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Mini: Circular Breathing · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to Why we Do what we Do Mini. I'm your host, Abraham,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Shane. We are a psychology podcast. We
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  Speaker 1: talk about the things that humans and non human animals
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  Speaker 1: do and we release these minis, or we make these
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: minis and then we release them and they are these
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  Speaker 1: quick dives into some kind of topic that's related to
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  Speaker 1: human behavior and then we get out of there and
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  Speaker 1: you have a little bit of something to think about
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  Speaker 1: for the rest of your day. And that's what we're
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  Speaker 1: doing today.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we always have fun with these. These are short,
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  Speaker 2: bite size episodes on some topic that sometimes doesn't really
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  Speaker 2: warrant a full episode, so we end up kind of
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  Speaker 2: doing some research and going, yeah, that's that's not enough.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's how we end up here sometimes.
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  Speaker 1: Or it's like it could be a full length episode,
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  Speaker 1: but we decided to stop at just the cursory information.
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  Speaker 3: That's what we're.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it could go either way anyway. If you're
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  Speaker 1: joining us for the first time, thank you. We hope
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  Speaker 1: that you enjoy what you hear in this discussion today,
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• 1:29
  Speaker 1: all that kind of good stuff. I'll talk about that
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  Speaker 1: more at the end of this discussion, but I think
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  Speaker 1: that's what we have for jumping before we jump into this.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think that's I think that covers it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to quote to the best of my ability. A.
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  Speaker 1: I guess you'd call it a song. It's a track
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  Speaker 1: on an album by Tenasha's D. He says, think about it, man,
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  Speaker 1: rock singers are only rocking you half the time. The
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  Speaker 1: other time they're they're, they're, they're, they're breathing in, but
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  Speaker 1: not anymore baby. So yes, this is the hilarious opening
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  Speaker 1: from the track inwards singing on Tenacious D's two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and one self titled album, and it conveys the idea
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  Speaker 1: of continuous note production from singers so vocal note production
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  Speaker 1: without being encumbered by the biological restraints imposed by us
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  Speaker 1: needing to breathe all the time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah up, So inward singing is not the topic for
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  Speaker 2: this many but relatedly, circular breathing is, and we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: describe what it is, why people want to do it,
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  Speaker 2: and how to do it.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, so, if you haven't heard of this, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to describe what circular breathing is. So the pesky obligation
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  Speaker 1: of needing to breathe has gotten in the way of
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  Speaker 1: some good music plane for people who use their wind
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  Speaker 1: in their their lungs to do music things. Sure, but
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  Speaker 1: musicians have figured out a way to work around this annoyance,
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  Speaker 1: the annoyance of this biological necessity. Now, to be fair,
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  Speaker 1: this is really only for playing and instruments where you're
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  Speaker 1: using air, and not necessarily well really not at all
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  Speaker 1: for singing.
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  Speaker 2: Right right, So first it is important to understand that
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  Speaker 2: you cannot actually inhale while exhaling, and vice versa. The
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  Speaker 2: idea of circular breathing might impart an idea that air
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  Speaker 2: comes into one orifice, say your nose, travels through your lungs,
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  Speaker 2: and exits the other orifices or orifice, say your mouth,
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  Speaker 2: And that's not how things work. Our lungs pull in
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  Speaker 2: air through the nose to begin with, and they can't
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  Speaker 2: be pushing air out at the same time. So essentially
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  Speaker 2: what we're saying is when you're pulling air in, you're
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  Speaker 2: not pushing air out through the same kind of means,
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  Speaker 2: like it's coming in and out.
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  Speaker 3: It's like a one way street. As you're breathing.
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  Speaker 1: It's like you're blowing up a balloon. Like air can
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  Speaker 1: go into the balloon, air can come out of the balloon.
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  Speaker 1: Air can't be going in and coming out of the
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  Speaker 1: balloon at the same time, particularly like you have a
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  Speaker 1: source of air pushing air into the balloon. Right, That's
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  Speaker 1: why it just doesn't It just doesn't work. And maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's not the best metaphor in the world, but like
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  Speaker 1: that's sort of the idea here, is like they can
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  Speaker 1: be inhaling, they can be exhaling, they can't be doing
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  Speaker 1: both at the same time, right. So, nevertheless, circular breathing
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  Speaker 1: is a real thing in the way that it is done,
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  Speaker 1: and it is possible to do. It's actually maybe more
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  Speaker 1: accurately described as like air storage for continuous note production,
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  Speaker 1: but that's not quite as catchy as circular breathing. So right,
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  Speaker 1: circular breathing has got a nice catchy name, but it's
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  Speaker 1: really more accurately like you're storing air so that you
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  Speaker 1: can continue to push air out.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: There's sort of three ways circular breathing is commonly described.
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  Speaker 2: One when you're playing a wind instrument, as we primarily
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  Speaker 2: will be discussing today, Two when doing throat singing, and
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  Speaker 2: three when meditating. We are going to focus on the
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  Speaker 2: first one, though, because I think that one is going
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  Speaker 2: to be the most clear and apparent and probably one
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  Speaker 2: that you've actually probably witnessed.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So, when playing a wind instrument or like a
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  Speaker 1: brass instrument, something that requires you to be pushing air
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  Speaker 1: out of your lungs to play it, Breathing is when
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  Speaker 1: a musician puffs out their cheeks so they fill their
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  Speaker 1: mouth with as much air as they can store in there,
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  Speaker 1: and then as they're playing notes, they slowly release the
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  Speaker 1: air in their cheeks, and often they can get around
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  Speaker 1: five seconds or even more of continuous production just from
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  Speaker 1: the air that they've stored in their mouth, so they're
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  Speaker 1: no longer pushing it out like they're like storing in
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  Speaker 1: their mouth. I'm sure that was great for people listening,
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  Speaker 1: they're storing it in their mouth and their cheeks. If
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  Speaker 1: you imagine sort of filling up your mouth and then
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  Speaker 1: sort of pushing the air out through your I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if everybody could hear that, but you're sort of
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  Speaker 1: pushing the air out through a small opening in their lips.
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  Speaker 1: And then while they're doing this, the musculature on their
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  Speaker 1: face is controlling this is pushing the air out, and
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  Speaker 1: at the same time they can take a quick inhale
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  Speaker 1: through the nose while pushing air out of the cheeks.
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  Speaker 3: Does that make sense? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Basically you're closing off access to your mouth by
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  Speaker 2: breathing through your nose and then holding air in your cheeks.
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  Speaker 2: Like It's basically like you're still creating the inhale exhale space,
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  Speaker 2: but you've closed off the air that you've store in
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  Speaker 2: your mouth.
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  Speaker 3: Perfect. Yeah, So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna
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  Speaker 3: practice real quick. So everybody, take a.
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  Speaker 2: Deep breath, put your air in your mouth, like make
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  Speaker 2: me maybe like catch a bubble, and then listen to
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  Speaker 2: this ad.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, we are back. We give you instructions for holding
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  Speaker 1: your breath through as which hopefully you did not do.
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  Speaker 1: But well, here's some actual, real instructions for how to
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  Speaker 1: practice circular breathing.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so to practice this, pop out your cheeks and
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  Speaker 2: then create a small opening with your lips and gently
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  Speaker 2: press on your cheeks to let the air out at
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  Speaker 2: the same time, and while you're doing that, at the
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  Speaker 2: same time inhale through your nose. It does take a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of practice to kind of figure out the
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  Speaker 2: mechanics of this if you're not like somebody who has
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  Speaker 2: a lot of breath control.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's something that you can pick up. Like, once
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  Speaker 3: you figure it out, you're like, oh, that's what it is.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty straightforward, right, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, if you have trouble keeping the air in your
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  Speaker 1: mouth and it's like not escaping from your nose, you
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  Speaker 1: can practice making an end sound to feel how your
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  Speaker 1: tongue could be placed in your mouth to block it
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  Speaker 1: from getting up to your nose. Going can help you
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  Speaker 1: sort of feel like where your tongue can because that
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  Speaker 1: can when it's in that position, it can be easy
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  Speaker 1: to use your tongue to block air escaping through your nose,
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  Speaker 1: and then that way you can keep the air in
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  Speaker 1: your mouth rather than accidentally letting it all out.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and you can start to practice this same strategy
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  Speaker 2: for releasing air from your puff cheeks by starting to
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  Speaker 2: expel the air using only the muscles in your cheeks.
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  Speaker 2: So basically, when you take a big breath, you've got
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  Speaker 2: like your cheeks puffed up, and you can actually like
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  Speaker 2: kind of just you don't have to breathe in or out.
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  Speaker 2: You can just start by pushing it out with your
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  Speaker 2: cheeks right, and you can take a quick inhale. Once
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  Speaker 2: you get comfortable with just pushing it out, take a
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  Speaker 2: quick inhale through your nose while you're doing this, and
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  Speaker 2: you'll start to kind of pick up the strategy here.
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  Speaker 2: So one recommendation was to try to get five seconds
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  Speaker 2: of slow, sustained release of air from your mouth while
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  Speaker 2: getting an opportunity to breathe in through your nose, so
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  Speaker 2: you're pushing with your cheeks out of your mouth while
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  Speaker 2: you're taking a breath through your nose.
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  Speaker 1: The way I practiced this too that was helpful for
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  Speaker 1: me is I would hold my breath while trying to
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  Speaker 1: expel it from my mouth, and again it's mostly just
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  Speaker 1: trying to get used to the sensation of pushing breath
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  Speaker 1: out of your mouth and then while you're doing that,
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  Speaker 1: you can start to practice with Okay, keep pushing, keep pushing.
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  Speaker 1: While you're doing that, take a breath in through the
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  Speaker 1: nose specifically, and ideally you're able to continue pushing the
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  Speaker 1: air out of your mouth, because that's how it works.
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  Speaker 3: Right exactly.
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  Speaker 1: So once you're at a point where you're sort of
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  Speaker 1: comfortable doing this where you can be pushing air out
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  Speaker 1: of your mouth and take a breath in through your nose,
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  Speaker 1: they recommend that you also practice doing this with a
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  Speaker 1: glass of water. So you can put a straw on
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  Speaker 1: a glass of water so that you're blowing through the
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  Speaker 1: straw slowly, sorry, and you're not breathing through the straw.
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  Speaker 1: You're pushing air through the straw from the air that
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  Speaker 1: you've trapped in your mouth. And then you can, while
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  Speaker 1: you're blowing air out, take a breath in through your
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  Speaker 1: nose to practice like what it feels like to that
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  Speaker 1: and to ensure that you continue to do it correctly,
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  Speaker 1: because if you do breathe in through your mouth while
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  Speaker 1: you have a straw in the water, you will get
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  Speaker 1: a mouthful of water, which, like I recommend not practicing
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  Speaker 1: this until you're ready for that because we don't want
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  Speaker 1: anyone to choke while trying this.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, please be safe. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Now, eventually what you'll do is, once you get comfortable
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  Speaker 2: with this, you'll move to practicing with your wind instrument,
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  Speaker 2: and the more you practice, the easier it will become.
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  Speaker 2: And obviously this also depends on how you position your
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  Speaker 2: mouth and your lips and your tongue before that wind instrument.
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  Speaker 2: Brass instruments play a little bit differently than instruments that
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  Speaker 2: have reads stuff like that, so like it is a
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  Speaker 2: little bit one of those things that you need to
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  Speaker 2: know how the instrument is shaped to and how your
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  Speaker 2: mouth shape should go while you're practicing this. If you
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  Speaker 2: are planning on playing a saxophone versus a trumpet or
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  Speaker 2: something like that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean the process is generally the same,
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  Speaker 1: but the overall feel of it will be trickier and
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  Speaker 1: more difficult. Sure, so just you know, you just have
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  Speaker 1: to practice with both whatever instrument you're doing this with.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, so that's that's essentially how to do it
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  Speaker 1: and how to get good at it. Since we mentioned it,
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk really quickly about throat singing. So with throat singing,
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  Speaker 1: some sources mentioned singing multiple notes at once. Didn't describe
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  Speaker 1: how to do this or how it relates to circular breathing,
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  Speaker 1: which was the primary purpose of this discussion, but that
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  Speaker 1: was like a thing that they mentioned. Yeah, so maybe
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  Speaker 1: we'll come back to throat singing at some point in
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  Speaker 1: the future.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Now with meditation, they describe circular breathing as inhaling and
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  Speaker 2: exhaling for equal durations. So if I breathe in for
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  Speaker 2: two seconds, I breathe out for two seconds. Not really
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  Speaker 2: the same, but I guess we're kind of getting at that.
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  Speaker 2: Like it's kind of like a pattern, is what they're
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  Speaker 2: talking about, like patterned breathing more so, But that's it's
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  Speaker 2: not really the same thing as like what we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about in the music world.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard people describe it sometimes as box breathing,
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  Speaker 1: where it's like in for four seconds, hold it for
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  Speaker 1: four seconds, out for four seconds, hold it for four seconds,
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  Speaker 1: and like that feels more like a circle in the pattern.
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  Speaker 1: But again, it's not the same idea at all as
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  Speaker 1: the idea of circular breathing, where it's like continuous air
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  Speaker 1: production without having to stop and take a breath to
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  Speaker 1: keep doing that. And it is really related to music
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  Speaker 1: for the most part, right, But that's it. Circular breathing
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  Speaker 1: is a way to sore air in your cheeks, so
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  Speaker 1: you continue playing your breath requiring instrument without having to pause,
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  Speaker 1: if even briefly, to breathe in to continue playing the instrument.
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  Speaker 1: And that's how you do it and how it works.
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  Speaker 1: And I think that's all the things for you to
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  Speaker 1: know before we close this one out.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that covers it perfect well. Else could
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  Speaker 2: you possibly need here besides a brass.
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  Speaker 1: Instrument, Yes, but besides the instrument itself, you also need
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: to like and subscribe and share this with a friend
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and leave us a rating and a review. And you
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: can reach out to us on social media if you'd
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: like to talk to us, or you can tell us
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on circular breathing or your experiences with this.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: You can email us directly by emailing us at info
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: at wwdwwdpodcast dot com, and we do look forward to
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: hearing from you. Thank you so much to my team
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: of people for helping me make this happen. As I mentioned,
• 11:55
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• 11:57
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• 12:00
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• 12:10
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, yes, pooh.
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  Speaker 1: All right, I did not circular breathe during that whole monologue.
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  Speaker 3: I just gave.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anything you would like to add her that
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  Speaker 1: I forgot before we close out this mini?
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  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: No? I think that covers it, all right.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. This is Abraham and this
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: is Shane. Why we Do what we Do Mini is out.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Bye.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
• 12:33
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  Speaker 4: going to WWD WWD.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Podcast dot com.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening and we hope you have an awesome day.
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  Speaker 2: Zo