Hold your breath.
Why did you say absurd?
It’s that automatic behavior we all exhibit all the time. It serves as a reminder that something is still alive. When a physical thing stops breathing, it is seen to be useless and is thrown away, albeit with some ceremony. A dead object is not something anyone wants to touch. And it’s all due to the cessation of breathing.
I enquired on ChatGPT how many breaths one would take and exhale during the course of a typical lifetime. With an assumption of 16 breaths per minute and an average lifespan of 80 years, ChatGPT calculated 48,042,000.
We rarely even notice it.
Yet, our breath serves as an invisible dashboard that provides important cues about our level of physical and mental wellness.
Patanjali mentions being mindful of a variety of potential diversions on the path of yoga in the first part of the Yogasutras. And when that occurs, we say that shallow breathing is the first indication of an unsettled mind. Your pupils enlarge as anxiety overtakes your senses, and you become hopeless in your search for a solution that makes sense at the time.
You can attempt to regulate the situation by focusing on your breath first if you are aware that it is the first symptom of a problem. Take note of your quick breathing and relax. Breathe in deeply, very deeply. Next, hold your breath for a long time. then gradually release.
Many face muscles can be seen releasing as you do it.
Most likely, you weren’t even aware of how tight and inflexible they were as a result of your erratic breathing while you battled tension and anxiety. Hence, your muscles react as well when you focus on controlling your breathing.
Don’t believe me? Observe the faces of gentle people who seem calm and content. They breath with ease, very slowly. And their faces have an aura. The sense of calm emanates from relaxed muscles at rest on the face, induced by very slow and measured breathing.
The fourth limb of Yoga is Pranayama. Prana is that invisible energy that symbolizes life. When the body relinquishes life, we say that the Prana has departed. Thus, the idea is to sustain life through better breath management.
Animals that breath rapidly live short lives. Others that take their time live longer. It is improbable that someone human who is highly agitated and tense most of the time – which then is reflected in staggered, uneven breath – will live beyond 75 or 80 years. But those who have taken the time to closely focus on the intake, retention and then expelling of breath are likely to have a longer life span.
