Breathing is a survival process, and your subconscious controls basic survival processes.  On the list of survival priorities, breathing ranks right up at the top, along with other subconscious-directed functions – pumping the heart, circulating blood, and controlling physiology.  If any of these functions stops completely, the body doesn’t have much of a future, to be sure.  So, breathing is a top priority!

The difference between breathing and the other three priorities is that breathing is not only a subconscious function; you also have some conscious control over it.  Of course, if you were to devote your conscious activity to controlling breathing, you won’t have much time to think about anything else.  Nonetheless, you have more conscious control over the rate and depth of your breathing than you have over your heart rate, blood circulation, and internal information network.  You may be able to affect those, but you can’t control them.  Breathing is in a class by itself.  You can use this conscious control to help you relax. Not only that, but you can also use it to help re-time your internal communication systems.

When you hold your breath, you consciously override subconscious control of breathing.  But breathing is a survival priority. By holding your breath, you “short circuit” one of the body’s survival processes.  Not only is the oxygen supply cut off, but respiratory acid can’t be eliminated.  And acid accumulation is a tremendous threat to the body.  So, breathing becomes not just one of the top priorities, it becomes THE top priority.  There’s an internal crisis brewing. 

So, what does the body do?  At first, it tenses to handle the threat.  Then, it relaxes.  It relaxes to slow down internal processes that consume oxygen and produce acid.  Tense muscles consume both oxygen and produce acid.  When oxygen is in short supply, your body ignores signals from your non-conscious that have kept it ready to run or fight.  Energy is no longer wasted on unnecessary internal activities.

Why would your body relax at such a dangerous time?  To conserve life-sustaining resources.  Holding your breath shifts survival priorities slowly, at first.  Then, after several seconds, the crisis builds, and the greatest stress is the need to breathe.  And as the need increases, changes take place not only in organs but in internal communication between brain and organs.  Your internal communication is re-timed.  In your body, when you intentionally stop breathing until breathing becomes an absolute necessity, the brain shuts down unnecessary activities and systems for immediate survival.  These activities and systems are then nudged back into energy-conserving Synchronized timing.  When the breathless crisis is over, the body can maintain the re-timed rhythm – at least, it can maintain it until the next crisis.  And what will cause the next crisis?   Truth be told, it will probably come from your thoughts.

Link to Morter March Monday Rebroadcast: