Breathing is one of the most primary life sustaining system. At the same time it is the most neglected system. It gets neglected because it is involuntary. It happens effortlessly. It happens without your knowledge. Something else takes care of itself. Therefore you consider it unworthy of attention.
But being the most primary function it is the fundamental indicator of your health and vigour. It is also thought to be an indicator of your potential life span.
In simple observations one can see that fast and short breathing animals such as dog and horse have life span of about twenty years whereas deep and slow breathing animals such as tortoise, crocodiles and elephants have a long life span of about a 100 years.
This shows that long and deep breath is linked to long and healthy life. No doubt short or vigorous breathing is required for vigorous activities, but one does not indulge in vigorous activities for all the time and all the months and years of life. It only shows that it is need based and requires attention and conscious efforts.
What happens in life is that we do not take cognizance of this vital function of our body till it degenerates to the extent of stopping, when we put a patient on artificial breathing system.
The objective of the article is to create awareness in the readers of the need to watch their breathing and be conscious about it. This is also a recommended step in all types of Meditations, coming straight from the Bhagwat-Geetha chapter six Dhyanyoga.
Now let us come to some mathematics of breathing. Do we really know how many breaths we take in a day and in a minute?
It is said that we breathe 10 to 20 times a minute. Some Yogi has estimated about 21600 breaths in a day. This also comes to15 breaths per minute.
Considering the average life span of 72 years with appropriate multiplications we get following results for total number of breaths in a life of a human being 378,432000; 567,648,000 and 756,864,000 for 10, 15 and 20 breaths per minute. Having come to the (PTO)
figure of millions of breaths per life being a Hindu by birth, it occurred to my mind, does it have any relation to our concept of millions of GODs ?
To be precise we believe that there are 330 million Gods. Could it be that each breath is considered as a visit of God giving an assurance of life? Yes, sure enough we may not like to miss any one of it. We cannot even afford to miss any one of it.
If that is so, why not make the best of it and make each visit as long as possible. Get the maximum benefit out of it.
Now let us work backwards with a hypothesis that a human being will live to meet 330 million Gods i.e. to take 330 million breaths in his life span. Then we calculate the life span in days and years for different rates of breathing per minute. The results are tabulated as follows.
|
Breath/Min. |
Per Day |
33,00,00,000/BPD |
Life |
|
# Days |
# Years |
||
|
15 |
21600 |
15277.78 |
41.86 |
|
10 |
14400 |
22916.67 |
62.79 |
|
8 |
11520 |
28645.83 |
78.48 |
|
7 |
10080 |
32738.09 |
89.68 |
|
6 |
8640 |
38194.44 |
104.64 |
It is seen that a person breathing 15 times per minute will finish off his quota of 330 million breaths in about 42 years. Whereas one breathing on an average of six breaths per minute regularly, will do the same in 105 years.
However, our breathing rate also differs according to activity or inactivity and also according to emotional ups and downs.
Therefore, it appears that we must be exhausting our quota of 330 million breaths in 72 years or so.
However, as a corollary if we make a conscious effort to extend each breath to about 10 seconds, we may achieve the magic figure of 105 years of life span.
(PTO)
To do that, we must understand, the process of breathing thoroughly. We must also know the parts of body, which facilitate breathing. We must also know the ideal conditions that they should be in. We must also know the ways to keep them in ideal, i.e., fighting fit condition.
For proper breathing and for good respiratory system, the following parts of the body play an important role.
1. The Nasal passage along with sinuses.
2. Throat with trachea.
3. Lungs comprising of small cluster of small balloons called alveoli.
4. The rib cage covering the lungs.
5. The diaphragm.
We deal with three different ways of breathing, which are aimed at cleansing the respiratory passage and strengthening the system.
1. Tiger’s
Roar (UJJAYI): -
In this exercise we start with forceful inhalation with all the force concentrated at one’s throat. Mouth is tightly shut. Chin raised slightly so as that the air brushes against one’s throat while passing in and also during exhalation. The air brushing vigorously will make guttural sound. During the exhalation press your stomach inside by pulling the diaphragm upwards. Later on press the rib cage down using your chest muscles. While breathing in first relax the diaphragm allowing the stomach to inflate. Expand the rib cage upwards thereafter. Repeat the exercise 5 times i.e., 5 inhalations and 5 exhalations.
(PTO)
This exercise will clear one’s throat and trachea. Remove all the obstacles in the same manner. In the case of an unclear passage in a person, this may cause coughing and as a result, he/she we may have to spit out whatever mucus and other things that are obstructing the passage.
2. Cycle
Pump (KAPALABHATI): -
In this exercise diaphragm is used extensively for vigorous, forceful and continuous exhalation. The exhalation is active whereas inhalation is passive. The participant has to begin with full inhalation by closing the mouth lips tightly closed, tongue sticking to palate, chin tucked near throat so as to lead the exhaled rush of air through the nasal passage forcefully. The force is exercised by the diaphragm, by pulling in all the stomach muscles. This action is to be repeated continuously, wherein the stomach muscles will be pulled in, and relaxed in quick succession. Air will be forced out of nostrils and nasal passage when the diaphragm is pulled in. In the relax stage of the diaphragm air will be automatically sucked in. More air will be thrown out than inhaled. After about 6 to 7 successive exhalations, volume on air going out of nose will reduce. Then participant should relax to take deep breath to repeat the whole exercise once more. During this exercise all the mucus blocking the nasal passage would be thrown out. Therefore, participants may keep handkerchief on hand. However, one did not feel embarrassed because of this. One should rather feel happy that the obstructions in the respiratory system are being removed.
3.
Blacksmith’s Bellow (BHASRIKA): -
In this way of breathing the participants have to use of the chest muscles, the diaphragm as well as the rib cage. Inhalation as well as exhalation is forceful. The beginning can be made with full breath in the chest. Mouth is tightly shut. Hands raised in the sky so as to enable the rib cage to expand to the fullest extent. Head slightly raised to allow more air in the throat as well. Hands are brought down with clenched fists, breathing out forcefully through the nostrils. As hands reach down stomach is pulled in. In a quick succession hands are raised up and breath is taken in equally forcefully by releasing the stomach and expanding rib cage both inhalation as well as exhalation will cause a loud sound which will resemble an engine at work.
(PTO)
This repetition should carry on only for 6 to 7 cycles of inhalation and exhalation. This should not be repeated more number of times than that at one go. If that were done it would cause over-oxygenation of the body and brain. To avoid this the body system will be instructed to stop muscle action. Thus, the participants will feel dizzy. If these three exercises are done regularly the practitioner will be bestowed good health forever. He or she will improve immunity of body considerably.
For the purpose of achieving the best results for the above practice, it is also necessary that the participants do other exercises such as Surya Namaskar and certain Asanas so as to keep the body in proper shape reduced the fat especially accumulated on stomach. The exercises are also necessary for improving the strength as well as tone of muscles, which help breathing. We must realize excessive fat on stomach would obstruct the function of diaphragm and thus causing hindrance in breathing.
After continued practice in the ways given above for improving breathing, one will be able to breathe effectively and reduce the number of breaths per minute. The participant can always consciously practice breathing improvement exercise for half an hour in a day in two broken spells of 15 minutes each, one in the morning and one in the evening session. This would go in a long way to improve one’s health and enhance one’s life span by many happy and healthy years.
Prakash Tendulkar
C-9,Central Railway officers’ Flats,
D.Phalke Road, Dadar (East),
Mumbai-400014.
Tel.022-24123163.
e-mail: pstendulkar@yahoo.com
16th April 2004.