One of my personal rules is called Rule #5: Happy wife happy life; and vice a versa. It’s actually one of my favorite rules because it’s surprisingly easy to follow -IF- both you and your spouse are in agreement of the rule.
The reason I bring this up now is because I am considering adding another rule which has something to do with “It makes me happy when my wife is right.” There is no set way that the rules come into being but this one I find might help the people who are more interested in being right than being happy. Maybe the rule should be something like “be happy when someone else is right” and congratulate them for it.
The latest example I have of this personally, is when my wife Geovy and I were starting our journey up to the High Camp on the Chimborazo Volcano. It feels impossible to describe how difficult I found the trek, but I will make the attempt.
Imagine yourself, an athlete and a relatively experienced hiker finding no way to inhale enough oxygen to generate any energy. I felt like I was 100 years old. I was shuffling along (as much as one can shuffle up a giant volcano) with little to no energy. We took our first break after about 30 minutes and then I took a break 20 minutes later, every 10 minutes after that, and then it was at most every 5 minutes, or it felt like every 10 steps.
Our guide (who we will recommend in the links if we can), Paul (pronounced PaOOl) was wonderfully professional and yet personal at the same time. He keeps an eye on me without making me feel inadequate or embarrassed. And here comes the part where I find it enjoyable when my wife is ‘right:’ Paul says to me in English “Hey Shaun (pronounced ShaOOn), breathe IN through your nose and OUT through your mouth and time your breathing with your steps.”
As a Pilates instructor and Yoga instructor for many years, Geovy is adamant about using the Pilates breathing techniques while working out or being physically active. To take it even further, Geovy encourages everyone to utilize the proper breathing techniques in all your daily routines because it enhances lung capacity[1], helps with our mind and body connection, as well as engage your abdominals in every little movement.
Geovy has been hammering this into my consciousness since the day we met. “In through your nose and out through your mouth.” To hear it from Paul, just confirmed in my mind that the physicality we endure as humans has been studied for thousands of years and under many different points of view. The Pilates breathing is not surprisingly similar to some other advice I have heard.[2]
Every time I would be conscious of my breathing, I was able to keep the slight altitude sickness at bay even though it was never enough to feel like a full breath. I would eventually open my mouth and suck in as much air as I could to try and catch up but that just made it worse. The air was thin, cold, and dusty. This aggravated my throat as well as brought in much less comfortable cold air (not to step on Rule: #39[3] but my Apple Watch just told me to breathe as I’m typing this).
Since I was experiencing no other altitude sickness symptoms, I was able to utilize the Pilates breathing technique “IN through the nose and OUT through the mouth” and timing it with my movements to help keep my consciousness focused on the simplicity and peace of climbing a mountain. This ties in to the “mind and body connection” part of the breathing technique. Staying focused on what I could control, which was my breathing, my steps, and my inner calm, I was able to keep one foot moving in front of the other without complaint and without real suffering or pain. I’m not claiming that any of this was easy but completing that climb without injury or any true misery was a successful endeavor in my opinion.
I spent each break joking about how important it was to stop and look around to appreciate the beauty of the mountains. I would use the time to get out our cameras and take pictures while I struggled for more air. I kept my spirits lighthearted and realized that my companions were not judging or frustrated but simply happy to wait and take as long as was required to reach High Camp.
I was reminded of the advice I gave to some of the other tourist-mountaineers the day before: “keep moving while you take your breaks and catch your breath.” This comes from my experience as a tennis player where after 10-20 seconds of hard work and burning lungs, you walk to get the towel, collect tennis balls, and prepare for the next point, all WHILE you are recovering from the previous efforts. I’ll admit that it was not possible for me to keep moving at times. It really was like I was 100 years old, and I was afraid my heart would explode, and my head was going to pop off.
I wish that statement was hyperbolic however with an average heart rate of 141 over 177 minutes (according to my apple watch), that’s the best explanation of the feeling that I can share, and the breathing was the one thing I could focus on while trudging up the steep mountain path.
When we finally reached High Camp, I knew that was the end of the climb for me. I felt accomplished at a minimal level, but it was remembering that there were three things that kept me going up that mountain: proper breathing to keep my body working as well as possible in the thin air, my ability to continue working through adverse situations (believing in myself, so to speak), and the encouragement of my wife, Geovy.
Getting to the point, I would not have made it up the mountain without the proper breathing although I felt Ike I couldn’t breathe. Was it psychosomatic and was I just convincing myself that I COULD breathe if I did it properly? Either way I was convinced that I was breathing as well as I possibly could in the situation. That kept me knowing that it was very unlikely that my heart would explode, and my head would pop off.
So, consider your breathing the next time you exercise. Breathing has been used for thousands of years to calm the mind, heal panic attacks, manage pain, and even levitate.[4] True meditation requires some level of active breathing technique, and most fitness experts are going to offer their opinions on how or when to breathe in or out based on your exercise routines.
And in conclusion, I want to express congratulations to my wife for how right she is when encouraging her clients, me, and everyone to “breathe IN through your nose and OUT through your mouth” and time the breathing with your movements. It makes me happy when my wife is right.
Shaun J Boyce – 2021
[1] https://expand-a-lung.com/breathing-in-pilates/
[2] https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=breathing+techniques&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
[3] https://shaunboyce.godaddysites.com
[4] This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.
