Just Breathe

This magical day

By Julie Johnson, NTP

Iknow, we all hear about how important the mind-body connection is. But there’s nothing like an injury to drive the point home. After slamming myself on a flat light day on the ski hill, I found myself admitted to the ER. I had managed a one-point landing on my left shoulder, breaking and fracturing the humerus ball joint in many places. When my husband walked in and saw me sitting on the emergency room bed in writhing crepitus pain his first words were, “you rarely fall”. Right – but it only takes a nano second to change everything I thought I knew about myself.

Injuries are only temporary, but they don’t feel like that in the moment, and the many moments that turn into days, weeks, and months following. My shoulder looked like a hardware store – five screws. Bandaged, strapped in tight, my arm and chest still numbed from the nerve block, I was sent home with instructions to expand my lungs.

Incentive Spirometer

As I was inhaling through the ‘incentive Spirometer’ all surgical patients are sent home with, I realized the obvious. Deep breathing is literally the breath of life. This ‘Airlife’ contraption is Western medicine’s answer to mindful breath. Something the ‘yogis’ have known for thousands of years. It is not in our daily habits to breathe deeply through our noses and slowly exhale. Maybe even accompanied with an ‘OM’ sound.

Skiing is my happy place. The fresh air, aerobic exercise, inhaling lung healing essential oils of pine and fir, and the view from the top. OMG, four major mountain ranges from the top of the world – stunning. I used to fly small planes, which is definitely a thrill, but ‘flying’ down a groomed run or straight lining the bowls in fresh snow is comparable in utter joy and freedom of flying body and soul.

Silver Lining

As a patient, it is my job not to get depressed. To allow the ‘silver lining’ to appear. (Nearly everyone is quick to add that in their sentiments. And I suppose one silver lining is that I didn’t break my neck, only inches away from my shoulder.) I need to stay focused on the healing process. But chronic pain, inactivity and not sleeping more than three hours at a stretch takes a serious toll on the happy hormones. Only large amounts of destructive cortisol are cursing through my veins. In fact no serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin are being produced while in the initial recovery phase. Especially if I am taking pain killers. They kill more than pain. Luckily I couldn’t take the codines (there were a variety) for more than a couple of days, because of crippling constipation. One thing I know as a nutritionist is that if my gut isn’t functioning, healing can not commence.

My husband put me under house arrest for a month. My adult children were freaking out that mom was hurt (maybe because of the strain on dad) and every medical professional I saw was quick to say; “do you know how old you are?” I am perfectly aware of how old I am, as Medicare so astutely announced – but muscle memory says otherwise! (Hey, still here, and planning on being a pain in my family’s ass for some time to come).

Oxygen

It’s also interesting to contemplate that among the greatest reasons for keeping my body healthy is to best take care of my brain – which needs oxygen. In turn, my healthy brain reciprocates by taking better care of my body. It’s my brain that tells my body how to function. Under stress, breathing becomes rather shallow. That must be one reason we surgical patients are sent home with that plastic breathing exercise thingy. As annoying as it is, when we expand our ridge rib cage and move our diaphragm, we calm the nervous system.

So when in recuperation, while I couldn’t move my body very much, the only way to keep my brain functioning appeared to be through deep focused meditative breathing.

For me, going 50 miles an hour on skis is one of the most calming experiences I can have. I actually have a smile on my face and can breathe deeply in and out. My life’s nonsense stands still. My body is completely at rest, and my mind at ease. I am one with my surroundings. I am in the zone.

Looking Inwards

For those of us who are speed and highwire junkies, injury is a calling to look inwards and explore the vastness therein. They say what lies on the inside is greater than what we see outside ourselves. Which sounds a bit horrifying. Yet, trying to make the ‘outside world’ behave and conform to my whims has been a lifelong frustration. Maybe I should work on what I can change –myself. Ugh.

So, you would think my interior landscape would be easier to manage than my outside landscape. After all, I have been living with myself for decades. Breathing techniques seem to be the keyhole. My daily due diligence is the key.

Just one minute of Bhastrika Pranayama or Bellows breathing through the nose, followed by a one minute meditation may help control your autonomic nervous system. Also increases gamma waves and nitric oxide and lowers blood pressure.

A more robust Pranayama breathing is to expand your belly, then chest, then upper chest always through your nose. Make the action big. Raise your arms over head, breath in belly, chest, and slowing lower arms as you slowly let out your breath through your nose.

Diaphragmatic breathing like this from Ayurvedic practices moves the body’s lymphatic pump. This pump carries our immunity, removes toxins, waste and delivers nutrients as energy.

My favorite is a slow 10 count of breath in through my nose and a slow 10 count of letting the air out through my nose.

Stillness

This kind of breathing always helps affect mood and emotions in a positive way. This has helped me breathe better all day long. When I look out the window at our beautiful mountain landscape, I just want to be in it, outside. My enforced stillness and non-activity begs self reflection. Breathing exercises can become a way of life for which I am now very grateful. My mind-body connection is expanding my consciousness and healing my inner world through breathing – pure magic.

So maybe I don’t always need to be in the danger zone to be in my comfort zone.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the trails this summer. S real food. wholesome goodness. always.