The Breathe Better course with the MacMillan Cancer Support

Three days after the 6-week course completed, I was still overwhelmed with the comments and the feedback.

I have facilitated this course, or ones similar a number of times in the past and each time I am left slightly agog at the effect this course has on people. I am still staggered as to how being more cognisant of our breathing, being more mindful of our breathing and being more understanding of our breathing can change how people perceive themselves, how their mindset changes and how much more in control of themselves they become.

Each session, you saw a small difference in how a person sat or behaved. Their movements became calmer, they began to change how they breathed and the fidgeting became less. You began to see a posture which may have started out reduced, unfold and develop as their movement and disposition evolve. It is a beautiful panorama to behold. Watching that confidence grow, watching how they begin to realise how constricted their breath had become and watching them realise they can change how they breathe, not just for then, but for the rest of their time on this planet, was utterly joyous.

I facilitate using the Buteyko breathing method along with tools and techniques from Patrick McKeown’s Oxygen Advantage. These techniques help to create the foundations their new breathing confidence is built upon. What starts out as seemingly counterintuitive, in terms of breathing with less intensity and more slowly, helps to build a bank of tolerance to the build up of CO2 in our lungs.

A common misconception with CO2 is that it is bad and we should try and remove it from our bodies. This we most certainly should not. This will upset our PH balance. The carbon-dioxide should be viewed as a rather over giddy compassionate friend. It is there playing around inside our lungs ready to act as an alarm system to tell our brains to send signals to breathe. It opens up our blood vessels to allow more oxygen rich blood to flow through them. It diffuses with the oxygen within our 500,000,000 alveoli at the bottom of our lungs to help create greater breathing efficiency. If that wasn’t enough, it also helps to release oxygen from the haemaglobin in our red blood cells. This is called the Bohr effect, after Dr Christian Bohr discovered this in 1904. The benefits of this happening are greater endurance, because we have increased oxygen within our bodies. It means our bodies are running with greater efficiency and when this happens our autonomic nervous system is balanced and our anxieties, agitations and stress are reduced. So CO2 is a good thing, However, if we allow the CO2 to be more giddy than it should be, it becomes the master of us, rather than the other way round.

Creating tolerance builds resilience and our nervous systems align themselves, so using exercises to help build that resilience is key.

Slow breathing will help to create the CO2, or that feeling we call air hunger. When we can master this process, our thoughts and deeds become more controlled and paradoxically we can calm ourselves more easily in stressful situations.

This is what we did with all the participants and every single one has improved their breathing and is feeling more comfortable and in greater control. This does not mean they need to stop doing their daily practice of course, oh no. If they can build this into their everyday lives, then the differences of walking with greater ease, going up the stairs without labour, becoming more active will begin to manifest themselves more readily.

The Horizon Centre is halfway up a hill and many participants had to walk up this hill to come to the course. How they spoke about the hill at the beginning and how they spoke about the hill at the end of the course, was totally different. They were able to face this hill with a different thought process. It was brilliant barometer of the work they were doing in their daily practice and they could see it and feel it for themselves.

I run these course with several aims: to make the group feel comfortable enough to talk about how they are getting on, with sufficient laughter to keep a worry or two at bay, to build their confidence in how they breathe, but most of all, when the agitation and anxiety strikes deep within the night, then they will have a toolbox of exercises in which they can reduce those feelings and enable to balance themselves as they need to.

Breathing is the most fundamental element in our lives, we must never take it for granted, but frequently we do. Changing bad habits to good is not as difficult as it may sound, especially when you can feel the difference those changes make.

Thank you for reading this and if there was anything within this blog which resonated, please let me know, it would be wonderful to hear your thoughts.

Happy breathing