From our very first inhalation that signals entrance into the world to our very last exhalation through which we bid the world a final farewell, breath is with us our entire life. It is our constant and reliable companion ever. Breath wants to liberate itself, to free itself from the encasing and confining prison of the body’s frozen stillness. It is as though the body has been built up and created from multiple layers of different tissues and organs, all superimposed one on top of the other like strips of papier-stripes mache. Unlike the dried and hardened strips of papier-mache, however, the layers of the body are composed of living tissue and living tissues are like the water of the ocean-wants to move in response to the forces and sources of motion that animate it. The whole of the body wants to keep moving, constantly, resiliently moving in surrendered response to the force of the breath that wants to breath through it. Layers of tissue want to move and flow freely and smoothly over one another as the force of the breath passes through them, everything moving freely, floating on the breath, not even a single little part of the body left behind, everything in motion, just like the universe.
Every breath you take offers you a clear choice: either you let go, surrender to and cooperate with the force of the breath or you brace yourself to resist it. We have all learned how to restrict the breath, how to keep it and ourselves held back and contained. Bringing the attitudes of relaxation and letting go into our meditation practice we invite the motion of the breath back into more and more of the body. Every breath we take, round after round, stimulate distinct sensation along the entire pathway of respiration. The sensation at the nostrils are just the distal ends of the spectrum of breath and there is a lot going on in the space between them. Every inhalation can be felt , to pass deep into the interior of the body, in a wave of sensation, as it moves along and into the passages and chambers of the respiratory system. As breath turns around to pass back out of the body, the wave recedes.
The three levels of breath that the buddha speaks of – starting at the front of the body, moving into the interior of the body and finally spreading through the whole of the body. Breathing through the whole body hints at a condition in which body, breath and mind-ordinarily so disconnected from one another _ can be felt to come together into a single coterminous phenomenon.
When the nasal cavity gets congested, airflow decreases and bacteria flourish. These bacteria replicate and can lead to infection and colds and more congestion. Congestion begets congestion, which gives us no other option but to habitually breath from mouth. Nobody knows how soon this damage occurs. Nobody knows how quickly bacteria accumulate in an obstructed nasal cavity. Mammals grew noses to warm and purify the air, throats to guide air into lungs and a network of sacs that would remove oxygen from the atmosphere and transfer it into the blood. The aerobic cells that once clung to swampy rocks so many eons ago now made up the tissues in mammalian bodies. These cells took oxygens from our blood and returned carbon dioxide, which traveled back through the veins, through the lungs and into the atmosphere : the process of breathing.
Mouth breathing, it turns out, changes the physical body and transforms airways ,all for the worse. Inhaling air through mouth the mouth decreases pressure, which causes the soft tissue in the back of the mouth to become loose and flex inward, creating less space and making breathing more difficult. Inhaling from the nose has the opposite effect, it forces air against all those flabby tissues at the back of the throat , making the airways wider and breathing easier. After a while, these tissues and muscles get toned to stay in this opened and wide position. Nasal breathing begets more nasal breathing. Mouth breathing causes the body to lose 40 percent more water. during the deepest, most restful stages of sleep, the pituitary gland, a pea size ball at the base of the brain, secrets hormone that control the release of adrenalin, endorphins, growth hormone and other substances including vasopressin which communicate with cells to store more water. This is how animals can sleep through the night without thirsty or needing to relieve themselves. The nose breathing is crucial because it clears air, heats it and moisten it for easier absorption.
Nasal erectile tissues mirrored states of health. It would become inflamed during sickness or other states of imbalance. If the nose became infected, the nasal cycle became more pronounced and switched back and forth quickly. The right and left nasal cavities also worked like an HVAC system, controlling temperature and blood pressure and feeling the brain chemicals to alter our moods, emotions and sleep states. The right nostril is a gas pedal. When we breath primarily through this channel, circulation speeds up, body gets hotter and cortisol levels blood pressure and heart rate all increase because it activates the sympathetic nervous system, the ” fight or flight” mechanism that puts the body in a more elevated state of alertness and readiness . Breath through right nose will also feed more blood to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, specifically to the prefrontal cortex, which has been associated with logical decision language and computing.
Inhaling through left nostril works as a kind of brake system to the right nostril accelerator. The left nostril is more deeply connected to parasympathetic nervous system, the resting and relax side that lower blood pressure and cools body and reduces anxiety. Left nostril breathing shifts blood flow to the opposite side of prefrontal cortex to the area that influences creative thought and plays a role in the information of mental abstraction and production of negative emotions.
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