Everest Part 1: Breathe
In 2018, I successfully climbed the highest mountain in California, which is also the 11th highest peak in the entire United States, Mount Whitney. It stands at 4421 meters. One of the most unpleasant feelings of that trip was the feeling of not being able to catch my breath. As we neared the peak, I recall stopping every five steps to put my hands on my knees and take deep breaths. As I started to plan my trip for Everest Base Camp, I decided, I did not want to go through that again.
Social media is an interesting phenomena, it’s a digital space in which I have made friends and lost friends. This friend that I am referring to in this blog is Paul French. I still remember the day I first saw his account, he would post some very Cosmic and ethereal images/videos of everything from cells dividing to touching videos of animal interactions with humans, in which I would ask myself the question “Who is demonstrating the definition of humanity? The animal or the human it was interacting with?” It was these very deep thought provoking posts that attracted me to his account and when we finally interacted via chat and video, I was happy to discover that he was a ‘Therapeutic Breathwork Practitioner’.
I won’t steal Paul’s thunder, I recommend reaching out to him for more precise knowledge of breathing, but I will summarize what I learned.
Lungs are nothing more than a balloon that expand when the diaphragm and rib cage muscles contract
Breathing through the nose is most healthy
Increasing resistance to carbon dioxide was the ticket to my success of not being short of breath
For several weeks, I did exercises which included exhaling, while walking in a safe area or just sitting down, holding my breath as long as I could, then breathing a long, slow deep breath. After several sessions, I could hold my breath longer and longer. I wish I had started these exercises sooner but it was now game time.
The most physically challenging day of the trip was day 2 of our ascent. I had a splitting headache, nausea and the night before, my O2 dropped so I had to take some oxygen in my tent. But using Paul’s tips of breathing completely via my nose, or in through nose, out through mouth, and staying out of the zone of open mouth breathing, was a game changer. Because in order to stay in the zone of nose breathing I had to force myself to do the counterintuitive task of slowing down.
This image was taken at 5300 meters. I opened my arms, took a deep breath and kept climbing….with this song playing in my head.
To contact Paul:
IG: @cosmic_energetics
LinkedIn: Paul French | LinkedIn