of the best-documented breathing techniques for the daily regulation of stress. Popularised in France by the doctor David O’Hare and by the work of David Servan-Schreiber, it rests on a simple observation: at around six breaths per minute, the heart rate enters a particular state of variability, called coherence, associated with better autonomic regulation.

The best-known protocol comes down to three figures: 3 / 6 / 5.

Three times a day.

Six breaths per minute.

For five minutes.

Concretely, this gives cycles of ten seconds: five seconds of inhalation, five seconds of exhalation.

Through the nose if possible. Without forcing. Without trying to breathe more deeply than usual.

Three moments are enough: in the morning on waking, before the midday meal, in the late afternoon (ideally before 6 p.m., so as not to disturb sleep).

The effect is not spectacular. It is quiet. Regular. Cumulative.

It is less an emergency tool than a maintenance practice.

• 4-7-8: acute soothing

This technique, popularised by the American doctor Andrew Weil, is designed to quickly slow down an over-activated nervous system.

It is particularly used to ease falling asleep, or to regain one’s footing after a moment of tension.

Breathe in through the nose for 4 seconds.

Hold the breath for 7 seconds.

Breathe out slowly through the mouth for 8 seconds.

Repeat four cycles. No more than that at the start of practice.

The effect rests on two mechanisms: the marked lengthening of the exhalation, which mobilises the parasympathetic, and the moderate retention of the breath, which slightly raises CO₂, producing a soothing effect, contrary to common intuition.

To be used acutely, not continuously.

• Alternate-nostril breathing: re-centring and clarity

Coming from the yogic traditions under the name Nadi Shodhana, this technique consists in alternating the passage of air between the two nostrils. Its traditional practice is ancient, and the subjective experience it produces is marked enough to deserve mention.

Close the right nostril with the thumb.

Breathe in through the left nostril for 4 seconds.

Close the left nostril with the ring finger (release the right).

Breathe out through the right nostril for 4 seconds.

Breathe in through the right nostril for 4 seconds.

Close the right nostril.

Breathe out through the left nostril for 4 seconds.

That is a complete cycle. Five to ten cycles are enough.

Practitioners generally report a feeling of centring and mental clarity.

Best practised before work requiring concentration.

Or in a moment of inner scattering.

A few precautions

These three techniques are generally safe when practised with measure.

In case of pregnancy, of a cardiac or respiratory condition, of epilepsy, or of particular medical treatment: discuss it with your doctor before establishing a regular practice.

For people prone to panic attacks: begin very gradually.

A too-rapid focus on breathing can, through interoceptive hypersensitivity, trigger an attack.

For people who have experienced traumatic events: breathing can, in certain cases, bring up intense bodily sensations.

If this happens, slow down, open the eyes, and re-establish contact with the immediate surroundings.

None of these situations forbids breathing.

They call for guidance.

From technique to doorway

The protocols above settle the acute and maintain the everyday.

They do not act, in themselves, on what produces the state in which the organism finds itself.

Regulating breathing means acting on the symptom — legitimately, effectively.

For some people, that is enough.

For others, the short, watchful or collapsed breath is not a problem in itself: it is the trace, still alive, of a history that has not found its resolution. An old emotional charge. An undigested event. A way of being in the world learned long ago, and never rewritten.

In such cases, one can breathe correctly for months, and continue to carry, beneath the breath, something that has not changed.

This is where breathing can take on another function.

No longer only to regulate.

But to become a doorway.

A doorway towards what lies beneath the symptom. Towards what the body has kept, memorised, preserved. Towards an inner world one does not cross by breathing more, but by breathing differently.

Whether in Hypnosis, in relaxation, or in mindfulness meditation, breathing is a tool that allows one to enter into depth, and to focus on oneself, like a work of attention to the body, of grounding, of widening of consciousness.

It is breathing that opens access to the resource places, those secure inner spaces where the true reunion with oneself can unfold.

It is, in a way, the first step of an inner journey in four stages: Soothing, Understanding, Reconciliation, Emergence.

The stage of soothing is precisely what the techniques of this episode allow to emerge.

To calm the inner tumult.

To release the tensions.

To find again a space of breathing and inner safety.

Breathing consciously

At the end of these three episodes, one thing seems truer than all the techniques: conscious breathing is not a method. It is a posture.

It is not something to do.

It is a way of being present to what is happening within.

One can know every technique in the world and continue to breathe mechanically.

One can, conversely, know none of them and breathe in full consciousness of what the breath crosses, opens, brings to the surface.

Technique is a starting point.

Posture is what remains.

And perhaps the right question to ask is no longer

“How should I breathe?”

But simply:

“Am I present to my breathing?”