Darth Vader, Laughter and Bubbles

I ran a workshop yesterday for very young children (2-4 years old) and their carers. Yesterday’s emphasis was on healthy breathing practices and I illustrated the teaching points with a Darth Vader Mask with voice-changer (a must-have for anyone who was a teenager when the Star Wars films were first released, I wish that I could have justified buying the version with the cloak and light sabre), the extensive use of bubbles and much laughter.

There is an intuitively attractive link between emotion and breathing that is reflected in everyday language. “The shock winded him”; “The sight of it took my breath away”; “She was breathless with anticipation”; “He sighed in frustration”; “He was panting in with excitement”. There is general agreement that breathing has a significant impact on our health and well-being but beyond believing that good breathing involves moving plenty of fresh air into our lungs and breathing out some waste products there is little understanding beyond that.

Carbon dioxide is both one of these waste products and one of the body’s most important bio-regulators. The level of carbon dioxide in our bodies directly influences our ability to take-up oxygen in all our of body’s tissues, both at rest and during intense activity, creating a state of oxygen starvation. Both in the short-term and the long-term the impact of this lack of oxygen manifests itself in a wide range of symptoms including headaches, dizziness,symptoms of IBS, feelings of fight or flight and many of the stress symptoms that are experienced by carers.