“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
This week we are starting our self-discipline journey at the core of everything, our breath. We are looking at the science in Patrick McKeown’s book The Oxygen Advantage: The simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Technique that will Revolutionise your Health and Fitness
Who is Patrick McKeown? and What does he have to say???
According to Amazon:
Patrick McKeown is an international breath expert and Oxygen Advantage® founder. He has provided breath training to improve breathing, sleep, anxiety, resilience, concentration and chronic illness since 2002.
Patrick is the founder and Director of Education for Oxygen Advantage®, which teaches functional breathing for resilience and improved sports performance. There are currently more than 3,000 trained Oxygen Advantage® instructors across 50 countries.
Patrick has his own website with a bio as follows: https://oxygenadvantage.com/patrick-mckeown-m-a-tcd/
He also has a fantastic podcast I am quickly becoming a big fan of which you can locate here:
https://oxygenadvantage.com/podcasts/
What is The Oxygen Advantage all about?
Effectively the book discusses how breathing better can literally change your life.
Patrick puts forward that since cave man days people have been breathing through their noses. Mouth breathing was reserved for stress situations triggered by our flight or fight reaction. He suggests that we actually breathe too much oxygen in the modern era.
The science that really turns things on its head in your mind is that in order for oxygen to transfer into the haemoglobin and spread to all the organs around the body, you actually need a higher level of CO2 in the body. Meaning breathing less oxygen, or breathing better quality oxygen (meaning breathing via your nose rather than your mouth) leads to higher levels of oxygen to all of your organs.
Why do we care?
The better we become at breathing through our nose the healthier we become over time.
One of the most unusual suggestions he puts forward is to tape your mouth at night with medical tape to force yourself to breathe through your nose rather than your mouth. Disclaimer, I have no medical credentials and have yet to even try this technique myself. I’m keen though.
I am assured by the word of mouth of Patrick’s followers that with persistence, I will improve and be ever more grateful for it.
So, check out The Oxygen Advantage if you are interested in reprogramming your baseline so that you have the right foundational blocks for your self-discipline journey.
Until next week, AlphaMama over and out.