How Mindfulness Can Help You Control Your Breathing & Heart Rate
A couple years ago I started scuba diving, which seems like a funny thing to write about in a Health and Wellness article, I know. But the process of learning to dive in 30 feet and later to 100 feet underwater taught me a lot about myself and the real effects of mindfulness. When you are diving, you are suddenly incredibly aware of your breathing. Your breathing can help or hinder you underwater as well as even injure you. Breathing too shallow or too deep affects your buoyancy, likewise you can use your breath to sink or float as you maneuver around obstacles. You cannot hold your breath, if so you risk injury to your internal body. Breathing too quickly or doing unnecessary excretion makes you burn through your oxygen quickly and reduces your bottom time.
Stress and anxiety also affect your breathing. It is amazing to see how fast your tank goes down when you struggle or get nervous about something. Likewise, the more calm and relaxed you are, the longer your oxygen lasts. Another factor affecting the breath is your heart rate. Amazingly, simply submerging your face in water causes the heart rate to slow. The mammalian diving reflex is a process that occurs whenever our faces are submerged in water. It causes our heart rates to slow down so as to conserve more air so we can stay underwater longer. These effects are true regardless of what activity we do underwater. The incredible importance of breathing and remaining calm made me instantly think of my mindfulness practice. It was amazing to see such practical and calculable positive effects from mindfulness. You may think you are calm and in the proper place, but then you will look at your air tank levels compared to someone else's and see that you were worried or somehow failing and used up air at a quicker rate.
The concept of mindfulness and controlling your body's reactions to emotions became even stronger for me when I discovered free diving. Freediving is done without the assistance of oxygen tanks, it is all in one breath. I met people who had gone 90 feet underwater in one breath and lived to tell the tale. I was fascinated and terrified. The limits we think we have in our bodies are largely illusions when we learn how to hack our body systems to work for us instead of controlling us. Which is exactly what mindfulness is, hacking the body to make it work for us better. As I learned about how freediving works, again I realized the correlations with mindfulness. When you are learning to hold your breath and just be in the water, there is always a moment where your body starts fighting you and resisting. It tells you that you must surface to breathe but you look at your watch and it has maybe only been 30 seconds. I noticed in my body this would happen right away, but if I put my hand out of water or even just let the top of my head surface, suddenly my mind calmed and I had breath for much longer. You realize most of our limitations are just fear in our body. Fear of drowning or dying, valid fears, but unnecessary at the moment. The same way sometimes our work lives evoke our fight or flight mechanisms. Again, valid instincts, but not appropriate for the current situation.
As you get more comfortable in the water you learn to just let go. Drop deeper and deeper into the watery void. Twenty feet, thirty feet, forty feet, all going past you. You learn to control the panic and know that you can hold your breath and survive. You slow your heart rate and simply exist in the water with no ending. There are depths you hit in the water where you can't see the surface nor can you see the bottom, it is only you. I became so calm and at peace in a way I have never experienced before. Sometimes with mindfulness exercises, the visualization alone or simple breathing exercises feel uncertain, like you aren't sure if they are working. Seeing the results in a tangible way not only made me thankful for my mindfulness practice but also renewed my faith in the process. Combining mindfulness with diving brought a whole new perspective for me.
Beyond being a beautiful experience it is a useful visualization in meditation exercises. You don't need to experience free diving, though I recommend it personally, in order to use the same ideas in your visualizations. Perhaps the next time you are in a stressful place picture yourself sinking in the deepest bluest water. There is nothing but yourself, weightless, in the void. Feel your heart rate slow and find the peace in your weightless, solitary body. Though I do not recommend holding your breath for long periods of time underwater without proper coaching and guidance, this visualization could prove to be just the inspiration needed to get through a stressful day. To learn more about Mindfulness and find more articles visit our blog at https://www.bullionite.com/blog-index. Reach out to us with your comments and questions at info@bullionite.com!