Why Do We Breathe?
Are you smarter than a fifth-grader?
Actually, I’m not even sure you were ever taught the foundational knowledge I’m about to share in school.
I’m certainly not sure I was.
But on the other hand, to be completely honest, I don’t remember a whole lot from what they tried to teach me back then. School wasn’t where I thrived so to speak.
What I do know is that in my utopia, I would want the first couple of years of school to be about KNOWING ONESELF. Like, really knowing oneself, all angles, all realms, all aspects.
That would include getting to know ones essence (who am I when everything is silent, when there are no thoughts distracting my awareness?), thoughts, emotions, physical body, sub conscious, energy body etc. Perhaps six months or so would be dedicated to the breath.
How does the breath affect us? Why do we breathe? How do we breathe?
How can we work with the breath in order to balance ourselves mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually?
Just imagine the massive impact this would have on our children’s mental health and to their relationship to their bodies. The amount of suffering that would be reduced is potentially immeasurable. And I’m speaking as someone who suffered a great deal in my teens and early 20s. Panic attacks and anxiety was part of my life back then.
Anyway, back to the question: Why do we breathe?
All living organisms on the planet are composed of individual cells. They form the physical body as they are organized into tissues and organs.
These cells, and therefore the body, needs energy to live.
We get energy from the food that we eat and the oxygen that we breathe in. The food is basically combined with oxygen in the cells. Like slow-burning furnaces, each cell creates and releases energy when carbohydrates and fats, we can think of it as the fuel, are combined with oxygen.
This all takes place in the mitochondria, think of them as tiny subunits inside the cells.
The energy is then transferred to a storage molecule called ATP. One can think of ATP as the energy storage for cells. In other words: ATP captures chemical energy obtained from the breakdown of food molecules and releases it to fuel other cellular processes.
One can say then, that the main reason why breathing happens in all of us is that we breathe to get oxygen to combine with nutrients in order to produce energy. Respiration actually happens inside the cells where nutrient fuel is burned with oxygen.
So, the nose, windpipe, trachea, bronchi, alveoli, lungs and all muscles involved in the process all help transport, prime and modify the air that we breathe in from the atmosphere. As we can quite easily tap into the function of most of them by breathing consciously or altering our breath in different ways, we can actually tap into our cellular function and the way we produce and store energy.
Knowing this, there’s no doubt in my mind that everyone should use breathwork as a modality to stay healthy, balanced and energized.
Tip from the coach: If you find yourself in a panic attack or if you feel overwhelmed by stress and racing mind, try breathing normally in an out through the nose and then gently hold your breath on a normal exhale. Countdown from 5 to 0 and then breathe in calmly again. Breathe in and out through the nose again a few times before holding the breath again from 5 to 0. Repeat this a couple of times. What happens here is that carbon dioxide pressure goes up which dilates the blood vessels and calms us down. Try it out.
Much love,
Emil
Follow me on instagram: @emil.justbreathe
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