How to Yawn #4

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

Extended yawning is closely related to Kriya Yoga.

Slower breathing correlates with longer life.

It also increases the consciousness to ENJOY a longer life, making a longer life longer than its years.

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Paramhansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946) wrote …

“Many illustrations could be given of the mathematical relationship between man’s respiratory rate and the variation in his states of consciousness. A person whose attention is wholly engrossed, as in following some closely knit intellectual argument, or in attempting some delicate or difficult physical feat, automatically breathes very slowly. Fixity of attention depends on slow breathing; quick or uneven breaths are an inevitable accompaniment of harmful emotional states: fear, lust, anger. The restless monkey breathes at a rate of 32 times a minute, in contrast to man’s average of 18 times. The elephant, tortoise, snake and other animals noted for their longevity have a respiratory rate which is less than man’s. The tortoise, for instance, who may attain the age of 300 years, breathes only 4 times per minute.”

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Wilburta Q. Lindh, Marilyn Pooler, Carol Tamparo, Barbara M. Dahl (Delmar’s Comprehensive Medical Assisting: Administrative and Clinical Competencies, 4th Edition, 1997, 2002, 2006, 2010) wrote …

“Respiratory rate is the number of respirations per minute. The normal respiratory rate, eupnea, varies with age, activities, illness, emotions, and drugs. The average respiratory rate to pulse rate is 1:4, one respiration to four pulse beats.

“Respiratory rhythm refers to the pattern of breathing. It can vary with age, with adults having a regular pattern, but infants having an irregular pattern. Rhythms may be altered by laughing and sighing.”

According to the same source, “normal respiratory rates” are …

Newborns — 44 respirations per minute

Infants — 20-40 respirations per minute

Children (1-7 years) — 18-30 respirations per minute

Adults — 12-20 respirations per minute

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Timothy P. Corey, Melanie L. Shoup-Knox, Elana B. Gordis, & Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. (“Changes in Physiology before, during, and after Yawning,” Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, 2011) wrote …

“Slowed breathing persisted for ∼15 s following peak inhalation; arguing against the hypothesis that yawning acts as a respiratory mechanism to regulate the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. Rather, this finding suggests a decrease in post yawning oxygen intake, due to the decreased breathing rate. Nor is the decreased breathing rate compensated for by deeper breaths. While respiration period was significantly decreased at 10 and 15 s after a yawn, tidal volume returned to baseline approximately 5 s following yawning, demonstrating that breathing rate slowed without compensatory change in lung volume. Thus, any surplus oxygen achieved by the deep inhalation associated with yawning would appear to be nullified by the subsequent decrease in respiratory rate. This is in agreement with the observations of Provine et al. (1987), showing that yawning frequency is not influenced by oxygen and CO2 levels.”

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Yogi Cameron Alborzian (“Breathe less, live longer,” Nov. 17, 2011) wrote …

“In his book, Yogananda speaks of how certain species that breathe fewer times a minute tend to live longer than species that breathe a comparably greater number of times per minute. My client’s dog was taking about forty to fifty breaths per minute, and yet Yogananda observed that a giant tortoise only takes about four breaths per minute. An elephant only takes four to five breaths per minute, and when resting, an alligator may only take one breath per minute. Though elephants and alligators don’t live quite as long as a giant tortoise, they’re certainly on the high-end of life spans in the animal kingdom. Dogs, as well as other animals like cats and mice, take many more breaths per minute and live a decidedly shorter period of time.

“Human beings, however, exist somewhere in between the dogs and the giant tortoises in both life span and breaths per minute. Humans tend to take between twelve and twenty breaths per minute, and they tend to live between sixty and 100 years. It is interesting to note that the range of breaths per minute is proportionally similar to that of the range of expected life spans.”

(To Be Continued)
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