Keyboarding, screens and breathing

Did you know you may be experiencing brief moments of apnea while keyboarding on your devices? You do not have to be sleeping to experience sudden or longer term effects of apnea. You can be wide awake, not even noticing your breathing slowing, becoming shallow, or even halting momentarily while you are typing away, often relating to the nature of your content or the presence of irritating technical glitches.

This article looks at James Nestor's work on breathing practices for greater somatic and neurological wellness. As the article, and Nestor himself note:

Breathing properly has an immense positive impact on our health and well-being. Slow breathing lowers our stress levels, increases focus, regulates our emotions and even helps us make better decisions. Luckily, Nestor feels confident that it's possible to retrain your body to breathe well. "I think you can absolutely be a healthy breather looking at a screen, without a doubt," he said. https://www.npr.org/2024/06/10/1247296780/screen-apnea-why-screens-cause-shallow-breathing

In preventive mental health care we look for ways to short-circuit disruptive patterns that may be developing in our client's lives and to help retrain these for consciously chosen, healthier patterning. One technique I'm starting to use in my own keyboarding is periodically stopping to breath out slowly through a long, narrow drinking straw in taking intentional "exhalation breaks" in my work day.

This technique comes from singing training for improving diaphragmatic strength in breath control, in which singers sometimes use a straw for compressed exhalation, or for slowly blowing bubbles in a glass of water, or combined with low humming through the straw, using it like a kazoo. All of these have their own benefits, but simple straw exhalation is a start to slowing your mind and body down in your work day. Here's a video to help you get started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyMH1nbMbH0

Please note that this technique is not for everyone, especially if you have asthma. It is not an empirically driven, evidence based therapeutic tool, but simply an easily accessible one that you may find helpful in your work day.

So the next time you get caught in lengthy or exasperating periods of typing or texting, pause at intervals to reflect on your posture, and especially your breathing in response to your concentration on that tiny keypad or keyboard.

Taking and giving care

In these days, please be aware of those who carry empathic overload in their fear for how they or others will be affected by the US election results. Can we learn how to truly take and give care - for ourselves, for one another, for others in our midst? We have one planet and one life on it. How shall we live with our differences? How can we share our commonalities? Can we face the unknown and unknowable, now or at any time? Can we walk new paths with new vision, or sometimes with no vision? Must we do this alone, or are there others who can accompany us for long or shorter periods of discernment and decision?

Don't be afraid to reach out for therapy or other forms of companioning with a professional or a trusted friend if you feel you are entering an unwelcome time in life, personally or collectively. Each of us enters the unknown in every new day, but perhaps it is more apparent now if you are struggling to understand and live with the upheaval of unwanted change. Change what you can, even if only starting with yourself.