How do you know that you're alive? And a simple practice to focus and relax.

The ability to breathe determines whether we are alive.

However, many of us often take the breath for granted.

We usually go about our daily life without paying much attention to our breath.

The breath is intricately linked to our physical and mental state.

Have you noticed?

When we get anxious --> our breath becomes shallow

When we are angered --> our breath becomes short

When faced with a daunting task --> we heave a long sigh

When we are focusing on an intricate task (e.g. threading a needle) --> we hold our breath

However, the relationship between our breath and our physical and mental state is not just a one-way relationship.

The ancient yogis discovered that, by controlling the breath, one could alter one's physical and mental state.

Try the following exercise for yourself!

Equal Breathing

Technique

1. Practise this in a comfortable, seated position.
2. Sit upright with your hands resting gently on your knees, elbows and shoulders relaxed, and eyes closed.
3. Breathing easily, take note of the number of counts it takes for you to complete one inhalation.
4. When you exhale, try to take the same amount of time (same number of counts) to complete your exhalation.
5. Repeat. Avoid forcing your breath, just allow the air to flow in and out of your nose smoothly.
6. Ideally, try to maintain the same number of counts for your inhalation and exhalation throughout the entire session. However, if at any point you find that the pace doesn't feel comfortable to you, go ahead and change it to a more comfortable pace.

Likely Results

A. Centering / Concentration / Focus

Practice Duration: about 2 minutes

As we go about our day, sometimes we need to sit down and change our focus as we switch between tasks, or concentrate on a task after running about for meetings.

After doing this exercise for about 2 minutes, it is likely that you will notice that your mind has calmed down, allowing you to focus on the task at hand.

B. Relaxation

Practice Duration: about 5 minutes

If you continue practising, you'll probably notice around the 5-minute mark that you are feeling relaxed. In fact, the relaxation effect can be so strong that you may doze off.

It's not magic, it's how your body works

This principle behind this exercise is simple: it is a deliberate attempt to slow down the rate at which we exhale.

If you get a chance to observe yourself breathing during the day, you might notice that the time you take to exhale is shorter than the time you take to inhale.

For many people, most of the time, it may even seem that we rush through the exhalation.

In this exercise, by pacing the breath to take the same amount to breathe out as we breathe in, we are slowing down the speed at which we exhale.

Over time, this causes the level of carbon dioxide in our body to increase, ever so slightly.

An elevated level of carbon dioxide in the body gives a calming effect by relaxing the vagus nerve. Hence, one feels calmer (hence more focused). If we continue practising, the feeling of calm leads to relaxation.

Cautions

• Do not try this immediately after vigorous physical activity.
• If you're panting or out of breath, allow your breath to return to normal before practising Equal Breathing.
• If you feel any discomfort, become out of breath, or feel dizzy, stop.
• Breathe easily throughout the practice. Don't force your breath.

Challenge

Try to take a few moments to observe your breath during the day, and notice how it changes as we go through the day.

Do let me know how it goes, after you give this a try!

2 Things You Can Do to Mitigate the Ill-Effects of the Haze on Your Body

Singapore's Merlion Looking Out Toward a Hazy Bay (Photo Credit: Straits Times)

My Facebook and Twitter feeds are flooded with updates on the latest PSI reading, which keeps ticking up.

People wearing masks are no longer shunned. No one wonders "What's wrong with them?", because we all know - it's the haze in the air.

Mere mortals like us cannot do anything about the fires in Indonesia causing the pollution.

But we can and should do whatever we can to limit the impact on our bodies of inhaling the polluted air in this haze.

We're familiar with the official advisory by now, i.e.

• Stay indoors (with windows and doors closed)
• Avoid strenuous activities

Here are 2 things that you can do to mitigate the ill-effects of the haze on your body:

1. Breathe in and out only through your nose

The air smells bad.

It is tempting to breathe through the mouth to avoid detecting the foul, smoky smell in the air.

However, our nose was built precisely for the purpose of breathing.

The nose:

• Filters particles from the air we inhale, preventing them from entering our lungs
• Humidifies the air, adding moisture to keep your airways from drying out
• Warms the air to body temperature before it reaches the lungs

Breathing through your mouth instead of your nose bypasses much of the body’s natural air filtering and treatment. This can allow germs, allergens and other pollutants to get inside your lungs, where they can damage delicate tissues.

With the haze right now, it is even more important that we allow the nose to perform its function (especially its function as a filter) - so, please breathe through your nose!

(Do remember to clean your nose too. Just as a vacuum cleaner with the dirty filter cannot pick up much dust from the floor, a dirty nose can't do as good a filtering job as a clean nose.)

2. Drink more water

This sounds really generic.

(a) Ensures that the filter in your nose keeps working

When you breathe through your nose, the air goes past your nostrils into an open area inside your head called the nasal cavity, before heading down the esophagus and into your lungs through the windpipe.

The whole system of airways is lined with a thin layer of sticky mucus that traps dust particles, bacteria and other pollutants. Tiny hairs called cilia sweep mucus from the nasal cavity into the back of the throat where it can be swallowed and neutralized in the stomach.

Mucus is constantly being produced (2-4 cups per day) so that the cycle can go on.

With the unusual load of particles in the air that need to be removed, the mucus membranes are working in overdrive to produce more mucus than usual.

(b) Ensures that your have enough tears to wash out the dirt out of your eyes

With more dust particles coming in contact with our eyes, tear production is increased to flush out the dirt. The blinking reflex in the eye allows the lashes and lids to move tears, bacteria and debris out of the eye.

Sure, eye drops work. Use them when necessary. But fluids in the body can only be replenished by drinking water.


Drinking enough water ensures that the body can produce enough mucus and tears, so that your body's systems can work in the optimal way to protect your health.

Take care, everyone.