THE BREATH OF LIFE
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
“Bed in Summer.”
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
One of the most common causes of ill-health and sleeplessness is
improper breathing. Breathing is the fundamental function of life, the
first at birth and the last at death, and when it is badly performed we
are sure to have trouble. The great majority of people never use the
whole of their lungs in breathing. By this neglect the blood is never
sufficiently oxygenated to burn out all impurities.
But you may say, “I am not responsible for the way I breathe; I do
that “automatically,” and you would be in a degree correct. It is
true that we are not conscious of the act of breathing. It would be an
intolerable burden upon the mind if every breath required conscious
attention. We could hardly attend to anything else.
That is no reason, however, why we should not regulate our breathing
for our own benefit. Breathing, though an habitual organic act, is
under the indirect control of the higher centers of the nervous system.
We must, as Dr. Worcester says, re-educate the lower centers to
breathe, and to do this it is necessary to give conscious attention to
it for a time. If we wish to replace bad breathing by good breathing,
we must fix our attention regularly upon drawing the breath, practice
the right sort of breathing, and impress upon the vital mechanism that
this new order of breathing is to be adopted, for the way to be rid of
a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. If we persevere in this
course, the right method can very easily be established.
By the right method is meant breathing from the diaphragm. If you
will watch the act of breathing among your friends for even one day,
you will discover for yourself how few do it well. The great majority
breathe with the upper part of the lungs only, so that the chest
visibly rises and falls in time with the inhalations and exhalations.
Such persons may be unconscious of their own breathing, but they make
all who observe them conscious of it. They are not only injuring
themselves, but making a claim upon the attention of others that is
scarcely justifiable.
Quick, short breathing is one of the signs either of excitement or of
depression, some pleasurable or painful emotion or sensation, but it
is not a means to health. If we have this habit, we may find in it an
explanation of many of the trifling ills and discomforts from which we
suffer, and of not a few of the more serious ones.
Emily M. Bishop, who has given much study to the effect of our habits
of mind and body upon our health and spirits, says, in her latest book,
“Daily Ways of Living,” that we may change the whole current of our
thought by a change in breathing. She wisely advises her readers the
next time they feel depressed or worried, “blue,” or “miserable,” to
try drawing deep, full breaths. If you are not in good spirits, try
that now: “spirit” means the breath.
Open the windows and let in fresh air, if within doors; inhale deeply,
hold it, and then exhale rather quickly. After only four or five such
inhalations you will find that the miserable feeling has disappeared or
is greatly lessened. The “blues” cannot live while good red blood is
circulating rapidly through the veins and arteries. It is only when the
blood is sluggish or not sufficiently purified by the indrawn oxygen
that worry and depression can hold us in their thrall. Deep breathing
is a simple remedy for the blues, but its effectiveness makes it worth
trying.
Proper breathing will often ward off a cold, especially a cold due to
chill. As soon as you feel yourself getting chilly, act. The feeling of
chilliness is a proof that the resistance of the body is below normal.
The cause may be interior, due to the presence of some poison in the
system, or it may be due entirely to external causes. In either event,
to purify the blood and improve its circulation is the best sort of
“first aid to the injured.” Inhale until you can feel it in your fingers
and toes, exhale quickly, and repeat the operation until you feel
all aglow. Mlle. Marie de Palkowska, whose special work is teaching
correct breathing, says: “The nerve centers are directly affected
by the condition of the blood, and they are enfeebled, contracted,
or irritated by an excess of carbon and nitrogen in it, producing
depression of spirits; but, if the blood is circulating freely, the
nerves are quieted and well-nourished by the supply of oxygen, through
the process of correct breathing, and the result is perfect health of
mind and body and a happy optimism.” Worry, sleeplessness, and disease
do not easily lay hold upon one who has “perfect health of mind and
body and a happy optimism.” If these may be secured through intelligent
attention to breathing, there is no reason why they should not be as
common as they are natural. The more we look into the question of
health, whether physical, mental, or moral, the more clearly we see
that poise is only possible through conformity to universal law. It
could not be otherwise.
Earlier in this inquiry we have traced the interdependence, the unity
of man’s three natures—the physical, the mental, and the spiritual,—and
the value of correct breathing to the whole man is in perfect keeping
with that interdependence. In the process of digestion, upon which
physical health so largely depends, we create poisons within ourselves
and accumulate waste matter. The organism must be momently purified
of these wastes, or putrefaction quickly follows. Autotoxins form, as
the doctors say. The function of breathing, when properly controlled,
affords the quickest and best method of cleansing the blood of these
impurities. If we have not this proper control, the poisons are not
eliminated and the supply of blood to the brain is vitiated.
Just as the body cannot perform its functions well if we are compelled
to live upon tainted food, so the brain cannot do its work well if
the blood—its food—is impure. Breathing which expands the diaphragm
so purifies the blood as it passes through the lungs, that it becomes
an important factor in maintaining health and poise in body and mind,
which in their turn react upon the spirit.
This sort of breathing is more common among men than among women,
due in part to natural physical differences and in part to dress.
Man breathes largely from the abdomen, while woman breathes chiefly
from the chest, expanding only the upper portion of the lungs. This
is partly a natural and partly an artificial necessity, due to the
pressure of the corset upon the diaphragm. Both men and women would
find their physical health improved and their outlook on life broadened
and brightened by proper control of the function of breathing. If we
are sleepless, nervous, too alert, as well as if we are heavy, dull,
and inactive, we will find it worth our while to try conscious breath
control. It takes but a comparatively short time to re-educate the
automatic centers into correct breathing and the result is always good.
It no less behooves the man who is trying to live largely on the
rational plane, than the man who is living wholly on the physical
plane, to make his efforts both easier and more effective by such
simple attention to natural laws. The next time you are worried,
depressed, or sleepless, change the air of the room and try deep and
correct breathing for a few minutes. You will be surprised at the
complete change wrought in you, if you are not suffering from some
serious organic breakdown which needs skilled attention. And even that
condition may be helped by proper breathing.
But we are not to forget that, like calisthenic and gymnastic
exercises, the training of the breathing is really little more than a
device for correcting the results of wrong living and only a substitute
for right living. The man or the woman who does plenty of healthful,
normal work, who often pants and gets “out of breath,” naturally
expands the lungs and has as little use for breathing exercises as for
tight clothing.
A buck-saw, a spade, or even a broom is better than a teacher of
breathing and a better corrector of sleeplessness.