The Inside Senses

The 'five senses' - vision, sound and touch, smell and taste, refer to senses which detect external sights, sounds, objects, smells and flavors.

Sensations are also generated within the body, such as stomach discomfort, holding breath, as well as in the skeleton, muscles, reproductive system, and within the head. When these sensations come to conscious awareness, they evoke powerful emotions and actions - nausea, toothaches, headaches are both the source and signal of stress, fear, anxiety - as orgasm, satiety, deep sighs and tearing up are closely related to ecstasy, peace, relief, grief, sadness, joy and more.

At the root is breath.

The Physiology of Breath

I imagine holding my breath.  As an untrained breath-holder, I experience the following:

Within a few seconds, the rising level of blood CO2 and shift in pH activates chemoreceptors in my carotid artery.  I notice sensations of pressure or tension in my chest, diaphragm and throat.  I feel an urge to breathe.

As I hold longer, and fear, panic or a sense of suffocation arises, as well as feelings of pressure and spasms in my diaphragm. Near the end of my tolerance, I feel an urge to urinate.

However, this is not the only possible response to breath-holding and if you are trained, you may not experience any of these things.  Free divers hold their breath for minutes at a time and experience a calm, meditative state.

Can anyone reprogram this intrinsic fear and panic response? And does it only work for fear and panic or can we really condition almost any emotional response?

In 1984 researchers found that when people inhale a lungful of 35% CO2, which evokes similar sensation to holding your breath for a long time, they experience feelings ranging from mild anxiety to full blown panic.

As researchers explored further, they found many things that suggest that the panic and fear are more than simple reflex responses, and with mindful intention can in fact be reconditioned.

Subjects suffering from panic disorder were more likely to panic when exposed to 35% CO2 than control subjects.  But not people with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety and other disorders.  Panic disorder is not just intense general anxiety.  It is a specific, learned cycle of sensations, emotions, thoughts and actions that escalates rapidly and unconsciously. The difference in response between groups suggests that the panic is not an inevitable or intrinsic response, but rather a learned response.

Researchers also found that when administered mood-affecting drugs, such as beta-blockers, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, opioids and alcohol, people panicked less.  Dampening the rapid cycle of emotions, thoughts and actions can reduce the chance that it escalates to panic. This further suggests that panic is not an unchangeable reflex.

How about people who are usually unafraid?  Subjects with bilaterally damaged amygdalae who normally cannot learn fear and do not usually feel afraid experienced intense fear and panic after inhaling 35% CO2 - often for the first time in their lives.  They also panicked more than the control subjects.

This suggests that 1) these subjects have the ability to feel fear and panic - they just never learned to connect the fear and panic to other stimuli, 2) 35% CO2 still somehow induces fear and panic, perhaps through another pathway and 3) even in this alternate pathway, control subjects may learn to prevent the cycle of fear and panic.  Different groups of people having different responses again suggests that fear and panic can be conditioned.

Can the CO2 panic response be unlearned?  One study examined the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on panic attacks in subjects with panic disorder.  They found that after a twelve week training with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the tendency to panic was greatly reduced.

Most surprisingly, anxiety during the test was also abolished. Participants who had full panic attacks before training reported that they had very little anxiety after training. They experienced less anxiety than normal people who had not been trained.

What was the magic training?  It was cognitive behavioral therapy:

1. Examine thoughts and beliefs and recognize that some are illogical and catastrophic.
2. Condition the thought patterns and interpretation of sensation with specific exercises.

These studies suggest that with the right techniques, what seems like a hard-wired reflex to breathe can be reconditioned.

Breathing becomes an opportunity to consciously shape emotional reactions and the inner emotional landscape. One way to think about this is to consider the breathing  under anger, anxiety or fear. Breathing becomes rapid, noisy, shallow, and irregular. As the subjects learned, become aware of these patterns and shifting to deeper, quieter, slower, and more regular patterns caused the feelings of anxiety, fear, or anger to fade. Breathe with intention and become more aware and conscious in every moment.

So what exactly do we need to do to gain control over our mental and emotional states through the breath? Do we need to hold our breath until we experience feelings of panic and fear like the subjects in these studies? Fortunately, the answer is absolutely not!‍

for breathwork

Here are a few guidelines I found useful as I've explored breathwork. These have made me feel comfortable and safe.

1. I listened to my body and intuition. I found initial guidance and training in breathwork ceremonies, and with these as a foundation, I began to explore on my own. I reminded myself to be gentle.
2. I used common sense and developed respect for the power of the technique. My instructors reminded me that my body will naturally take care of itself. If conscious control has gone too far, I will faint (I have not in my work to date), and return to breathing normally. They warned me, if my airway is blocked (i.e. by being underwater or by vomit) or if I fall and knock my head, or lose consciousness while driving a vehicle, this can become deadly. I practice sitting up, sometimes lying down, and make sure the space around me is clear.
3. I work in a ceremonial context with clear intention. It's easy for my ego to look for an ecstatic state or setting a personal record for breath hold time. O notice this, and shift my focus to process and internal connection rather than duration or external goals. I find that thirty seconds of meditative breath-hold is more effective than two minutes of eyeballing a stopwatch.
4. I use tools such as stopwatches and O2 monitors to build awareness around my practice, and am careful to keep the measurements as guides rather than goals.  A stopwatch helps me notice, for instance, when I run out of patience and come out of a hold in 30 seconds instead of 1 minute, or notice that my heart rate is higher than usual, or to help pace my breaths and adjust our technique (by trying 60 breaths instead of 45, or by holding for 15 seconds instead of 20 or 30). This approach has helped me to notice attachments, for instance, frustration if a hold is shorter than expected. I remind myself that the practice is about connecting with myself, not external performance or goals.

Enjoy rediscovering each breath as a gift.