The article has been written in tandem between Nazareth Castellanos and Fernando Diaz.
Science has shown that to breathe we take in air and then release it. With this sarcasm, a neuroscientist summed up the recent discoveries about the influence of breathing on the brain discussed at the last academic meeting on the role of the body in our behavior. His sarcasm was a call to learn the knowledge of Yoga. For the yogic tradition, breathing is the beginning of perception and internal listening, capable of taking us to a certain state of consciousness and attention. When we lose conscious control of breathing, and it is guided by the autonomic nervous system, it drifts. Isn’t that what the mind does when we lose attention? Thousands of years ago we were warned that as long as breathing is irregular, the mind will be unstable, but when it calms down, the mind will too.
Recently, various discoveries in the field of neuroscience are giving reason to what the Eastern (and Western) tradition told us: breathing has the power to alter our mental states and these our breathing.
In 2017, the prestigious journal Science published a study led by Stanford University that showed the existence of an area capable of transmitting to the rest of the brain how we are breathing. This area, called the preBötzinger complex, is a kind of sneak that projects information from our breathing pattern to brain areas involved in memory, attention, and reaction to emotions. The researchers managed to electrically stimulate the complex, producing alterations in cognitive and emotional behavior. The neuroanatomy of respiration had been located. With this famous study a debt with the past was sealed, and it was demonstrated (scientifically) that breathing is a key to the mind. Curiously, breathing is our gateway to the autonomic nervous system and is, therefore, a privileged process to access the central nervous system.
Although the literature is still short, neuroscience’s recognition of the influence of other organs on the brain has only opened the door to new studies. Those that provide us with clues to learn how to shape our mind through breathing stand out. For example, the University of Berkeley observed in 2016 that certain breathing patterns cause a rapid and fluid response in neurons, typical of highly complex cognitive processing. This means that control over breathing can favor the processes of perception, attention, memory and even neuronal plasticity, key in processes of brain damage or learning. Another of the most outstanding studies, carried out by the University of Chicago in 2017, showed that nasal breathing has the ability to change the dynamics of the areas of the brain most involved in managing emotions, such as the amygdala and the hippocampus. Nasal breathing, not mouth breathing. This contribution resonates with the yogic maxim of “In the calm of the breath, there is the calm of the mind. In the calm of the mind is the calm of the breath.
Learning to work your breath has multiple benefits for your health and mind. If we take the Pranayamas of Yoga practice as a reference, we obtain a rich range of possibilities to work on the respiratory rhythm and attention, accompanied by different Asanas, or psycho-emotional postures that prepare the body to sit in the Lotus position and meditate. The most energizing pranayama practices are, for example, Bhastrika, Kapalabhati. The ones that provide the greatest balance are Nadi Shodan and Brahmari, and the one that regulates our ability to concentrate is Sama vritti. As in everything, the benefits that these exercises have for health, requires a determined and constant practice.
The current situation of confinement is a scenario where various mental states are expressed, ranging from anxiety to introspection. The union of neuroscience and the yogic tradition can provide valuable tools, and today we offer you one, the Nadhi Sodhana pranayama:
- Choose a space where you are comfortable or comfortable. It can be a chair, the floor, sitting on cushions or the sofa, and even lying on the bed. Gently lower your chin to your chest and inhale deeply, opening your chest. Keep your back straight but relax your posture.
- Choose an intention before beginning any work in Yoga. What is your intention with this breath? What goal do you have in mind? Do you want to relax? Calm the mind? Do you want to learn to be focused? To be more present?
- The ring finger and the little finger of the right hand close the left nostril and the thumb closes the right nostril. The middle and index fingers rest between the eyebrows. Release the air only through the left nostril and then inhale on the same side, now you release the air on the right side and catch it on the right side as well.
- Little by little, lengthen the inhalations and exhalations until you reach about 4 seconds per inhalation and 6 or 8 seconds per exhalation. You can start by doing 3 sets of 10 breaths. Later, after several days of practice, you can include air retention in inspiration and expiration.
- Any time of the day is good to perform Nadhi Sodhana, but mornings are recommended as a more appropriate time of neurological activity.
- Make sure your practice is supervised by an expert and seek professional advice.
- Enjoy and practice every day. The more present you are, the better results you will get. The more you practice, the deeper you will learn about yourself.
Practice, be free and happy.