The breath itself, a common anchor of attention in mindfulness practice, can be triggering. My patients, and some physicians that I lead in awareness of breath practice, tell me that focusing on their breath makes them even more anxious, and short of breath. My patients oftentimes have underlying lung disease that already takes their breath away. The sensation of air hunger, this need to take in more air, but you cannot, no matter how hard you try, is a terrifying experience. Using breath as an anchor has the potential to magnify this sensation. Perhaps even more so with a mask. And perhaps more so with the murder of George Floyd, and the dehumanizing way in which his breath was taken away. Focusing on the breath can become overwhelming, rather than self-compassionate. How do we recognize and honor the spectrum of experiences surrounding the breath and the masked breath?
The Physiology of Breathing
The Physiology of Breathing
Humans without intrinsic lung disease usually have exhales twice as long as inhales. For those with obstructive lung disease such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), during exercise or in times of stress and anxiety, breathing rate increases, leading to dynamic hyperinflation. Dynamic hyperinflation is when the air of the inhale does not have enough time to be fully expelled during the exhale because the airways are more easily collapsible. This leads to more and more volume of the inhaled breaths accumulating behind the collapsed airway, leading to the sensation of needing to take more, faster breaths, all while the fresh inhale breath has less and less space to fill. It is a vicious cycle. We can interrupt this cycle by first noticing the sensation, and then by breathing with intention, lengthening our exhales through pursed lips. This allows stagnant air to be released, making more room for fresh inhaled breath by opening the airways. This type of breathing also activates the vagus nerve—our rest and digest, parasympathetic nervous system driver. This kind of pursed-lipped breathing, used by those with lung disease, can also be used to calm feelings of anxiety and stress, particularly if wearing a mask brings on sensations of physical discomfort, and mimics the sensations of air hunger.
Try This Mindful Masking Practice
Try This Mindful Masking Practice
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Kylee Ross July 6, 2020
Jill Suttie May 28, 2020
