Breathing Through Chaos

I've been responding the last couple of days to a lot of social comments and one thing that's become clear to me is just how much chaos and stress is out there. It's not hard to imagine why. Neuroscientists today describe the primary function of the human brain as making predictions based on sensory inputs and preparing the body to act. Unfortunately, after the pandemic we've all just lived through together, it makes sense a lot of the predictions would be dark.

But it just felt so bad not to have anything to offer these people; then I remembered a breathing exercise that Dr. Andrew Weil, MD taught my class in medical school. Long before he became a famous alternative health guru Andy happened to be one of my professors. He ended one lecture by saying "Can you believe there are doctors out there who don't even take the time to teach their patients to breath properly?" That's taking it pretty far,* but I've really practiced breathing over the years and I would encourage you to do the same yourself.

Start simple. Try breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. The timing varies based on the day but often it's four long seconds in and then four seconds out. Out can vary for me depending on the situation up to eight seconds. The yogis call this the ujjayi breathing; I don't know what that means. But it sounds like the Darth Vader: an audible 'in' through your nose, then even louder 'out' through your mouth. Your lips are open a little bit and your tongue is slightly on the roof of your mouth. As the air leaves it may even blow your cheeks out a little bit. Here's a demonstration:

I mean it's so peaceful! And it makes sense. When you drink too much you know you need to knock it off and be abstinent to allow your liver time to heal and recover. If you eat too much sugar you can spike up your serum glucose and a ton of insulin is produced in your pancreas so you hold off eating to recover. Your brain is no different. In predicting the future sometimes those loops just get too fast and they're not helping prepare your body to react, they're just manufacturing anxiety and inner chaos.

There's nothing new about anxiety; however, its worse today. I don't know why, but it may relate to our firehose of information tainted with pathologies like clickbait and gaslighting. Honestly, there's so much demonization and chaos on the internet it often feels like borderline is our new normal. Take a few breaths to protect yourself.

I hope this helps. Of course, controlled breathing is the basis of meditation. If this works well for you it may be a clue that learning more and practicing meditation is your next step. Een if Dr. Deepak Chopra's content wasn't so good just the sound of his voice is worth checking out.

My best to you today. I hope you find peace. I hope you find happiness. And I hope you find calm. But to start, just breathe.

Dan Lieberman, MD

*Andy also started a lecture once with the statement "There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who love mushrooms, and those who are afraid of them." It took me 20 years to realize how right he was about that.