The Tao of Natural Breathing by Dennis Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

Parasympathetic Nervous System
    To learn how to turn on the parasympathetic nervous system, it is useful to know something about its organization. The neurons for this system reside mainly in certain cranial nerves, such as the vagus nerve, coming from the brain stem, and in the lower-back region of the spine. The parasympathetic ganglia do not run down the spine, but instead are located near the organs that they influence. Impulses coming from these ganglia reduce the heart rate, dilate the blood vessels, increase digestive peristalsis, and constrict the air passages in the lungs, and thus help the body slow down and restore itself.
    How can we intentionally turn on this system, our relaxation response, without the outside help of psychologists, massage therapists, and so on? The key is our attention. We know from experience that when we are tense or “stressed out” our attention—directed by the sympathetic nervous system—automatically focuses on the supposed cause of our tension, the compulsive thoughts and feelings that arise in relation to it, or the particular unpleasant physical symptoms we are experiencing. As a result, our experience of ourselves becomes so narrow that we cannot even imagine an alternative. To learn how to relax in such situations, we need to learn how to work actively with our attention, to widen it to include the parts of ourselves that are not in the grip of the negativity we are experiencing. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is through self-sensing. According to Ernest Rossi, a pioneer in the field of mind/body interaction, “You simply close your eyes and tune into the parts of your body that are most comfortable. When you locate the comfort you simply enjoy it and allow it to deepen and spread throughout your body all by itself. Comfort is more than just a word or a lazy state. Really going deeply into comfort means that you have turned on your parasympathetic system—your natural relaxation response.” 17 As we shall see later, natural breathing plays an important role in learning how to go “deeply into comfort,” and thus in learning how to use our awareness to harmonize the aggressive and restorative functions of our nervous system. 18 What’s more, since natural breathing massages our internal organs and relaxes our lower back, it has a beneficial influence on the parasympathetic nerves and ganglia in these areas.
    Unfortunately, most of us are not very good at sensing ourselves and have little awareness of the extent to which our perception and behavior are conditioned by emotions such as fear, anger, and anxiety. We have become so accustomed to high levels of stress and negativity in our lives that we take it as “normal,” not realizing the tremendous toll it takes on our health and vitality. The noise produced by this stress makes it almost impossible to hear the quiet, ever-present intelligence of our own bodies. Unable to experience this inner intelligence, we exacerbate our situation by seeking quick relief through excessive stimulation of some kind—alcohol, drugs, tobacco, caffeine, food, sex, television, and so on. Sometimes, when we wake up for a moment to the senselessness of our situation, we may try to deal rationally with the stresses we face. But our minds by themselves have little power to “figure out” effective solutions—especially in an “information society” that floods our consciousness with negative news and images from around the world. The end result is the accumulation of more and more tension, a sense of helplessness, and the eventual appearance of various chronic symptoms and ailments in our lives—many of which are not just the result of stresses we face, but also of the way we try to escape them.
    Coping with the Effects of Stress Is Not the Solution
    Unable to figure out effective solutions to the many stresses in our lives, we have over time learned various ways to “cope” with their effects on us instead. Some of