Coherent Breathing®

0) Coherent Breathing is about mindful control of our physiologic status, and with it, mindful control of our own minds. There exists a feedback loop between the body and mind that can work both positively and negatively. It is necessary to stabilize our physiologic status before addressing our mental status. However, we must use our minds to address our physiology.

1) Coherent Breathing is a form of “resonant breathing” that specifies breathing at the nominal rate of 5 breaths per minute and learning to relax deeply during exhalation. Periods of inhalation and exhalation are equal. View YouTube Video.

2) The attention should be focused softly on the “form” of the body, with body, mind, and spirit being present during the practice, i.e., not divided, ruminating, daydreaming, other. Focus on coordination of the diaphragm. In non-training walks of life, knowing the principles – breathe adaptively. View YouTube Video.

3) There are six master switches over which we “explicit dual control”, i.e., both autonomic and somatic control, sensory and motor. The six are: the face & head, the tongue and throat, the hands, the diaphragm, the pelvic floor, and the feet. By learning to relax these zones, we are able to shed tension on an ongoing basis. View YouTube Video

4) Coherent Breathing is “sinusoidal”, meaning that the diaphragm should move in a sinusoidal manner. A pendulum is a perfect example of sinusoidal motion. I have said that “the sine wave is the signature of nature”. This includes the human body, down to the smallest quantum mechanical phenomena – sinusoidal oscillations that rise and fall. View YouTube Video

5) “Breathing Is A Circulatory Function”, blood flowing in a circle each time we inhale and exhale with depth and rhythmicity – hence, the name “circulation”. It is the job of the blood to carry hydration, nourishment, gases, and waste to and from the trillions of cells of the body. It accomplishes this via the wave generated by the action of inhaling and exhaling, i.e., the movement of the diaphragm. When we fail to breathe with depth and rhythmicity, blood and fluid in the body languishes. Because breathing is a circulatory function, hydration is extremely important. Be vigilant of thirst. View YouTube Video

6) The wave of blood generated by resonant breathing washes through the brain with every breath, rising up the ascending aorta during exhalation and down the jugular veins during inhalation. The corresponding EEG is approximately 10X the amplitude of functional bands delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma. A single deep inhalation followed by exhalation will cause alpha amplitude to rise with the breath. View YouTube Video

7) Breathing “Coherently” (sinusoidally), generates a wave in the circulatory system. This wave (blood volume) rises in the venous tree when we inhale, and rises in the arterial tree when we exhale. Arterial and venous trees merge at the pervasive capillary circulation where the wave action of the blood results in fluid propagation into and out of the extracellular domain, and from there into and out of the cells. This is the way that the blood maintains the milieu interieur in which cells reside. For this reason, it is important to breathe in such a manner so as to generate a wave. Rhythmic exercise requires us to do this, and is a reason why exercise has a positive effect on all conditions, given that we are able and that the exercise is appropriate. View YouTube Video

8) The body must work against gravity, specifically when we are seated or standing. The human body is organized such that inhalation is the motive force that results in blood flowing upward against gravity. When we fail to inhale with depth, blood fails to flow with significance and arterial pressure increases to push blood up the venous tree. This is hypertension. View YouTube Video

9) When we breathe with depth and rhythmicity, the blood volume in the venous and arterial trees should be equal, breath-to-breath, i.e., the volume that returns to the lungs via the right heart during inhalation is equal to the volume of blood that leaves the lungs via the left heart during exhalation. (Here referring to homeostasis.) The 5L of blood in the average adult body flows in a circle. As it does, it passes through the lungs where gas exchange occurs. View YouTube Video

10) It is proper to divide Heart Rate Variability (HRV) into “breathing induced changes in heart rate” and “changes in heart rate for other reasons”. Breathing induced changes have been known for a century as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and are not to be confused with changes in heart rate for other reasons. Coherent Breathing trains RSA. View YouTube Video

11) Every aspect of the body is resonant. This makes our posture extremely important. By looking, we are able to find our own precise vertical resonant posture. We want to find it and cultivate it all the time, circumstances permitting. We can think of this as a harp string strung between Heaven and Earth. When our posture is resonant and our breathing is resonant, the string “plays”. View YouTube Video

12) If we remain perfectly still with eyes closed and breathe at the nominal rate of 5 breaths per minute, we will automatically begin to meditate (without knowing anything about meditation). Once we have cultivated an understanding of how to elicit this experience, we can carry it with us all the time with eyes open, going about our daily activities. This increased blood flow in the body and brain causes all of the low threshold muscle motor units to relax, muscle tension to subside, and bodily discomfort to melt away. Our movement becomes free-er and less constricted by chronically tense muscles. Hence we are able to move more freely, naturally, and faster. View YouTube Video

13) What happens above the diaphragm (dividing chest and abdominal cavities) also happens below, but with opposite action and effect. As we inhale, we expand the chest but compress the abdomen. When we exhale, we allow the chest to contract, but allow the abdomen to expand. The abdomen possesses its own nervous system, the enteric nervous system, which manages “the gut” and activities of digestion. Like the autonomic nervous system at large, the enteric nervous system is working in synchrony with the action of the diaphragm, but opposite in phase. View YouTube Video

14) We must resist the need to “rush”. Being in a hurry all the time harms our health in countless ways. By resisting, our resistance will grow and we won’t have to resist. View YouTube Video

15) We must resist the urge to exert more energy than our body can produce. This results in being “worn out”, which over time results in yin deficiency, aging, and disease. View YouTube Video

16) Coherent Breathing should always be comfortable. I like to ramp up practice of anything new that I want learn about over the course of months, and then remain committed to that practice for at least 6 months. View YouTube Video

17) The body desires electrical connectivity with Earth. When connected electrons flow from Earth (negative potential) into the body (positive potential). The rate of flow increases when we are breathing deeply and rhythmically (the diaphragm is performing “work”), which requires energy production, increased ATP production. The harder the work, the more energy is required to perform it, the more electrons flow from Earth into the body. It is generally considered that we receive all the electrons we need for ATP production from our bodily intake of food, fluids, air. Yet, the harder we work, the higher the current flow from Earth to body. View YouTube Video

18) Scientists have determined that the giraffe’s heart is incapable of pumping blood to it’s head and brain upward against gravity. For a century, given that the heart is incapable of generating enough pressure and flow, giraffes have been sacrificed to science to understand how it can even exist. The gross flaw in the research is that scientists did not understand that “breathing is a circulatory function”, i.e., that a principal job of the diaphragm is to power “the thoracic pump”, which exists in most vertebrates in one form or another for the purpose of moving blood upward against gravity. When a giraffe’s head is instrumented, all we see is breathing induced waves of blood – the heartbeat is barely visible because it is integrated out over the length of the neck.  The bottom line is that the giraffe can exist because it has the largest diaphragm and related thoracic pump of any land-dwelling animal. There is a very strong analogy/correlation between human and giraffe circulatory physiology. They work in effectively the same way, where the giraffe is an extreme example.  View YouTube Video                                             

Thank you for your interest,

Stephen Elliott