Breathe In, Breathe Out: Your Lungs Are Your Connection to the World
Every breath you take is a reminder that you are connected to the world around you.
We often think of our skin as the boundary between ourselves and the outside world but our lungs are one of our biggest points of contact with our environment. Every moment of every day, air moves in and out of our bodies, bringing in oxygen that our cells need and removing carbon dioxide that our body no longer requires.
This simple process, known as gas exchange, is one of the most important things our body does. Without oxygen, our cells cannot create the energy needed for movement, thinking, digestion and repair but our lungs are about much more than breathing. They are also connected to where we live, work and spend our time.
Lung health is influenced not only by our individual habits but also by our environment and wider social factors. The quality of the air around us matters. The homes we live in, the jobs we do, the amount of pollution we are exposed to and our access to green spaces can all affect respiratory health.
A fascinating example of this comes from research comparing people walking along busy Oxford Street with those walking through Hyde Park. The differences in some measures of health were noticeable over a very short period of time, showing how quickly our bodies can respond to and be influenced by the environments around us.
Before air even reaches our lungs, our body has already started protecting us. The nose acts as a natural filter, with hairs and mucus helping to trap particles and prepare the air before it travels deeper into the respiratory system. It is an incredible built-in cleaning system.
However, our lungs still have to deal with the air we breathe in. Exposure to cigarette smoke, vaping, traffic pollution, industrial pollutants, damp and mould, and smoke from wood burners can all affect lung health.
Inside your lungs are hundreds of millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. These delicate structures are where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. Although your lungs fit inside your chest, the total surface area available for this exchange is enormous, often compared to the size of half a tennis court.
All of this is happening whether you are walking, working, sleeping or practising yoga.
Even in Savasana, when we appear to be completely still, our lungs remind us that we are not separate from the world around us. Each breath is an exchange between our body and our environment.
When we think about keeping our lungs healthy, we often focus on the lungs themselves, but breathing also depends on the muscles that support the process. The diaphragm and other breathing muscles need to work effectively, just like any other muscles in the body.
Movement and exercise support this system by helping maintain muscle strength, circulation and the body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently. Breathing exercises can also help us improve how we use our breathing system. They do not make our lungs physically bigger, but they can help us become more efficient and controlled breathers.
Diaphragmatic breathing encourages the diaphragm, our main breathing muscle, to work effectively. It can help reduce unnecessary tension and bring more awareness to our breathing patterns. Slow breathing practices, often used in yoga, can help regulate the nervous system and encourage a calmer, more controlled breathing rhythm.
Pursed lip breathing, where the exhale is gently slowed through softly narrowed lips, is particularly useful for people who experience breathlessness because it can help improve breathing control.
Inspiratory muscle training takes this a step further by using resistance to strengthen the muscles involved in breathing. This is more like strength training for the respiratory system and has been shown to be useful in certain groups, including people with respiratory conditions and some athletes.
Yoga has long explored the relationship between breath, movement and awareness. Many yoga practices encourage us to pay attention to the breath, coordinate movement with breathing and develop a calmer, more efficient breathing pattern.
The aim is not to force enormous breaths or try to “fill the lungs” as much as possible. Often, better breathing comes from less effort rather than more like a more relaxed, efficient breath, a more aware breath, a more adaptable breath.
The phrase “blowing smoke up your arse” sounds strange today but it comes from an outdated medical practice where tobacco smoke was blown into the, ahem, lower body using bellows as an attempt to revive people who had drowned by drying out their wet lungs. Thankfully, our understanding of respiratory health has moved on.
Today we know that supporting our lungs means looking at the whole picture: the air we breathe, the movement we do, the strength of our breathing muscles and the environments we spend our lives in.
Your lungs are not simply balloons waiting to be filled, they are a living connection between you and the world around you. So the next time you take a breath in yoga, on a walk or simply sitting still, remember that every breath is a conversation between your body and your environment.
