As with all babies, when Cora was born it took a little bit for her to take her first breath…This is one thing that you can be told and think you understand, but absolutely cannot know until it’s your child laying there awaiting whatever it is in the brain that tells her to inhale for the first time. In less than 60 seconds (but felt much, much longer) her tiny little body realized that it was time to take that first, life affirming, life giving, breath. Ever since then, I have had an almost paranoid compulsion to make sure she is breathing. If she doesn’t move or make a sound for a while, I find myself putting my ear next to her nose to check that she is still breathing. Originally, I thought myself alone in this preoccupation, but I’m finding that it is more wide-spread, especially amongst dads. A vast majority of breathing is sub-conscious meaning it happens whether we think to breathe or not. As a new dad, I find myself doubting this most simple of instincts in someone who has been living for mere minutes, hours or days…So I double-check…
As I ponder the depths of my not-quite-rational urge to confirm respiration in my daughter, I realize that there is much much more to this whole breathing process that goes beyond the survival instinct. Good breathing technique is essential to running or cycling and most obviously swimming. People who aren’t confident in their swimming typically cite their inability to breathe as their main deterrent from starting. What is truly interesting about this whole topic is that by focusing on your breathing during physical exertion you are able to calm your nerves and even limit the pain or discomfort you feel. If someone is punching you in the arm and you cannot stop it, the best remedy is to try and think of something else. Breathing seems to be contrary to the notion of taking your mind off the pain, rather you would be best served by putting your mind on that pain. Breathing is one of the only things you have control over during any endurance type activity, it is both a source of pain and discomfort and a worthwhile endeavor to limit that same pain and discomfort. So to all you new moms and dads, runners, swimmers, cyclists and anyone else within the human race, take a long deep breath and realize the life-giving, pain-reducing, calming effects that accompany this most basic of life’s activities.
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