Health Archives - Prismism

December 29, 2023January 2, 2024

Hedonic Treadmill and the Chemical Orchestra

A few days back I read a nice response by a Redditor called “ExRousseauScholar” to the question “Is the hedonic treadmill actually real?”

If you are not familar with the word “hedonic”, you may recognize it is related to hedonism – in short “hedonic” refers to the pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment.

The “Hedonic Treadmill” is the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. In other words we all have a set-point that means happy people tend to be happy and grumpy people tend to be, well, disgruntled. For example, someone I know excitedly told his therapist, “I just sold my startup for a lot of money! I’m going to be set for life!” The therapist replied, “That’s great news! I look forward to seeing you next week at our regular session time.” (**boom-tish**)

Anyway the response in the Reddit thread made the following recommendations to not losing your happiness. This reminded me of an earlier post here on “Living a good life” but the author makes it a little more “science-ey”.

Don’t be high in trait neuroticism (this is the most important thing, out of the entire list);
Do be high in all the other Big Five personality traits (that is, be agreeable, extraverted, conscientious, and open to experience);
Find a good romantic relationship;
Have good friends (quality over quantity; 3 and 4 might be better summarised as “have good relationships with people,” but 3 is pretty important in and of itself);
Be healthy;
Don’t be starving and poor in the absolute sense;
Have a job that you actually like and matters (what a surprise, where you spend eight hours a day, five days a week makes a difference!);
Have a leisure activity that you enjoy, especially one that connects you to other people (see 3 and 4).

That was a pretty great list and other people asked ExRousseauScholar to provide suggestions how to change #1 and #2.

But I feel there is a lot of significance to #8 being connected to other people (#3 and #4) – particularly if your leisure activities have “meaning” as we discussed in the “Living Deliberately” –> “Connect with a greater purpose” section of our “Good Life” post . Things are always better with a shared purpose and a few good mates.

ExRousseauScholar’s advice tended towards supplements and drugs. This is fine, but a very modern antidote that is by definition a product of a capitalist culture – and ironically subject to the same mechanisms as the Reddit topic of “Hedonic Treadmill” (chasing the dragon).

I’m always amazed that opinions miss the point that psychology and psychiatric disciplines have been around for about 150 years but Homo Sapiens has existed for 300,000 years ago and somehow coped without Freud or even Joseph Goldstein.

So our (us Home Sapiens) experience of the Hedonic Treadmill pre-dates the labelling provided by the psychologists by 299,850 years, but that doesn’t make it any less “real”.

Is it just psychology or can it include other things like our body chemistry?

Anyone that drinks coffee knows that chemistry can affect happiness and A LOT of that chemistry can also make you edgy.

BUT – What if the key to lasting happiness wasn’t in external pursuits or chemicals, but in understanding the internal orchestra of chemicals conducting our moods?

So in a similar ironic way I get all atomistic and look a the chemicals that tweak our experience of happiness. For a few years I have had a piece of paper above my desk that summarises the role of these chemicals. I tried to find the source of where I got it but found there are hundreds exactly like it – take a look at this search!

Based on our modern understanding of the chemicals that operate inside our body – here is a bit of science and some suggestions.

Meet the chemical quartet: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.

These neurotransmitters** act like musical notes, playing a symphony within our brains.

Dopamine drives our desire and ambition, oxytocin fuels love and connection, serotonin governs mood and well-being, and endorphins offer natural pain relief and euphoria. The dance between these chemicals determines whether we’re sprinting on the hedonic treadmill or basking in a state of genuine contentment.

So, how do we optimize this internal orchestra? Here are some practices to harmonize your chemical symphony:

Dopamine Dance:

Small Wins, Big Joys: Celebrate the little victories! Completing a task, learning a new skill, or even savoring a delicious meal triggers dopamine, building momentum for bigger goals.
Novelty Nibbles: Introduce controlled novelty into your routine. Take a new route to work, try a different recipe, or explore a hidden corner of your city. Dopamine craves the unexpected, but remember, too much novelty can be overwhelming.

Oxytocin Embrace:

Connect and Belong: Oxytocin thrives on social interaction. Spend time with loved ones, volunteer in your community, or join a club. Strong bonds and meaningful connections are your oxytocin fuel.
Acts of Kindness: Random acts of kindness, from a simple smile to a helping hand, trigger oxytocin in both the giver and receiver. Spread the love and watch your happiness bloom.

Serotonin Serenade:

Sunlight Soaks: Bask in the morning sun to boost serotonin production. Even a short walk outside can make a difference.
Move Your Body: Exercise is a potent serotonin trigger. Find an activity you enjoy, whether it’s dancing, swimming, or brisk walking. Your body and mind will thank you.

Endorphin Euphoria:

Challenge Yourself: Step outside your comfort zone and embrace healthy challenges. Learning a new skill, mastering a difficult task, or even overcoming a small fear releases endorphins, leaving you feeling empowered and joyful.
Laughter is the Best Medicine: Find humor in everyday life, watch a funny movie, or share a good laugh with friends. Laughter is a powerful endorphin booster, and it’s contagious!

Being mindful (by simple aware observation, not reading about it in blog posts or books) of how external substances or interactions can affect your internal state (and chemicals).

Hedonic hacking might be useful or pleasurable in our day-to-day living but actual experiencing the truth that some habits keep me on a treadmill might be replaced by a “Living Deliberately” change of behaviour. Some of the suggested activities above might be tools to substitute for a treadmill habit. Knowing and feeling and nurturing the orchestra (or at least a quartet!) that are at work internally (and also in my friends, colleagues and people I find challenging) may be create a symphony of lasting contentment rather than hedonic hits.

May all sentient beings be freed from suffering.

** Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that enable communication between nerve cells (neurons). Specifically, neurotransmitters are chemicals that are released from the axon terminal of one neuron and bind to and activate receptors on another neuron.

November 12, 2023November 13, 2023

taiji chatbot

Generative AI’s boom is unstoppable and OpenAI’s announcements this week, led me to try out a “GPT” – which is a custom program suited to a specific purpose.

It was surprisingly easy to create the chatbot below. I fed a few blog posts from this site, a few good articles from elswhere about yoga and taichi and also included the wiki (just to see what else got mashed into the responses).

The answers are very, very good but lack concision. I think that can be trained with more data. You can try to use it below but it requires a (free) signup at OpenAI for now.

Go directly to the Chatbot here

(I’m having trouble getting it to work below, but will keep tinkering).

April 25, 2023May 1, 2023

“Sōng, Sǎn, Tōng, Kòng”

modern_taichi_class_facing_us_with_a_still_grounded

About a year ago, my taichi teacher held up a sheet of paper with 4 characters on it and pronounced the words in the title of this post.

She has not revisited the page again but the first word “Song” (or “Sung”) is at the core of every class. There is enough in this one concept to keep beginners (who are interested enough) to explore, play, work with. There is always more Sung just a moment away.

This is my current understanding – jotting it down, so I can cycle back to them over time. Also to discuss with my teacher and other friends to refine my understanding.

(When I say understanding, I don’t mean just abstract intellectual, but more embodied and felt but also with an accompanying worded clarity).

I’ve read a few of the taichi classics and these four words (as a group) don’t come up, but the meanings resonate to this student anyway.

Song, San, Tong, Kong – my messy class notes

“Sōng, Sǎn, Tōng, Kòng” represents four key principles in Tai Chi practice:

1. Sōng (鬆): Also spelled “Sung”, refers to the concept of relaxation or more exactly – loosening. In Tai Chi, Sung is the practice of releasing unnecessary tension – initially this might be your body and muscles but during the process there is a loosening from the day’s tensions – so a loosening of the mind takes place.

Discovering Sung starts by feeling areas of increased tension in ones body:

hitching up your shoulders
forgetting to breath
tightening in slow movements as some “performance” antics
imbalances from not having alignment
discovering you are too fast or too slow, or just plain wrong in your movement

By non-judgementally sensing the tightening gives the opportunity to feel the relaxation and just how good that feels.

Sung is not floppy – this is not some extreme “melt on the floor into a pool of jelly” thing, the Taichi student still holds their form and follows the sequence – with each moment the changes in weight means there is enough muscle action happening.

Bio-mechanically a loosening is happening at the joints and muscles hanging off the bones rather than binding to them – more energy is available to your body to maintain its core processes and help with wellness.

More esoterically, the wasteful energy being dropped us united to complete the movement – this is where I suspect the 3rd of the 3 treasures (Shen) is generated. Where attention and practice is not scattered.

I’d suggest that movement can and should come from the loosening. That is counterintuitive but possibly a hint as to what “Qi” might be. When you loosen there is a strength that emerges from the space created when tension is dropped.

By cultivating Sung, the Taichi student can improve their balance, sensitivity, and experience a complete difference to the rest of their day.

I’ve written about Sung before here and here.

There is also a clue to loosening emotions and judgement as well. That’s another blog post!

I have less to say about San, Tong, Kong. I am a beginner and only getting early understanding.

2. Sǎn (散): San is to “spread”. The tightness that Sung remedies is muscular energy locked up in a concentration of location. Sung starts the process of unlocking. So I feel that San is allowing that loosening to dissipate even further.

A very simple experience is Taichi’s preparation position: where the feet standing together simply has the left foot step out to shoulder width. As my right foot takes weight the left foot lifts and any dissipates any energy holding its shape. It’s an instant lesson to discover your foot is arched up, it should be dripping off your leg until the moment when the toes touch at the end of the movement.

Of course you can experience this in all movements and reminds me a the rich experiences of walking meditation in the Mahasi Vipassana tradition.

Beginner students also experience Sǎn in the Yin phase of any movement – the “loosening off” (or yielding) before moving into the next posture. Once you’ve circled into the final phase of a posture you are already circling out with a Yin or yielding way (or at least that is my experience to-date).

Another beginner experience that hints at the martial art practices is the “Lu” or “Liu” in Peng, Lu, Ji, An (Grasping the bird’s tail). Liu has its origins in the martial aspect.

Liu is where you are taking the energy of an opponent and guiding it into a void – the practitioner feels “empty enough” (see Kong) to not meet an opponent’s force head-on but spreading or dissipating their own energy to neutralize or redirect the “attack”. This is why old Taichi guys can beat younger, more energetic opponents – when you are using “Li” (muscular based force, there will always be someone who can overcome you).

I saw this a few weeks ago in a competition where competitor A was easily over 180kg, his opponent B, still solid at 90kg standing at shoulder height of A.

“A” had easily bullied other competitors out of the ring, not expending much energy. When “A” met “B” – it was an ugly bout but I noticed that “B” was rotating around to stay inside the circle and pulsing at “A” – he was oscillating “Liu” and Ji/An very effectively.

“A” was so unfit that he was exhausted and eventually conceded defeat before very nearly needing medical attention. “B” provided a very impressive performance of yielding and Sǎn is at the core.

3. Tōng (通): Tōng is experienced as “connection” or “flow.” My teacher encourages us to experience the “energy waves” the sequences are following the natural currents in the body. With enough Song, San you get moments of feeling less like you are doing the “robot dance” and more the continuity and connectedness of the movement.

For me, “Cloud Hands” was my first game-changing experience of Tong – everything happening at once with epic spaciousness was real connection.

Its easy to get very woo and mystical about “Qi” – here we can practically experience the energy each movement takes throughout the body. Initially gross (course) sensations you are starting to pick up on subtleties.

Another type of connection is continuity: The saying “Qi follows “Yi” has been mentioned in other posts. The Taichi student is not “zoning out”, not being intellectually lazy and copying by rote the teacher or other students. The “Yi” (intention) is actively present and knowing what the next phases of the sequence are. I don’t now if this is part of Tong, but its essential for “flow” in the sequence.

Another saying from the Tai Chi classics points to Tong.

“connected like a string of pearls”

Getting more Tong takes time – a natural cultivation where smoothness is not a “fake it until you make it” performance but snippets will come in time, “Yi” and practice.

4. Kòng (空): Kòng means “empty” or “void.” This reminds me a lot of Buddhist emptiness – where something happening is a creation (or fabrication) of the mind on top of sense perception. Victor Frankel said:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Note also that emptiness is required in the purest martial aspect, see the discussion of Liu above in the San section. A great example is the popular novel Musashi by “Eiji Yoshikawa”, readers would remember he was “empty” of all expectations of his opponent and was able to respond with a very pure precision. (Many Asian Kung Fu movies copy this spontaneous spirit).

In Tai Chi, in my limited experience is allowing the other 3 elements of Song, San, Tong to prepare me for openness in the body and mind. By remaining open and receptive, I can allow the distractions of the mind to take a rest.

I know the meaning and experience of Kong is a lot deeper, I’ll give it some time.

April 16, 2023April 29, 2023

Startups: Stress, exercise and adrenal exhaustion

Stress is an unfortunate by-product of startup life – both for founders and teams. Picture a small team trying to match a new product to an (often unstated) customer need. Coupled with lack of funding, lack of feedback data, competition, speed of technological change and normal life demands over long periods of time – there is a need to ensure life balances out the stress, choosing the right exercise is an interesting topic.

In an earlier post about mindful stretching, Ashtanga Yoga, Yin Yoga and Tai Chi, I offered a few clues about body chemistry, specifically stress hormones. I also previously I wrote about the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) benefits of smiling.

SNS–>PNS

As a recap: The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), is responsible for the body’s rest and relaxation response. This is in contrast to the SNS sympathetic nervous system, which is activated during high-stress situations. See also Vagus nerve or vagal response.

Prolonged chronic stress, such running startups can mean that you are SNS dominant and that’s not great, cortisol imbalances and prolonged stress may lead to adrenal exhaustion. I’ve met founders in this state and know it well myself.

Transitioning from SNS (sympathetic nervous system) to PNS is super valuable for startup people and picking the right exercise depends on your:

Age (because of the next point 👇)
Jing (a Daoist concept of life force – perhaps a combo of:
- genetic composition and
- epigenetic factors:
  - how well you eat and sleep vs how hard you’ve lived
  - SNS Dominant vs PNS Dominant (long term detectable via lab analysis of hair samples, momentary blood or saliva cortisol analysis is not reliable)
Existing stress state, immunity etc

Hard Arses

Because startup people are “alpha” types they often also workout HARD! (think Tom Gleeson). While regular exercise is FTW, high-intensity workouts create stress because the body will release more cortisol, a stress hormone that:

can push a person further into SNS
When cortisol is chronic in its presence and elevation, this may lead to adrenal fatigue

So intense exercise may be a very poor choice for an individual experiencing adrenal exhaustion or cortisol imbalances.

Choice for Age and Jing

Younger people generally have more Jing and therefore intense exercise is a reality, but hopefully can attitudinally adjust to also be self nurturing and “Jing preserving” (a large and controversial topic!).

The reality is that successful startup people stay in startups and don’t grovel back to corporate. So Aging becomes a factor sooner or later.

PNS Promoting Exercise

To break the cycle of stress hormones circulating, your exercise should induce recovery as a priority, here are some:

“Sung” exercise

Sung exercise was suggested in this post as “loosening” and PNS promoting. By bringing mindfullness, breathing I find that I can break the cycle of “go” energy with the added benefit of more connectedness into where the body is tight, actively feeling the letting go and the cognitive benefits of actually increasing awareness of your internal state.

Yin Yoga

According to the hard arse principle above, I’ve only recently been experimenting with this. I don’t enjoy Yin yoga, in class I’m ruminating: “is this actually doing anything?”, “am I wasting an hour”. Yet I do feel better (a lifted more optimistic state) afterwards.

Passive Exercise

Passive exercise, such as sensory deprivation or sauna sessions promote relaxation and reduce cortisol levels, which is particularly beneficial for those with adrenal issues.

When the body is exposed to a mild stressor, such as thermal stress (such as sitting in a sauna) or cold stress (such as cold showers or dips in cold water) this kind of passive exercise helps trigger hormetic stress – I don’t know if this is PNS or SNS promoting** but you can breath into the stress when it builds – this promotes cellular health and improves the body’s ability to adapt to stressors over time.

Evening gentle stretch

Typically in the last hour before sleep I do some simple stretches while the TV is on – mostly yogic floor and a few lengthening stretches from 8 Brocades. Gentle, exploratory movement can be particularly beneficial for individuals experiencing stress, adrenal exhaustion or other adrenal-related issues.

Other Life balancing activities

Walking, swimming especially in nature will yield rewards.

Alcohol Reduction

I read/heard recently that alcohol actually reduces your ability to reduce stress naturally. I can’t be bothered looking for that reference now, but any alcohol reduction sounds (I didn’t say elimination 😀) is a positive.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these practices are things I use to support adrenal health and promote recovery and re-balancing. By promoting the parasympathetic response, reducing cortisol levels, and triggering hormetic stress, these practices and exercises can help reduce stress, promote healing, and support long-term health and wellbeing.

** area for further research

References

I asked GPT for some science to backup my wild empirical assertions.

Huberman, A. (2021). Episode 34: Andrew Huberman on the Neurobiology of Stress, Relaxation, and Sleep. The Rich Roll Podcast. Retrieved from https://www.richroll.com/podcast/andrew-huberman-533/
Alkadhi, K. A., & Zelber-Sagi, S. (2021). Sauna bathing for health: An underexplored opportunity. Journal of clinical gastroenterology, 55(6), 455-462. doi: 10.1097/MCG.0000000000001532
Choi, J. H., Park, M. K., & Lee, H. J. (2019). Effects of sensory deprivation in a floatation tank on mood states, cortisol level, and muscle soreness in elite athletes. Journal of sports science & medicine, 18(3), 490-497.
Farias, D. L., Rechia Fighera, T. M., Kruel, L. F., & Cadore, E. L. (2021). Hormesis and physical exercise: A narrative review. Ageing research reviews, 66, 101259. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2021.101259
McEwen, B. S. (2015). Neurobiological and systemic effects of chronic stress. Chronic stress, 1, 1-11. doi: 10.1177/2470547015577616
Zhang, J. W., & Piff, P. K. (2019). An integrative review of the physiological and psychological effects of floating restricted environmental stimulation technique. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 404. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00404

March 30, 2023April 7, 2023

Stretching mindlessly and mindfully

Rushing has always been my nature, and choosing startups as a career only intensified my sense of time poverty, whether real or perceived. However, I’m not alone in this. We live near Manly, and every morning the park and beach are teeming with young people who have an abundance of energy to burn. They engage in quick, explosive exercises that can inevitably lead to muscle tightening if they don’t set time aside at the end of a session to stretch properly.

It’s important for them to understand that proper stretching is crucial to prevent muscle tightness – just like me, the alpha types will dismiss it and rush to get to their first meeting.

However, without that final stretching, their exercise routines likely become counterproductive, leading to pain and discomfort – especially when they get older!

I’ve always stretched but it’s been quick until I spent some time Cherie at Sydney Stretch Therapy a few years ago and her colleague at the time Dave Wardman of Physical Alchemy – they both studied under the cruel tutelage of Kit Laughlan (thats a joke, lovely guy but I just love that phrase from Kill Bill about Pai Mei).

That lineage of exercise was really about the awareness you bring to your exercises and how that awareness will magically increase the efficacy of the exercise – it sounded reasonable – but making space for that discipline is tough.

For decades, I dabbled in yoga as a dilettante. However, since 2016, I fell in love with the intense practice of Ashtanga, under the sometimes-cruel tutelage of Pattabhi Jois’ student’s (first 8 in the famous video) student. Ashtanga is a very active practice that is particularly fitting for alpha types.

As I type this now, I recall doing Ashtanga in 2008 in Mountain View, the home of Google. All the women in the classes exuded an alpha attitude, had alpha bodies, and wore yoga attire that made it feel like an Olympic event. The men in the class, myself included, languished in our sweaty tech t-shirts and basketball shorts with zero hope of competing with these goddesses for the most extreme expression of postures in the Primary Sequence.

Of course, we were all focused mindfully on our own practice and were not distracted by the surrounding aesthetics… Not!

Over the last year, diving into Tai Chi has been a healing balm for my rushed disposition. The art of slowness has been especially beneficial for me in Tai Chi, allowing for both strengthening and stillness. At the core of Tai Chi is the word “Sung” (or “Song”), which can mean relaxing or softening, but I prefer the term “loosening.”

To me, “loosening” can mean creating spaciousness where there may have previously been compression. Muscles contract or compress when they’re doing work, and loosening involves not expending excessive energy when it’s not needed. For instance, think about how you might hitch your shoulders up in stressful situations or how you might realize you’ve stopped breathing because your belly has tightened. I’ll write more about Song/Sung another time.

By taking this Tai Chi somatic knowledge, I was able to undertake a recent Yin Yoga class in a much deeper way than before. It reminded me of Cherie and Dave and how the art of loosening peels away another layer, revealing why long, slow held stretching postures are so good and so very different to Ashatanga Primary (very Yang).

Bringing a quality of attention and mind (known as “Yi” in Tai Chi) becomes “intention.” With intention, the magic happens when our senses are completely in the present moment. Loosening and deepening also allows us to drop the mental arguments about sensation, rather than jumping to an editorial conclusion and calling it “pain.”

If we bring our distracted monkey-mind to stretching, yoga, or Tai Chi, we are not developing intention (Yi), which is what the modern world is actively trying to dominate and destroy. Instead, we should give these practices more priority in our lives and fully acknowledge that they are developing a key survival skill.

I asked ChatGPT to: “Explain why stretching muscles must be approached slowly and why large muscles should be stretched longer time than smaller muscles”

They are useful, but in particular the “3. Stretch reflex” explains why stretching quickly and mindlessly are a waste of time and potentially harmfull (I have a 10 year Gracilis injury as proof of that).

Stretching muscles slowly and appropriately adjusting the duration for different muscle sizes is essential for various reasons related to safety, effectiveness, and physiology.

Injury prevention: Rapid or forceful stretching can cause micro-tears in the muscle fibers and surrounding connective tissues. These micro-tears can lead to inflammation, pain, and an increased risk of injury. Slow, gradual stretching allows muscles and connective tissues to adapt to the stretch and reduces the risk of injury.
Muscle elasticity: Muscles contain both elastic and contractile components. The elastic components, such as collagen and elastin, need time to lengthen and adapt to the stretch. Gradually applying the stretch allows these components to lengthen more efficiently, increasing the muscle’s overall flexibility.
Stretch reflex: When a muscle is stretched too quickly or forcefully, it triggers the muscle’s stretch reflex, causing it to contract involuntarily. This reflex protects the muscle from overstretching and potential injury. By stretching slowly, you can avoid triggering the stretch reflex, allowing the muscle to relax and lengthen more effectively.
Improved circulation: Slow stretching promotes better blood circulation to the muscles, which helps deliver essential nutrients and oxygen while also removing waste products. This process can enhance muscle recovery and overall performance.
Relaxation and stress reduction: Slow, controlled stretching can help promote relaxation, both physically and mentally. It encourages mindfulness and a focus on the body’s sensations, which can contribute to stress reduction and a greater sense of well-being.

Regarding the stretching duration for different muscle sizes, large muscles generally require a longer time to stretch compared to smaller muscles because:

Greater mass and thickness: Larger muscles have more mass and thickness, which requires more time to be effectively stretched. The additional time allows the muscle fibers and connective tissues to adapt to the stretch gradually, promoting flexibility and reducing the risk of injury.
Greater workload: Larger muscles typically have a greater workload and are responsible for more significant movements and support. This means they can accumulate more tension and stiffness, requiring a more extended period to stretch and release this tension effectively.
More complex muscle structure: Larger muscles often have more complex structures, with multiple muscle heads or layers. A longer stretching duration helps ensure that all parts of the muscle are adequately stretched, promoting overall flexibility and functional range of motion.

In conclusion, stretching muscles slowly and adjusting the duration based on muscle size is essential for preventing injury, promoting flexibility, improving circulation, and encouraging relaxation. This approach helps to maximize the benefits of stretching while minimizing potential risks.

** Its assumed that tight muscles are not ideal. Another post might explore this.

mindful vs. mindless stretching
stretching techniques
flexibility improvement
injury prevention
mental focus in stretching
wellness and stretching

February 19, 2023April 16, 2023

Smile!

I read in a book by Steve Maxwell (a pretty well-known exercise and fitness hard-arse) a simple hack to counter workout intensity – smiling.

Next time you see someone grunting or contorting their face (you know the type – jogging or riding a bicycle and looking like they are literally on the brink of death) think of this.

Steve maintains smiling helps reduce stress by stimulating the release of endorphins – being natural painkillers, they can help workout stress (actual and attitudinal) during intense workouts. In addition smiling may also trigger the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which is responsible for the body’s rest and digest response. Promoting a higher vagal tone is a whole field of research now – but wisdom from Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong prove the knowledge is ancient.

December 5, 2020May 30, 2021

Breath: a life’s work

When Nadal, Sharipova or Azarenka make those grunts and wails on the tennis court they are doing something that is evolutionarily correct. Believe it or not!

Two things are happening:

Most people who lift weights and probably most people in physical trades know that you exert the most power on the out breath. So these tennis players are channeling the most energy they can and also preparing for the next inward breath to wind them up for the next shot.
Less known is that the use of the voice (grunting or wailing) is creating a constriction in the throat that slows the out breath down and lengthens the breath overall. If the player just pushed the air out without sound then it’s gone before the stroke has finished.

Some interesting things happen when this constricted out-breath occurs – this is an activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS is the “rest and digest” counterbalance to the get-up-and-go “sympathetic” nervous system. The PNS (via the vagus nerve and many other mechanisms) is helping you calm down and recover from stress. So with each tennis stroke and out-breath players are (trained or not) healing themselves.

Everybody knows the simple delicious feeling of a bloody good SIGH. This is the PNS activation in a (mostly) unconscious or therapeutic context.

Unsurprisingly, the slowing and extension of the out-breath is already part of several wisdom traditions – one is Ashtanga.

Ujjayi breath

When I started Ashtanga, I didn’t comprehend what was important about “Breath, Bandhas, Drishti” (together known as Tristana). The breath part involves making an ocean-like sound in the throat through only the nose with the lips sealed.

This ancient tradition understood many things about physiology and its science came from observation and practice – as a westerner, it has to taken some time accept these observational wisdoms.

The physiological effects are summarized as:

breathing through the mouth will stress you (more on this later)
breathing through the mouth means you’ve lost the regulatory control of the yoga practice.
Because the nasal passages are smaller than the throat, therefore breath is extended – slowing the whole cycle down (more on THAT later!)
Breathing through the nose moistens the air, heats or cools it towards the body temperature thus reduces that conflict.

When you add modern science to these assumptions you learn:

breathing through the nose create Nitric Oxide***, this is a vasodilator that aids the absorption of the oxygen in the lungs.
The nasal breath creates turbulence which apparently helps penetrates deeper into the lungs.
A longer breath (not a “bigger” breath or “deeper” breath) enhances oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer.
A longer breath encourages a belly breath (diaphragmatic breathing) which increases the saturation at the bottom of the lungs. This is where the alveoli are most dense (probably due to gravity**)
diaphragmatic massages the vagus nerve and sends relaxation messages to the body.
a slower out-breath increases Carbon Dioxide in the system.

CO² is not your enemy

The biggest epiphany in Olssens book (see below) is that CO² is an essential part of oxygen absorption in the system – the evolutionary machinery depends on it to maximise the transfer via the alveoli. The book refers to many studies where CO² has myriad positive inflammatory impacts.

CO² dilates the airways, if this is too low, the smooth muscles will contract and it becomes more difficult for air to pass in an out of the lungs. Therefore MORE breathing is not good – we should be aiming for deep and slow/long. People with respiratory problems like asthma tend to take more breaths and too much volume.

Nitric Oxide (NO) is your friend

As mentioned above Nitric Oxide is a vasodilator – which is to say it opens the blood vessels. When you breath in through your mouth, you are not getting any NO. When you breath in nasally, NO is added to the air and is carried to the lungs, facilitating the transport or O2 and CO2.

The benefits of open blood vessels is manifold and yes gents Nitric Oxide is the same compound that is boosted with drugs like Viagra and Cialis.

Don't follow Win Hoff's breath practice

Wim is cool. Everybody loves Wim. Wim’s practice wants you to get a quick result fast and the extreme saturation of oxygen (at least in the short term) gives you experiences which are transformational. But the problem is that many breathworks (even those that claim to avoid hyperventilation practice e.g Stanislov Grof’s Holotropic breathing) are depleting the body of CO². This is fine for short experiences but long term work may be altering your O²::CO² balance and that leads to PH balance problems in your blood system. NOTE 1: I’m all for cold water practice and I’ve discussed the benefits here, here and here. NOTE 2: Wim’s practice borrows heavily from Tibetan Tummo so it has a deep traditional precedent, so you may want to explore Tummo to see what he has stripped away (like many Western practices do).

Mouth Breathing as a disease

The picture above shows some very broad noses, the faces are full and well developed. According to books I’ve recently read: “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” (James Nestor) and “Conscious Breathing: Discover The Power of Your Breath” (Anders Olssen), mouth-breathing is a relatively recent western development with faces being long and narrow, teeth crooked and jaw shape deformed.

If that sounds a stretch, I was recently at the orthodontist (crooked teeth) and they said it was cause by mouth breathing as a child – it seems common knowledge in that profession.

BTW: Animals don’t tend to have crooked teeth. (only dogs breath through their mouth to regulate temperature).

For decades I’ve always got colds and flus starting in the throat and also whenever I did running the throat would become inflamed. This inflammation overtime has led to gastic reflux and GERD-like conditions – its possible that the inflammation from mouth-breathing may have been a contributor. Living in cities with dust and pollution can only compound the negative inflammatory impacts of mouth breathing.

Once again the western environment seems to have created conditions for a disease. We need to detect in ourselves and our children if mouth-breathing is prevalent and commence practices to return to nasal breathing.

The good news is that in the “use it or lose it” way – the body adapts – the more you nasal breath, the more this opens airways.

Deviated Septums

I waited until I was 40 to have an operation on my left nasal passages that had been there since childhood. This meant that most of my life, especially under exertion would result in mouth breathing. Sleeping was also predominantly mouth based breath.

Ironically (for my situation) having the left nostril blocked, according to yogic traditions such as pranayama, is also blocking the PNS relaxation. Having clear breath through the left nasal passage is supposed to be very calming.

In Yoga/Ayurvedic technical terms (for those who believe in chakras), the the Ida and Pingala nadi’s commence at the nostrils and wrap around the Sushumna nadi and descend down the spine through the chakras.

Western skeptics will recognise 2 things:

This bears a strong resemblance to the Caduceus in western medicine
That we know that the body’s redundancy system has the right hemisphere relating to the left part of the body (including the nostril).

Nasal Breathing practices

If you have nasal blockages:

sleep with Breath-right strips or similar
mouth taping (bizarre but incredible good for improving sleep quality, eliminating mouth dryness and snoring)
work with alternate nostril pranayama exercises.
particularly if you left nostril is often blocked try opening and breathing through your left nostril before sleeping (or trying to get back to sleep).

Generally (for everyone):

slow your (over-breathing down). You should be breathing when sitting <10 breaths/minute. During meditation this will drop to 3-8 breaths.
Explore HRV Apps with breathing exercises on your phone.
Explore getting a device that measures HRV
Try exercises that extend the out-breath
Question any mindfullness practice that only treats the breath as an attentional object.

Summary

It always seems that the greatest truths are hidden in plain sight. Society cooks up lots of complex treatments, gadgets and explanations – this is the good and bad of a science based society. But it seems that paying attention to what is right-in-front of us there is plenty to observe and learn:

How do animals behave?
How do children behave?
What practices from ancient cultures can be considered as useful and not just superstition or cargo-cult?

If nothing else the attention to how we are breathing is a terrific barometer for where we are “at” in ourselves – I have found that multi-tasking, email switching in my workday is a huge contributor to holding the breath and taking small sips of air rather than rhythmic full belly breaths.