Renewal
The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.
—Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus
Modern medicine provides us with many miraculous remedies, but they often come at a cost, both literally and in the form of side effects. By engaging the full potential of our breath, we can both increase the effectiveness of other remedies and decrease our need and dependence on them.
The following exercises can be used as breath-based therapies for a number of common conditions. They may be used in conjunction with other treatments, or they may provide complete relief on their own.
Pain Management
Whether short-lived or chronic, pain can be an anchor that drags us down mentally, emotionally, and physically. It is estimated, for example, that four out of five people suffer from back pain at some point in their lives, and we’re willing to bet that fifth person is hurting somewhere, too.
Pain can have a restrictive effect on the breath, causing people to either hold their breath or inhale in tight and staccato patterns. These patterns can generate feelings of panic, anxiety, and fear along with muscle tension that can amplify the perceived feeling of pain. Over time poor breathing can result in reduced circulation and exacerbated pain.
Using the breath can be an effective way to alleviate or eliminate pain and in many cases can improve the effectiveness of pain medications. The University of Chicago Hospital advises its surgery patients that “non-medication pain control techniques should always be used, with or without medication,” and recommends breathing techniques as an effective non-medication technique. At Baylor University senior program counselor Judith Mullican states that, “With the diaphragmatic breathing and what we call ‘self-regulation techniques,’ the idea is we tune into our own mind and body and learn to produce our endorphins to lower our pain. It’s very, very effective.” Although these techniques may not eliminate the need for medication, they can oftentimes reduce the amount of necessary medication.
There are a number of nondrug approaches to managing pain such as acupuncture, acupressure, massage, visualization, meditation, biofeedback, relaxation, and yoga. Breathing techniques are commonly used in conjunction with all of them. For example, massage therapy is much more effective when your conscious breathing becomes attuned to and coordinated with the work of the therapist.
Pain Reduction Breathing
First, make sure that you are comfortable. You can practice these exercises either sitting or lying down, although you may fall asleep if you practice in a reclining position, which may or may not be desirable. Soft relaxing music may also help lull you away from the pain.
Begin by practicing this next technique—Energy Wave Breathing—to relieve any tension in your muscles. Start with slow deep breathing. Try to aim for at least a Six-Second Breath cycle (see chapter 7), but most important, breath at a comfortable rate. Follow it up with Waterfall Breathing and Imagination Breathing.
Exercise: Energy Wave Breathing
This is an excellent exercise for ridding yourself of tension and giving yourself a quick energy boost. It can be done anywhere (even at a stoplight).
Once you have found a comfortable, rhythmic rate, you can employ several techniques to manage your pain. Find which ones provide you with the most relief and combine them in any way that works best for you.
With each inhale, imagine that your abdomen is filling like a pitcher with cold clear water. Hold it for just a moment and as you exhale, release it and let it flow right to the center of the pain. Picture the fire that represents your pain and with each exhale imagine that the fire is becoming weaker and fainter as it is extinguished by the water.
Exercise: Imagination Breathing
Close your eyes and imagine you are somewhere pleasant and peaceful. Focus intently on visualizing all of the details: the sun, sky, wind, ocean, river, stream, or forest. As you inhale, focus on all of your senses—what are you seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, feeling? Hold your breath momentarily and smile. As you release your breath, relax and imagine your body and pain growing fainter in the distance, farther and farther away.
Anxiety/Panic Attacks
The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that 2.4 million Americans suffer from anxiety and panic disorders. It affects twice as many women as men. Although anxiety can be a natural response to stress and help to motivate us and help us focus, it can become detrimental and unhealthy when it becomes a chronic response (refer to chapter 10). Many people have had isolated episodes of panic, but this too can become a very serious affliction when it occurs for no apparent reason.
Anxiety is distinguished by tension, headaches, insomnia, stomach pains, nausea, and sweating to name a few of the symptoms. Panic attacks in comparison tend to be much more severe, characterized by paralyzing fear or terror, uncontrolled trembling, breathing difficulty, and irrational fears. These attacks can be so debilitating that they can often lead to the additional fear of having the attacks, which can in turn lead to the fear of being in public (agoraphobia).
Conscious breathing techniques can be an important and powerful tool for both preventing and mitigating these types of attacks.
First, make sure that you spend time practicing the Foundation Breath exercise in chapter 7. Combining Foundation Breath and Pressure Breathing can help moderate the physical precursors of anxiety.
By pursing your lips and inflating your cheeks you create pressure on the vagus nerve in the back of your throat that controls many of anxiety’s telltale symptoms such as sweating, racing heart, and nausea. By focusing on the count, you help keep your mind off of anxious or fearful thoughts.
PMS
Women have been plagued by PMS and hot flashes for, well, for as long as there have been women. Hormone replacement therapy may be helpful, but the benefits may also come along with potentially harmful side effects. Evidence suggests that breathing techniques may offer a degree of relief for women who are suffering from the discomfort hot flashes and PMS.
Dr. Erik Peper had successfully treated women for PMS and states that “effortless breathing appears to be a non-invasive behavioral strategy to reduce hot flashes and PMS symptoms. Practicing effortless diaphragmatic breathing contributes to a sense of control, supports a healthier homeostasis, reduces symptoms, and avoids the negative drug side effects. We strongly recommend that effortless diaphragmatic breathing be taught as the first step to reduce hot flashes and PMS symptoms.”
In the words of one of his patients, “I feel so much cooler. I actually feel calmer and can’t even feel the threat of a hot flash. Maybe this breathing does work!”
Pacing your breathing until the flash passes may be an effective way to diminish the symptoms of PMS and/or menopause.
The Six-Second Breath exercise found in chapter 7 can be helpful as well.
Asthma
Asthma is a disease of the lungs where the airways (bronchiole tubes) become irritated and inflamed. The inflammation in which the airways to narrow and restrict the flow of air. During an asthma attack the patient has the sensation of suffocating or drowning. Asthma attacks can be very serious, even fatal. Unfortunately, asthma is on the rise, affecting one in every thirteen adults and one in eight children in the United States. There is no cure for asthma, but it can be controlled by learning what environments and activities cause the irritations, avoiding them, and using medication as needed. With proper care and attention, asthma sufferers can live a normal active life.
Currently the effects of breathing techniques on the symptoms of asthma are deemed inconclusive, but nearly all the experts agree that more study is needed. There are many asthma sufferers around the world who claim to gain great relief and benefit from breathing techniques.
It is estimated that 30 percent of asthma sufferers suffer from some degree of breathing dysfunction, and coping with asthma attacks can lead to the propagation of bad breathing habits such as short, shallow breaths and mouth breathing (which is associated with a number of health issues, such as high blood pressure). Developing proper breathing habits can help strengthen the respiratory system, improve health and physical performance, and help patients to weather asthma attacks in a controlled fashion.
Even though breathing techniques have not been conclusively shown to impact standard lung function measures, they have been shown in a number of studies to reduce the dependence on medication—clearly an important benefit.
One study from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, randomly assigned fifty-seven participants to use one of two techniques for asthma relief. The first technique consisted of shallow nasal breathing with slow exhalations and the second technique involved upper body training and relaxation. In both groups the use of asthma medication fell by 86 percent.
Another breathing practice that has gained a fair amount of traction is the Buteyko Method. Originally developed by the Russian doctor Konstantin Buteyko, this approach addresses what Buteyko believed to be a shortage of CO2 in the body brought on by over-breathing. As is the case with other breathing techniques, Buteyko’s method is rendered inconclusive with regard to actually improving lung functions, but Buteyko studies reported a major reduction of medication (approximately 90 percent). The Buteyko exercises (as best we can determine) involve inhaling through the nose with short shallow breaths and then exhaling, again through the nose, for as long as possible, and then holding the breath for as long as possible before inhaling again.
One of the most interesting techniques on the horizon is the Papworth Method, which has actually been employed by therapists since the 1960s but was recently the subject of a small controlled study in England. The results showed that asthma sufferers who used this breathing and integrated relaxation method over a twelve-month period weren’t cured of the physiological causes of asthma, but were breathing easier compared to the control group and at the same time experienced an improvement in their mood and overall well-being.
The Papworth method, from what little information is available, is comprised of five hour-long individual treatments administered by a respiratory physiotherapist during periods of asthma remission. Breathing training consisted of replacing inappropriate use of accessory muscles with diaphragmatic breathing, using nose breathing instead of mouth breathing, relaxation training, and home exercises taught via audiotape or CD while integrating other exercises into daily activities.
For a variety of licensing and intellectual-property reasons, the particulars of this promising method is not available to the general public. It is comforting to know that successful nonmedical solutions to asthma may be on the horizon. We encourage anyone interested in these and other asthma findings to explore them all more fully.
Migraine Headaches
Migraine headaches are still somewhat of a mystery. They occur when the brain secretes a certain chemical that causes blood vessels in the brain to dilate. Episodes can be triggered by any number of causes, but stress is clearly a major factor.
Migraine sufferers often begin to see a pattern in the onset of these debilitating headaches and can plan around them to some degree, but in most cases they have to be waited out, usually by sleeping it off in a dark quiet room. Since the secreted hormone from the brain is released during times of stress, stress-reduction techniques can help to minimize the occurrence of these painful attacks.
This is one of the most powerful exercises we have discovered. Use this exercise if you feel a cold or other illness coming on. It is also extremely effective for relaxation or in cases of insomnia, and in many cases the onset of a migraine. It works best if you are lying down with your eyes closed, but you can do it sitting as well. Try to use the Six-Second Breath (see chapter 7) to the degree you can, but don’t focus on the counting at the expense of the visualization.
As an adjunct to the above exercise, Buddhist meditations, or sutras, can be of tremendous benefit. Affirmative sutras—bits of wisdom that bear repeating—can be helpful in dealing with pain and other problems. A breathing sutra consists of an affirmative statement that is silently stated during the inhale, and a second statement that is voiced silently during the exhale.
Some examples include:
Feel free to experiment and create your own. Additional meditation sutras can be found in chapter 21.