In this chapter you will learn about oxygen and all you ever wanted to know about breathing. You’ll also learn a little about your diaphragm and what it’s good for. Plus, we’ll show you some basic exercises to check the way you breathe and cue you on different types of breathing techniques.
All I need
“All I need is the air that I breathe and to love you”, goes the Hollies song. Actually, what they really need is air; love may (or may not) come later on in the game. But, air!
Air is one of the few things human beings cannot go on without, even for a few minutes. Water? We can go on for days without water. Food? We’ve all heard stories about people surviving for weeks without food. But air? No, sir. You can’t cut any deals there!
We definitely cannot survive more than a few minutes without air. Actually, without air we would not even exist. Period.
Don’t Go Blue Over Breathing
So air is something we simply cannot do without.
Without air, we would simply die.
Considering this, you would imagine people going around all day, terrible worried about their breathing, making sure they get exactly the amount of air that’s necessay and not a penny less.
In reality, this doesn’t happen. Furthermore, most people don’t give their breathing a second thought.
This is because, in human beings, breathing is an automatic process controlled by ancient automatic nervous mechanisms that are in charge of keeping us alive while our brain is busy with more important matters.
So relax. Go on thinking whatever you were thinking and doing whatever it is that you were doing.
