Remember to Breathe

For many years I followed Wim Hof’s journey who has been a great reminder to make the importance of breathing a public priority. If you don’t know who Wim is, take a look:

Today we’re constantly bombarded with information which keeps us “breathless”. The irony is, that we cannot control our mind and thoughts directly. Only by deep and proper breathing can we subject our mind and control our thoughts indirectly.

We neither control our thoughts, nor do we control our breathing very well, but this trend of hyperventilation¹ not only causes stress, it also leads to many diseases both affecting our physical and mental health and wellbeing:

The website covers intensive medical studies including breathing retraining using the Buteyko breathing method which is still actively taught today after Dr. Buteyko’s 1969 Lecture at the Moscow State University.

But not only hyperventilation is a trend of concern. The oxygen levels in our atmosphere itself are dropping²:

So it’s time to remember our ability to adapt, and with it, re-adapt our breathing.

The world record for holding one’s breath in freediving is 24 minutes. Whilst this sounds like an extreme, we certainly have this inherent ability in our DNA. It's called a mammalian dive reflex. Whales, dogs, and humans have it. We just don’t use it.

With the launch of the movie “Avatar: The Way of Water”, many people asked themselves how Kate Winslet was able to hold her breath 7 minutes under water.

There is nothing abstract about it, no hocus pocus, but one thing is for sure: if you strengthen your breath, you strengthen your mind, you strengthen your body.

So don’t hyperventilate, remember to breathe:

What do I do to simply get more oxygen into my body?

Apart from the aforementioned breathing retraining with e.g. the Buteyko method, by doing Pranayamas (Yoga), Chi Gong, Meditation etc. - there may be some other quite simple and yet highly effective ways to get more oxygen into our bodies, quickly and effortlessly.

The following three ways I personally use regularly: