Perfect Breathing

An article in a newsletter from USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism caught our eye this week. The Watts Learning Center is now using a breath-based approach to teach kids how to deal with and control difficult emotions such as anger, frustration, and stress. 

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Breathing For Beginners

An article in a newsletter from USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism caught our eye this week. The Watts Learning Center is now using a breath-based approach to teach kids how to deal with and control difficult emotions such as anger, frustration, and stress.

We have been advocating for some time to emphasize this critical life-skill in children, teens and young adults - the earlier the better. The potential benefits to the kids throughout their life are huge and could provide significant benefits to the community as well.

Oregon winters are cold, damp and gray. The sun, if it can be seen at all (which doesn’t happen often mind you), doesn’t even rise above the tree line. There are many places with colder temperatures and much harsher winter weather, but our special combination of elements here makes for a penetrating chill from October to April.

For me, winter weather always went hand-in-glove with frigid fingers and feet. Handshakes were always accompanied with an apology: “Sorry about my freezing hands”, and a shriek from my wife went she made first contact with my feet at night.

I've recently become fascinated with the work of Dr. Candace Pert, a noted neurologist who has done some groundbreaking work in the realm of neurotransmitters in the body. Her basic contention is that our bodies are actually "wired for bliss." She disputes the age-old model that all control rests in the mind, and declares that your entire body is one giant receptor.

We’ve written previously about the connection between the breath and pain management, but after yet more personal experience and new research findings, we though another pain-post was in order.

It is very gratifying to watch science and medical research slowly but surely validate the seemingly outlandish claims that have been made for thousands of years about the powers of the breath and conscious, intentional breathing.

The last few weeks have seen a few more important advances. The first, which we blogged about recently, was further validation of improved immune response through the use of breath-based mindfulness techniques. The latest is further evidence of the connection between stress management and aging.

I couldn't help but watch with sadness as Irish golfer Rory McIlroy imploded on the final day of the U.S. Open. He had played confidently, brilliantly in his three earlier rounds and had a commanding lead. On Sunday, he lost his mojo and drove shot after shot out of bounds and himself out of contention. It got me thinking once again about that elusive place psychologists call The Zone, and how the breath can help all of us athletes and performers come closer to finding it.
 

I believe that the most powerful concept that we addressed in the book “Perfect Breathing: Transform Your Life One Breath at a Time” was the concept of awareness. Not that this was our brain-child – I think someone beat us to the punch by five or ten thousand years – but it is hands down the most important tool at our disposal when it comes to making changes, improving our lives, and dealing with stress.