My Breath Dysfunction

What I Learned About Breathing

When I was in elementary school, I remember learning that we breathe automatically, that our bodies are so amazing they could function and maintain themselves. I didn’t need to do anything. At least that is what my young brain wired.

It’s ironic how learning something in elementary school, which is actually true, could turn out to be so harmful to me. 

That lesson in elementary school was about the autonomic nervous system, which is a network of nerves that runs through our bodies and controls what are considered the involuntary functions such as our heartbeats, blood flow, breathing and digestion.

What I learned was accurate, we do have an autonomic nervous system that operates without our conscious involvement. But here is where I ran into a problem. When I was young, I experienced a lot of chaos and uncertainty, perhaps we all do. When I was afraid, I would hold my breath, and try to be invisible. My brain thought it was keeping me safe. If I wasn’t holding my breath, I was breathing very shallow rapid breaths because I was afraid. As a result, my brain wired dysfunctional patterns of breathing.

What I Did Not Learn About Breathing

And because I learned that breathing is automatic, it never occurred to me that the patterns of my breathing were actually causing me chronic stress. I was unable to look at my breath patterns as red flags warning me that I was in danger. I also could not appreciate that my dysfunctional breathing patterns were actually causing me harm. This contributed to many health problems, difficulties regulating myself emotionally, and enjoying life. The way my brain wired caused me to be unaware of the harm my breathing caused me.

The first time I noticed my habit of holding my breath in high stress situations, I was in my early forties. It took longer to notice my habit of mouth breathing while awake. And still longer to figure out, I was mouth breathing at night. All of these patterns of breathing were causing my nervous system to operate on high alert. Mouth breathing is know to cause both short term and long term issues including dry mouth, poor sleep, snoring, bad breath, cavities, orthodontic issues, gum disease, sleep apnea, enlarged tonsils and adenoids, facial structure irregularites and speech problems.

Understanding My Breath

At different points in my life, I have experienced many of the symptoms listed above. Some continue to this day. Now, however, I am aware of my breathing patterns. I pay attention to my breathing throughout the day. I catch myself when I am feeling stress and slip into mouth breathing, holding my breath or shallow chest breathing. When I catch myself using these breath patterns, I see the patterns as warnings that my sympathetic nervous system is activated. This is the “fight or flight” response. I evaluate if I need to be in the fight or flight response and take action to get out of the situation or intentionally re-activate my parasympathetic nervous system. I have learned that the quicker I deactivate my sympathetic nervous system the better for my health.

Interestingly, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are part of the autonomic nervous system. At all times they operate in the background. What I have learned is that I do have the ability to shift my nervous system in or out of one state by using my breath. I have reduced the harmful effects of my dysfunctional breathing. I use my breath as a tool to manage my nervous system. After decades of harm, that is a powerful lesson. 

That is my Breath. That is my Power.
May you find the power of your breath.