‘Feet to Core to Four led by the Head travelling on the Breath.’ - Part 12

An ancient proverb states, ‘Life is in the breath. He who half breathes half lives.’

Movements – like words – travel on the breath. If the breath is wrong, so is the quality of the movement.[1]

Indeed, breath management is so important I’ve decided to devote 2 articles to it.

And I’m still only going to be scratching the surface. Hopefully, though, you’ve realised that’s true with all of the topics I’m introducing in my weekly notes.

My goal with this blog is two-fold. It is to:

1. Give you insights into the nature and purpose of Silat Fitrah and how we teach and practise it;

2. Provide content that creates thought or additional research and/or helps your own martial arts study in some small way.

In this, the first of the two-parter, I want to share some content with you from a book I had the privilege to write with Dr John Sullivan, one of America’s leading Clinical and Sports Psychologists. John has many years of experience working at the highest levels of sport, including 15 years with the many-time Super Bowl winning The New England Patriots, and with America’s most elite military. The book is called The Brain Always Wins. This extract is about breath management in general, including instruction in how to practice diaphragmatic breathing – and the benefits of doing so.

In future blogs, I’ll move on to a consideration of martial arts movement and breathing.

Now, though, please enjoy the wisdom of Dr John Sullivan:

‘Buddhist monks have developed a breathing rhythm that has become known as heart coherence. This is the synchronization between the breath and heart rate, during which the heart speeds up on the inhalation bringing much needed oxygen and glucose to the brain and slows down again on the exhalation. The practitioners seems to experience maximum benefit at about six breaths per minute, during which they feel significant relaxation, a more controlled focus, reduced energy expenditure and a reduced heart rate.

‘In essence, the ability to control our breath allows us greater management over both our Central Nervous Service and Peripheral Nervous System. Research shows that this control impacts positively on our ability to create and/or maintain emotional coherence. As human beings we are, as far as we know, unique in our capability to do this. Our closest evolutionary cousin the Chimpanzee does not have this capacity and even less breath control appears to exist amongst Gorillas and Orangutans.

‘Breath control taught as a formal skill dates back thousands of years and the knowledge of how and why it works is clear to us today. It is ours to use or neglect. Jeff Lowe, the great mountaineer, a man used to managing his emotional state under pressure, says, “In a tight situation remember that deep breathing clears the mind and relaxes the muscles.” ’

Next time, John will explain more about diaphragmatic breathing.

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[1] And so is the influential value of our words - but that is another topic altogether…