Hyperventilation means Too Much Breathing.
That is a mis-labeling. Do you worry about breathing Too Much when you run, have emotions, dance or make love? I don’t think so.
Hyperventilation is a topic that often comes up in Breathwork, so here is clarification what it really is and how to deal with it.
The concept of Hyperventilation was born from watching distressed people and noticing that they were breathing a lot. Once, the “heavy” breathing was stopped, these symptoms diminished.
The idea followed that it was the breathing that caused the distress and that got labelled Hyperventilation and was considered dangerous.
Unfortunately, the interruption of the “heavy” breathing also created additional anxiety and an extensive recovery period.
The symptoms included emotions and Tetany, which were very difficult for onlookers to just stand by and do nothing about. They didn’t understand that a natural healing process was taking place. So, so called solutions were developed, which basically meant techniques and medicine to stop breathing like that.
What was really happening was that the “hyperventilation” was releasing and healing a sub-conscious trauma.
Traumatic experiences are stored as sub-conscious memories, by holding one’s breath or “getting the air knocked out of you”.
Eventually, you’ll recover more aliveness and feel safe again. Then, the shield, that conceals your sub-conscious memory, loses its need to protect you and turns transparent, letting your guarded memory to be faced again. This is what you need, to release it, and to be free to live fully, now.
If you get interrupted in the middle of a Hyperventilation and don’t get to complete your release of your sub-conscious trauma, you get stuck with your trauma being half uncovered, but without processing your fear memory. This is painful and takes time to fully suppress again.
To successfully release a sub-conscious memory you need to feel safer than normal and have a built up energy momentum, which you get by Natural Breathing. This may look, to an inexperienced eye as Hyperventilation. But, it really is a fortunate opportunity to free oneself.
Too Much Exhaling
Sometimes Hyperventilation can become a forced exhale – a pushing the exhale out more and longer than you inhale.
You cannot inhale too much, but you can exhale too much.
This can cause a lack of CO2. The body needs a certain amount of CO2, so if there is a lack of CO2, the body will self-correct and stop your intensified exhale.
You can never inhale too much O2. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE AN EXCESS OF O2.
What To Do
Nowadays, we have learned that, if someone is exhaling more than inhaling, sometimes labelled Hyperventilation, having them breathe into a paper bag, makes them inhale the CO2 that they exhaled and thus recover their CO2 balance.
Even better, if you can just sit, wait, and do nothing, except be present for someone “Hyperventilating”, then, within minutes, the whole process is quickly completed and the person feels better than they ever had. This also leaves no need for a recovery period.
The Main Skill
If you encounter “Hyperventilation”, and you want to make it easy for yourself and others, make sure you switch the focus from pushing the EXHALE out, to pulling the INHALE in.
Hyperventilation can be used as a great tool if you handle it correctly. Natural Breathing can free your trauma and repair your breathing.
Excerpt from the Natural Breathing OWNER’S MANUAL.
Hyperventilation means Too Much Breathing.
That is a mis-labeling. Do you worry about breathing Too Much when you run, have emotions, dance or make love? I don’t think so.
Hyperventilation is a topic that often comes up in Breathwork, so here is clarification what it really is and how to deal with it.
The concept of Hyperventilation was born from watching distressed people and noticing that they were breathing a lot. Once, the “heavy” breathing was stopped, these symptoms diminished.
The idea followed that it was the breathing that caused the distress and that got labelled Hyperventilation and was considered dangerous.
Unfortunately, the interruption of the “heavy” breathing also created additional anxiety and an extensive recovery period.
The symptoms included emotions and Tetany, which were very difficult for onlookers to just stand by and do nothing about. They didn’t understand that a natural healing process was taking place. So, so called solutions were developed, which basically meant techniques and medicine to stop breathing like that.
What was really happening was that the “hyperventilation” was releasing and healing a sub-conscious trauma.
Traumatic experiences are stored as sub-conscious memories, by holding one’s breath or “getting the air knocked out of you”.
Eventually, you’ll recover more aliveness and feel safe again. Then, the shield, that conceals your sub-conscious memory, loses its need to protect you and turns transparent, letting your guarded memory to be faced again. This is what you need, to release it, and to be free to live fully, now.
If you get interrupted in the middle of a Hyperventilation and don’t get to complete your release of your sub-conscious trauma, you get stuck with your trauma being half uncovered, but without processing your fear memory. This is painful and takes time to fully suppress again.
To successfully release a sub-conscious memory you need to feel safer than normal and have a built up energy momentum, which you get by Natural Breathing. This may look, to an inexperienced eye as Hyperventilation. But, it really is a fortunate opportunity to free oneself.
Too Much Exhaling
Sometimes Hyperventilation can become a forced exhale – a pushing the exhale out more and longer than you inhale.
You cannot inhale too much, but you can exhale too much.
This can cause a lack of CO2. The body needs a certain amount of CO2, so if there is a lack of CO2, the body will self-correct and stop your intensified exhale.
You can never inhale too much O2. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE AN EXCESS OF O2.
What To Do
Nowadays, we have learned that, if someone is exhaling more than inhaling, sometimes labelled Hyperventilation, having them breathe into a paper bag, makes them inhale the CO2 that they exhaled and thus recover their CO2 balance.
Even better, if you can just sit, wait, and do nothing, except be present for someone “Hyperventilating”, then, within minutes, the whole process is quickly completed and the person feels better than they ever had. This also leaves no need for a recovery period.
The Main Skill
If you encounter “Hyperventilation”, and you want to make it easy for yourself and others, make sure you switch the focus from pushing the EXHALE out, to pulling the INHALE in.
Hyperventilation can be used as a great tool if you handle it correctly. Natural Breathing can free your trauma and repair your breathing.
Excerpt from the Natural Breathing OWNER’S MANUAL.