Lifestyle Choices

Even more important than the food you eat is the air you breathe and the way you breathe it. They can affect how you feel emotionally and physically, how your skin looks (for cells of the skin are dependent for their metabolic processes on a constant supply of enough oxygen), how much vitality you have, and even how clearly you can think.

Because breathing is the only one of your body’s functions that can be either completely involuntary or voluntary, it can form a bridge between your conscious and unconscious functions. This makes it possible to look at your breathing to find out how you are feeling and what is happening to your body. It also means you can use breathing to change your energy level or your mood.

Breath Energy

Throughout history the breath has been associated with energy, force, and power of both a physical and metaphysical kind. In the Bible, the word translated as “spirit” can also be translated as “air.” It is the invisible life force, the energy the Chinese call chi and attempt to manipulate in acupuncture treatments. The Sufis refer to it as baraks. It plays an important role in their techniques of meditation. The yogis call it prana, and claim it is responsible for the extraordinary control they can exert over their minds and bodies. Prana means breath, respiration, life, vitality, wind, energy, and strength. It is also used to mean soul as distinguished from body. Yogis believe that if we are able to control our breath we can also control pain, emotions, and physical health, as well as supernatural phenomena.

The air you breathe is not a chemical compound, but a simple mixture of gases: 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 95 percent inert gases, and 3 percent carbon dioxide by volume, plus a carbonic acid content that varies between .02 percent and .06 percent (when it is higher, the oxygen content is lower). In addition, it contains traces of water, a little ammonia, various mineral salts, and ozone. This curious mixture is the most necessary stuff in the world to all forms of life. You can live for several weeks without food, several days without water, but only a few minutes without air.

We tend to think that the energy we have comes from the food we eat. But as the ancient traditions teach, air, not food, is the primary fuel for driving the human engine. Without the oxygen air contains, your body would not be able to break down the nutrients you take in through your foods in order to produce energy and to nourish your cells. When air is first taken into the lungs, it fills the tiny bronchioles. Oxygen diffuses through their membranes into your bloodstream and is carried throughout your body to every cell of every organ and tissue. Your blood is capable of absorbing up to four times as much oxygen as water can, as long as there is enough iron available to produce hemoglobin which carries the oxygen through the bloodstream. One of the most important common symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia is the inability to catch your breath—you simply cannot get enough oxygen.

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