The Optimal Breathing Window. (OBWIN)
Remember, to best manage it, you need to be able to measure
it.
Stop right now and, fighting for EVERY BIT OF BREATH YOU CAN,
while you feel the strain, breathe in as deeply as you possibly can.
Even let your eyes get very wide open, your shoulders raised and
your neck muscles bulged out
Exhale letting the breath go.
Call that uppermost in breath a 10.
Now take a deep breath but stop when it gets full, but not strained……………….. demo Exhale. Then breathe naturally.
Call that comfortable uppermost in breath an 8.
Now
breathe into your “8” and just let the breath escape
in a relaxing exhale. So if you were to breathe out more,
you would have to force it. Call that point a 2.
Then breathe naturally.
Now
breathe in to an 8, and let the breath go to 2, then immediately exhale,
forcing
the breath out with your belly muscles like blowing out the candles
on a birthday cake
to as close as you can to no breath left at all. Feel the
strain and tension in your body
from 2-0. Breathe naturally.
Try that again. In to 8 ……then relaxed out to 2, then forced out to 0.
Breathe naturally.
Call that uncomfortable lower most out-breath a 0.
SHALLOW BREATHING
To clarify, many do not
breathe very deeply, so they mostly breathe in to say 4 or 5.
Then they use
or spend 3, 4, 5, or more of the air while speaking or singing, and end
up
at 0-1.9, in other words, below 2, the point where tension begins.
This causes a great deal
of restriction in the same area as does the abdominal startle response.
Then one is so out of breath, they pull in or gasp the air, causing friction
and further tension. The cycle keeps repeating and worsening with every
sentence.
So when I say breathe during practice between the window of 2 and 8 or 3-7
as a
softer form, you breathe to 7 or 8 and never strain on the inhale, then
make sure you
do not go past 2 on the exhale. In this way you begin to
develop a habit of staying
mostly between 3-7.
Back up the video to the beginning of this track and repeat this section if you are not completely familiar with the Optimal Breathing Window. Can you explain it to another?
More insight to this via the 80-20 nervous system balance.
Learn to breathe better now.
|
