2 inhales : 1 exhale
Do me a favour - soften your jaw, let your shoulders drape away from you ears and now take 2 short inhales, followed by a long slow exhale out your mouth.
Take that breath two more times (2 inhales : 1 exhale).
Feel any different?
The reason I ask is because this type of breath, known by many names but coined the physiological or biological sigh in the 1930s, is one of the most direct + effective methods to relax our bodies! Even the Gov. Science say so! Read their article here.
Ever seen your pet or a baby sigh? Or maybe caught yourself mid work randomly sigh? Yep, that is your bodies natural response to stress and it does it all on its own all the time. About once every 5 minutes actually.
Cool huh?!
"Huberman explained how it works: "You have little sacks of air in the lungs, which increase the volume of air that you can bring in. Those sacks collapse over time, and as a result, oxygen levels start to go down and carbon dioxide levels go up in the bloodstream and body, and that a big part of the signalling of the stress response."
The double inhale of the physiological sigh "pops" the air sacks (called alveoli) open, allowing oxygen in and enabling you to offload carbon dioxide in the long exhaled sigh out."
What I would like to point out is that in Yogic terms this is nothing new. Yoga has prioritised Pranayama for longer than Asana and although its really cool to see contemporary science backing up these techniques (especially for peeps like me who LOVE TO KNOW HOW THINGS WORK) we need to be careful not to appropriate with our language.
Recently there has been a post by Mr Huberman meandering around the innerwebs…
Non Sleep Deep Rest? That’s Yoga Nidra.
Breathwork? That’s Pranayama.
Self Directed Hypnosis? Ummmm I believe that could be Mantra
The chatter from the Yoga community has been ranging from “YES LETS GEW. SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE!!” to “WTF ANDREW STOP RENAMING OUR PRACTICES!”
These aren't new discoveries; rather new studies that prove something in modern terms. But something that has been known and used for thousands of years and these practices originate in the South Asian Subcontinent - Ahem India. And not a Stanford Lab.
So by all means lets celebrate these findings! If Huberman and other such researchers can popularise these frankly life changing techers, best believe I won't complain.
Some are resistant to Yoga as it's too 'woo woo' for them (I get it) so if these practices can reach more people as a result, winner. HOWEVER lets not forget where they come from and let’s continue to celebrate their origin stories!
Please and thanks.
That’s all - go fourth and sigh sigh sigh baby!
