WEBVTT

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Take a deep breath.

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Yes, right now.

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Come up from the back of your seat.

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Sit up straight and take
a big inhale, fill all the way up,

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and then exhale.

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Deep breath in and exhale all the way out.

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Now, do you feel like you get
a little bit taller on the inhale?

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Yeah?

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How you get taller and stretch upwards

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and on the exhale sort of settle down?

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Because I'm seeing it.

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Well, if you do, you're what I call
"a vertical breather."

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And unfortunately, it's an anatomically
incongruous way to breathe,

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meaning that you're breathing
out of sync with your body.

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However, nine out of ten people
breathe this way.

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So, here's what happens
when you breathe vertically.

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First thing that happens is that you
overuse your neck and shoulder muscles.

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You see, your neck and shoulder muscles
were never meant to be breathing muscles.

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So, even though it's a small movement,

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you're doing it thousands of times a day,

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millions of times a year, year after year.

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So, if you have neck and shoulder pain -

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just a little, right -

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you can blame the car,
you can blame the computer,

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but first and foremost
blame your breathing.

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Second thing is that you're only using
the top part of your lungs.

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Where's the biggest,
most oxygen-rich part of your lungs?

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Right down here.

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Take your hands. Put them there.

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There we go. Right down here.
The biggest, densest part of your lungs.

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Do you use these
when you breathe vertically?

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No.

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So, you actually have to take
several smaller breaths,

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that is breathe faster
to get the air that you need.

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Now, here's what's most fascinating
for me as a psychologist:

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the vagus nerve is a nerve
that goes to the back of your head

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and goes throughout your whole body.

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"Vagus" means "wanderer" in Latin.

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And it does; it wanders
throughout your whole body,

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picking up signals
to tell your brain how to feel.

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Now, when you're breathing vertically,

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the vagus nerve automatically

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puts you into a stressed out
fight-or-flight mode.

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And it doesn't matter what's going on
in your surroundings -

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they could be perfectly mundane routine -

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you're going to be in a fight-or-flight.

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So, this connection to stress
is what got me interested in the breath.

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I woke up one fall several years ago
with a dull, throbbing pain in my jaw.

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And I found myself
at the dentist's office,

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hearing those five words
you never want to hear,

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"Do you have dental insurance?"

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(Laughter)

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I didn't.

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And being a compulsive type A,
I wasn't just grinding my teeth;

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I was pulverizing them.

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So, thousands of dollars later,

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I came to the conclusion
that I was not controlling my stress;

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it was controlling me.

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It was time for a change.

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I started by signing up for a yoga class,

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where we would do breathing exercises
at the beginning of class.

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I heard words like kapalabhati, ujjayi.

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We would breathe
through one nostril, then the other;

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we would do breath holds.

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I was intrigued. I dove in headfirst.

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I took every class I could find,
read every book,

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studied every academic article.

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I found myself in classes
with gong baths and chakra balancing.

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I read articles about cellular respiration
and rates of oxygen exchange.

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I studied breathing in birthing,

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freediving, singing, and martial arts.

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What was most alarming to me
was when I looked around,

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almost everyone I knew
wasn't breathing correctly.

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And I knew - the medical research said -

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that breath affects your sleep, your back,

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your digestion, your memory, anxiety;

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all these different things.

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It affects parts of our body
that you'd never even consider,

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like esophagus and your pelvic floor.

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It wreaks havoc
throughout your whole body.

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It affects your immune system,
your adrenal glands, acidity.

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So, I formalized what I was learning
into a method and started teaching.

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Now, who do you think
were the first people that called me?

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Was it members of the wellness community?

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Was it New-Age folks?

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Uh-uh.

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SWAT, Homeland Security,

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DEA, Border Patrol,

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Military and Law Enforcement.

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We know the importance of the breath.

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Ancient yogis say we come into this world
with a certain number of breaths,

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and we can take them quickly
and live a short lifespan,

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or we can take them deeply and slowly
and live a long lifespan.

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4,000 years later, fast forward,

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the Framingham study found that breathing

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is predictive of longevity
in a quantitative way,

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longevity and health.

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So, I know what you're thinking.

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"I'm breathing wrong? How could this be?"

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Well, relax, it's not all your fault.

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Sometime between the ages of five and ten,
your breathing changes

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from a lower-body breath
to an upper-body breath.

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And it happens because of several things.

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Number one is that you go to school
and you start sitting a lot.

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And sitting affects your posture,
which affects your breath.

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You go to the doctor;
the stethoscope goes here.

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They say, "Take a deep breath,"

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and you think, "Hm, my lungs
must be up here."

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Someone pokes you in the belly
and calls you fatty,

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and hence starts years,
even decades of gut sucking.

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So even now, as an adult,
you're sucking it in

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because you're thinking
it makes you look thinner,

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because it's an emotional
response to fear,

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because it's a bracing stance

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that helps you feel prepared
to run or to strike.

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Because you believe the myth

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that tensing your abs
makes your core stronger.

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But the breath has no choice
but to rise to the top of your body,

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become vertical, and stay there.

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So, what should you do?

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Look no further than your toddler,
your dog, your cat, even your fish.

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They breathe expanding and contracting
in the middle, using the diaphragm.

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Now, much of the confusion
around breathing occurs

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because we don't really
understand the diaphragm.

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It's a muscle deep inside;

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it's depicted as this little red line
that crosses the body,

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when actually it's much more
like the Starship Enterprise,

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this enormous muscle
in the very middle of your body,

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separating your thoracic cavity
from your digestive organs.

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And the only reason it was put there
was to help you breathe,

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if you let it.

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So, let's get intimate with the diaphragm.

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Right now, really. Take your fingers.

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Put them right here,
at your sternum. Okay?

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Walk them around the bottom of your ribs.

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Go! Keep walking. There we go.

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Now, your ribs are attached
to your sternum like handles on a pail.

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On the inhale, they're meant
to move out horizontally,

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and on the exhale,
they narrow with your body.

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What a beautiful machine the body is.

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But maybe it's time that we revisit
this cornerstone of our health,

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especially now when the narrow screens
of the computer or handhelds

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result in us sipping in
tiny amounts of air;

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little inhales and little exhales
or sometimes none at all.

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Alright, let's fix this.

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Come up from the back of your seat.

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Come on up.

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Scooch up to the front
of your chair. Alright.

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We're going to do a breathing exercise.

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This is called Rock and Roll.

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You're going to put
your hands on your belly.

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We're going to do the exaggerated version

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until your diaphragm starts to kick in,
starts to get engaged.

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So, you might get
a little bit lightheaded.

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Enjoy it. Alright?

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(Laughter)

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So, I want you to tip forward,
inhale, let your belly go. Ready?

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Tip forward, inhale, let it go, expand,
exhale, squeeze, round your back.

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Belly button gets closer to your spine.

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Use your abs.

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Inhale, tip forward, let your belly go.

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Expand it.

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Exhale, squeeze; get all that air out.

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Round your shoulders;
they have nothing to do with this.

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Big inhale, expand. Exhale, squeeze.

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Forwards and back.

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You're now breathing horizontally.

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We're going to do a breathing exercise.

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It's a Counting Breath.
It comes from the military.

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It's my favorite one.
It's called Tactical Breath.

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So, you're going
to inhale for four, hold for four,

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exhale for six, hold for two.

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We're going to do it together.
Ready? Okay.

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Inhale - two, three, four -

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hold - two, three, four -

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exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

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hold - two.

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Inhale - two, three, four -

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hold - two, three, four -

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exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

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hold - two.

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Inhale - two, three, four -

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hold - two, three, four -

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exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

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hold - two.

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Close your eyes - two, three, four -

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hold - two, three, four -

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exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

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hold - two.

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Tip forward.

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Inhale and continue on your own

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with a beautiful, anatomically congruous
lower-body horizontal breath.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)