How to stop your breathing giving you a painful bad back
(and you didn’t even realise it was your breathing)

Is Susan really asleep or is she only pretending?

There’s an easy way to tell: just listen to her breathing. If it has become deeper and more rhythmical, she really is asleep. If her breathing sounds like it usually does, or it sounds like she’s trying to breathe quietly, then she’s faking it.

Why does Susan only breathe well when she’s asleep?

Susan does just what virtually everybody does: she makes herself breathe. She doesn’t just breathe, she makes herself breathe.

Why does she do it? More to the point, why do you do it?

You make yourself breathe because you believe that, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t breathe at all: you’d die from lack of air. (You do believe you’d die if you didn’t try to breathe, don’t you?)

And yet it’s not so. For instance, you don’t try to breathe when you’re asleep and yet you do wake up again afterwards.

So what’s happening here? And where’s the pain I mentioned?

The pain comes because trying to breathe is bad breathing

Since good breathing does itself, trying to breathe is an interference. Nothing more, nothing less.

That interference not only reduces your breathing capacity, it also stiffens you up. That stiffening up easily becomes extreme enough to cause unbearable pain. The pain that comes from straining muscles to the limit truly is unbearable. It can happen just because you were trying to breathe. And because trying to breathe is what you always do, you don’t realise that’s the cause of the pain.

There is a very good reason why you try to breathe

If you didn’t try to breathe, you’d feel like you were asphyxiating. You’d truly believe you weren’t breathing. Don’t believe me? Do this experiment: Just watch your breathing, deliberately stop making any effort to breathe and see what happens.

Did you do that? If you didn’t, do it now. Don’t read on until you’ve done it.

....

Analysing your experiment of stopping trying to breathe

If you tried it long enough, then you’ll have got that feeling that you needed more air. You’ll have found that it was more and more difficult to sustain the experiment. If you kept going long enough, you would find you had to force yourself to keep going, you would end up holding your breath until you couldn’t do it any longer.

But, remember, that’s not how you started: you started off by deciding that, for a short while you weren’t going to try to breathe. You were just going allow your body to look after your breathing for you and see what happened. If you’re not sure that’s how you did start, do it again: Don’t stop breathing, just stop trying to breathe. See what happens. Remember, don’t hold your breath: just stop trying to breathe.

It’s odd isn’t it?

Why do you feel like you’re not breathing?

Your feeling is a mixture of your habit speaking to you and your interpretation of what your habit tells you.

Your habit only tells you whether you are doing what you usually do — or not. If you are not doing what you usually do it tells you so. So, if you aren’t breathing the way you normally do, your habit will tell you that.

Your feeling like you aren’t breathing is your interpretation of what the habit is telling you. You feel like you’re not breathing because you associate breathing with the effort you always make to breathe. If the effort isn’t there, you can’t believe you’re still breathing.

The reality is very different

You’re actually breathing much better than you normally do and you’re getting all the air you need. Once you stop making the effort, your whole body loosens up and begins to move in ways you didn’t realise were even possible.

These movements are easy and subtle: so easy and so subtle that you don’t notice them happening. So you think you’re not breathing. Isn’t it ironic? The one time that you begin to breathe more easily, you think you’re not breathing.

No wonder you don’t stay with it.

The key to learning to breathe well is persistence

Persistence in not trying to breathe. That’s the key, but we’ve seen it’s hard to do. Let’s see what I can do to make it easier for you.

Breathing well is just a part of moving well in general. How do you learn to move well? In every case, learning to move well is about discovering, and weaning yourself away from, your unhelpful habits of movement. That’s exactly why the Alexander Technique (and the new Tube Principle for choosing your Alexander directions) exist. That’s what they’re for.

So start with your Tube Principle directions.

The extra not-breathing direction

Start with your basic Tube Principle directions and then add in the decision to stop trying to breathe. With practice, you’ll find it a lot easier and more sustainable than just stopping trying to breathe.

Finding it more sustainable, you’ll keep doing it — or at least, I hope you will.

If you do, you’ll find the pain disappearing from your life. That mysterious pain that you now realise came from your unnecessary effort to breathe.

This article is included under the following categories:‒

Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley

If you want to get the best kind of help, come to me for an introductory lesson in Liverpool.

If you’re too far away, then the next best thing is to get personal lessons and advice from me online at Repoise.com, my on-line school. (Both far-away and local pupils use Repoise).

In more detail:–

If you’re in Liverpool (or can get to Liverpool)

There’s nothing better than individual lessons. My practice is at 37 Hope Street, Liverpool L1. Ring me on 0151 708 6172 to book an initial consultation and first lesson. (Leave your number so I can get back to you).
If you’re short of funds, you can still have first class training from me — though it will require a little more work on your part.

The thing to do is have an individual, in-person lesson just once a month. That will entitle you to also get regular on-line lessons from me through Repoise. That way, you have the best of both worlds: in-person lessons and very regular, even daily, on-line Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley from me. That’s a real bargain because Repoise costs the equivalent of three lessons a year to everyone else.

Ring me on 0151 708 6172 if you want to arrange this.
I occasionally run group lessons. If you’re interested in these, go here for details.

If you’re further away and can’t get to Liverpool

There’s still nothing better than individual lessons. Here’s where you can find a teacher near you in the UK or elsewhere
I suggest you also get direct day-to-day guidance from me by joining Repoise.
If you’re having plain Alexander Technique lessons from someone else, you still need to discover the Smiling Back Method of the Alexander Technique. You’ll get a lot more out of your lessons when you do.