Just breathe.

On the power of simplicity in meditation practice including breath-based meditation research

There is a reason why that phrase "just breathe" is a bit of a tattoo cliche at this point. The breath is always there for us to use as a tool to help us calm down or rev up depending on what we need. And sometimes, there is so much going on that a simple practice is exactly what we need for our practice for the day.

No multiple steps or challenging points of focus, just paying attention to the breath. A simple practice that reaps benefits. Clarity of mind, reclaiming some calm, recharging your battery. That's how it works for me anyways!!

The wonderful thing is, stuff backs this up - both in the ancient yogic science and in recent clinical research. I'll share the mystical and the scientific reasons why a simple breath practice can be so restorative.

The mystical

In yoga philosophy, the breath is prana - life force energy. You may have heard in a yoga or meditation class "where attention goes, energy flows." When we take time to simply be with the breath, we are giving our attention to prana- to the life force energy running through our mind-body system. That attention then acts as bit of prana recharge - enlivening our energy. Pretty neat huh?

The scientific

Digging into breath-centric meditation research, I found a super interesting study that aimed to investigate the effects of breath-based meditation vs simple paced breathing. There were no statistically significant differences between the experimental group doing attention-based breath meditation, and the "active" control.

The "active" control group is noteworthy here because a lot of studies use a "waitlist" control group - basically they do surveys and tests before and after for both the control group and the experimental group, and the waitlist group just doesn't get to do the meditation or yoga or whatever. Atchley et al (2017) aka the super clever researchers for this study wanted to know more about any specific mechanism that made breath-based meditation effective.

What were they studying, specifically? Reaction time in response to task switching! The participants had repurposed smartphones which pinged a few times a day and they had to do ten minutes of activities switching between kinds of tasks. Think - word-based to number-based, qualitative to quantitative etc. The reaction times for completing the tasks decreased for both groups. In my opinion that is because of the attention training of keeping our mind on the breath as well as the purposeful redirection of prana.

If you aren't on the prana-and-science bus with me yet may I offer you another study, which was a meta-analysis of the effects of slow deep breathing on chronic pain. In this study, Joseph et al. (2022) aka a bunch of mostly MDs investigated the efficacy and mechanisms of slow deep breathing on chronic pain. I learned a new term with this one y'all: respiratory hypoalgesia. That is breath-based (respiratory) desensitization to pain (hypoalgesia).

Across seven studies, slow deep breathing significantly reduced pain scores compared to the control groups. The researchers tried to identify specific mechanisms, but ultimately recommended additional research.

I think that having something to focus on helps to take our mind off of things, so focusing on slow deep breathing surely helps. Isn't that a common recommendation when you are going through some stuff? "Go do this or that, it'll take your mind off of things." And as I have shared previously, paying attention to the breath and body in the present helps to reduce psychological stress because it quiets our default mode network is responsible for all of our self-referential thinking - worrying about the past and the future, getting anxious, etc.

But physical pain? That is where I think the yogic science of prana comes in. In my opinion, focusing on the breath like that, even without the intention of directing prana, is responsible. That life force energy helped to reduce the experience of pain! Respiratory hypoalgesia, explained!

It is important to keep in mind this study was for chronic pain - not acute - so by no means is breathing a substitute for a trip to the ER for a broken bone. Like, duh.

But your lower back pain? Or shoulder tightness? Worth seeing if some breathing helps to lessen it. You could even imagine breathing that prana directly into wherever you are experiencing the sensations of pain.

It's worth a little experiment, IMO 😎

This week's practice

I have a lovely back to basics "being with the breath" practice for y'all this week. It includes two breath practices, first just being with the breath, and then a little counting.

TBH I have been working hard on my website and also went to Sedona AZ 20-24 March...that mountain magic and lovely family time really threw me off my "putting stuff out on the internets" game y'all! Getting to see the Grand Canyon was incredible though and I highly recommend it if you ever have the chance. They say pictures don't do it justice but I say a 3D IMAX immersive experience wouldn't do it justice!!! Awe-some. For real.

In deep gratitude + spring blessings 🌷🌱🌧️

💕Carolyn

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter!! If you know anyone who would benefit from these practices supporting self-awareness, self-regulation, and reconnecting to oneself and the world around them, I would be delighted if you shared the love and passed it along 🙏

You can find me on YouTube and Instagram with my Military Yogini handle, I'd love to connect with you there!

I greatly appreciate any feedback, comments, or requests for practices/info. I've got a lot of knowledge and skills to share with people, so tell me what ya need and we'll see what I can do!! Simply respond to this email to send me your thoughts 😊