Hold your Breath - a Skill to Master
To make one thing clear: You will (most certainly) not die from breath holding as long as you are not under water. And although breathing is essential for life we are searching to understand the full potential of our breath which means also to look into breath holds.
No, we don’t mean the unconscious breath holding which is happening throughout your day probably uncountable times when you are shocked, tense or stressed.
It is the kind of breath hold which empowers you, which stills your mind, builds incredible resilience and helps you resolve anxiety: It’s the conscious practice of extended breath holds.
Why you shouldn’t jump into breath holds just like that?
As you know our blog posts are often not just texts to read but experimental endeavours. That’s why I need to give a disclaimer: Don’t try to deliberately hold your breath if you are suffering from acute anxiety, if you are pregnant or if have any heart or other disease which wouldn’t benefit from breath holding. In case of doubt you will nevertheless benefit immensely by continuing to read and applying more awareness around the pauses in your breathing.
The most obvious made clear
Breath holds are also an integral part of your breathing pattern. Inhaling. Hold. Exhaling Hold. These pauses - the momentary and involuntary breath holds - are happening automatically, at least since you learned as a baby to make sounds and speak. More about the divinity of these pauses of the breath in another blog article (promise!).
Now about the conscious act of induced breath holding: conscious breath holding is an extension of the natural pause after your inhalation or exhalation. You can distinguish between the breath hold with full lungs after the inhalation and empty lungs after the exhalation.
The yogic pranayama (breathing) techniques include both breath holds to extend and enhance life force. Instinctively you would hold your breath after the inhalation but it makes sense to measure the breath hold after the exhalation as the lung capacity differs from person to person. Most people can hold their breath between 30 to 90 seconds.
Hold your breath to gain more life!
Why, would you wonder, do I want you to incorporate breath holds into your daily breath-wellness practice? It has potentially life saving benefits! Yes! To endure situations with limited oxygen availability can safe your life. I don’t want to create images of you drowning, rescuing yourself out of a burning house or offering an aria in the opera house, so let’s look at the physical and mental benefits of breath holding:
Regular breath holding exercises will simply help you to breathe easier as your respiratory muscles strengthen - it’s literally a workout for your diaphragm - and your lung capacity increases.
If you are able to not push your body into a stress response with your breath hold exercises you will feel that it actually helps to reduce stress levels and it promotes a sense of calmness, focus and clarity.
You will increase your CO2 tolerance, which means you will be more tolerant to excess carbon dioxide in the body, leading to improved recovery of muscles and better endurance during physical activities.
Training to hold your breath can teach your body to utilise oxygen efficiently - the delivery of oxygen to your tissues and organs and improving circulation are a few of them.
Don’t push just be consistent!
It's important to understand that breath-holding capabilities can vary greatly from person to person. Be gentle with yourself, gradually build up your breath-holding time through your regular Breath-Wellness practice. Listen to your body and avoid pushing yourself in any way. It’s simply not worth it.
So let’s give it a try!
Please promise yourself to focus on staying calm and relaxed during these breath hold exercises.
Use the diaphragm to fully expand and relax your lungs.
Take your stop watch and let’s check your breath holding time, after the out breath. So take a nice, full, deep belly breath in, let the exhale happen, relax the torso, the tongue in your mouth, the pelvic floor and close your nose, hold your breath. Just as long as it feels super comfortable.
You might wonder why you swallow while holding your breath and it is a natural reaction to prevent air from escaping your lungs and it helps maintain the pressure in your lungs for a little longer.
Gradually and slowly extend the duration of your breath holds.
Moderation is key!
First of all, respecting the contraindications of course, take it easy and slowly. Don’t stress your body with these breath holds to not stress your nervous system. Be also aware: chronically holding the breath is equally bad as over-breathing. This is a fantastic topic for another blog article!
For more insightful tips and guidance, stay tuned to our blog.
Thank you for breathing with me!
With love, Felicia