The Unique Legacy of Breath Control & Utilitarian Hacks by Mark Hatmaker

You are amazing.


That’s right, you.


Of all the species on this planet you possess a rather remarkable ability that I wager that you take for granted. 


Before we disassemble and then re-assemble this astounding legacy let’s revel in it.


First, take a deep breath through your nose.


Let it out.


Second, take a deep breath through your mouth.


Let it out.

What you did in both of those instances is demonstrate an ability that no other land mammal possesses.


One, your breathed ably and comfortably through both mouth and nose.


Two, and this is remarkable and significant, but almost invisible in its import as we do this so readily every single day of our lives we take it for granted—you consciously chose to take a breath, hold it for your own determined duration and exhaled at will.


Let’s leave our unusual anatomy that allows for our atypical mouth and/or nose breathing to another day and dig deeper into the conscious control of respiration.


We all breathe automatically, until we don’t and then we’re dead.


We all also know that we can take control of respiration in some small order that turns out to be quite large.


We can choose to hold our breath. Whether that breath-hold is for an exultant sub-surface swim or at the behest of a pushy author of a piece on breath control, the mere act and fact of you being able to control this ability is unique to human beings.


Yes, other land mammals can old their breath, but that is in response to in-the-moment stimulus. 


For example: If I toss my dog into the lake [which I often do] on the occasional occurrences when her head dips beneath the surface momentarily she will hold her breath in response to the water breaching the nostrils.


In this regard she is like all other land mammals ----except man.


What she cannot do is consciously choose to hold her breath pre-lake toss.

The Missus & My Tormented Dog

She’s been tossed before, she knows submergence is a likelihood and yet no breath hold. 


If I teach her speech and tell her to hold her breath, even if she understood my advice, she still lacks the physical hardware to futurize this process.


This cognitive choice of respiration we have is so part and parcel of our being that it is, for some, hard to grasp that this is not a universal ability.


Like other land mammals we are able to breath in context of current stimuli. For instance, I am surprised-tossed into the lake by my dog [perhaps revenge?] and despite my not knowing about the toss I will immediately hold my breath upon submerging.


But I can also “see the future” in breathing regards.


If I see my dog coming with a lake-tossing look in her eye, I can do what she cannot, hold my breath before the toss and escape the sputter of in-the-moment surprise.


We humans also have the amazing ability to breathe as we have in the past. By this I mean, we can alter the very foundations of our current mood by emulating the breathing of past events that mirror what we wish to feel now.


If I am feeling a bit unsettled now, I can recall past calmer times, adopt the long slow easy breathing of calm-breathing and bring a bit of that future to my present.

If I am calm and want to get a bit psyched, I can recall amped-up times and adopt the more hectic breathing of those moods and in turn my physiology will alter towards this past state.



Hacking/taking control of respiration is part and parcel of countless meditation systems, religious rituals, “psyching out” for the big event, etc. Breath control is encountered universally in human cultures.


Now, as for questions of “What’s the best breathing method? Is it yogic pranayama or is it Comanche suakhetu? Or is it this or that?”


In the overall scheme of breath control, these questions are mere appendixes on the wider body of the fact of breath control itself as the key.


We can choose specific “techniques” if that floats our boat but the overall crux is not the fashionable breathing tactic that “works for you” but rather that you choose to take deliberate control of your breath.


By dint of becoming aware of this unusual legacy of human beings, and pondering the fact that you can alter, to a degree, current physiological and thusly emotional states simply by adopting breath control/breath awareness goes a long way towards useful value.


I have catalogued a handful from indigenous traditions that seem to reap rewards in specific circumstances and we will elaborate at a future date in our book on Indigenous Hacks but I leave you with the observation that often it less about the tactic when it comes to breathing than it is the burgeoning awareness that you have this astounding range of control over a process we may take for granted.


I will not leave you high and dry though. Let us conclude today’s sermon with a pragmatic exercise.


Pragmatic Hack: It is surmised that humans have an aquatic heritage somewhere in their past as we share the “mammalian dive reflex” with seals, otters and other shore-to-sea aquatic mammals. If we submerge our faces in cold water [ear immersion is often the tipping point] our heart-rate begins to rapidly slow. It is surmised that…


One-This accounts for our peaceful experiences when immersed in water. Calm heart/calm body suppresses cortisol and adrenalin release. Your body does this automatically. Your dog’s body will not.


Two-This heart-rate lowering prepares the diving mammal for longer breath holds and more efficient subsurface work.

Three-We can hack anxiety/depression by plunging our faces in sinks of cold water. Again, ear-submersion seems to be the tipping point of the full effect, but if you have ever doused your face with cold water while stressed, you have instinctually reached for a hack from your evolutionary past.


The “mammalian dive reflex” can be countered by human supposition. In experiments, those who were concerned with their make-up, or hair, or who simply regarded water anxiously allowed self-determined adrenaline and cortisol to counter the calming aspect. We must give ourselves to our physiology and escape assumptions to be a human animal.


An animal with a remarkable singular ability.

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