The Superman Syndrome and Breathing
The superman in this picture is obviously a high chest breather. The breathing pattern is obviously UDB. If he was not made of steel, his way of breathing would surely cause chest pains.
The big chest and small waist is a western roll model that is negative to healthy relaxed breathing. Practically everyone admires a superman or superhero. But the chest must flex for the breathing to be able to expand and contract into deep easy in-breaths and relaxing out-breaths. In real life a huge chest does not mean a flexible/expanding and contracting chest or even a flexible personality for that matter. The breathing must also be balanced properly and centered in the lower part of the thorax/belly-chest for the nervous system to be able to calm down, rest and relax when appropriate. When you stop to think of it, how can one relax when they believe they need to save the world or whatever?
Speaking of relaxing, Robert Kamm notes in his book, The Superman Syndrome, that "Americans are working an average of six weeks to three months more per year than they did just a decade ago. Additionally, more than 70% of people in offices work weekends and more than 70% of American parents feel they don't spend enough time with their kids. Kamm says that the Superman Syndrome is characterized by an inability or unwillingness to throw the off-switch... whether on a cell phone, the computer, or in our own brains."
Kamm goes on to say "the Superman Syndrome is a dangerous workplace success formula that forces men and women to leap tall buildings and outrun speeding bullets -- at the expense of personal lives, families, children and even business productivity. This represents a major hypocrisy implicit in nearly every boardroom in America: The belief that we should be accountable to work but not to our families."
When you study the nervous system and see what this high chest breathing pattern does to it you understand how these people get caught up in this do and or die pattern. It is a core aspect of harmful stress. To make matters worse, the breathing may seem normal while at rest but when the proverbial "stuff" hits the fan it can go completely out of balance and drive the nervous system bonkers.
This unbalanced breathing pattern (UDB) invites almost all maladies including excessive stress, anxiety and panic, phobias, depression, high blood pressure, allergies, fatigue, poor sleep, speech or singing issues, emotional balance, personality distortions, excessive body weight, heart problems and many forms of cancer.
Two subtle day to day factors that cause or worsen the breathing balance are over tight at the band; brassieres and belts which invite unbalanced breathing and possible heart, lung, sleep, speech, digestion, and elimination issues.
How many millions of men and women did superman and other super heroes role model
this high chest breathing?
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Are YOU, a friend or loved one of them?
Our solution
From a
recent client: Since
our last visit, I have begun to be more aware of a few things:
- I’ve had much less of
the adrenaline rush feeling in my chest. Perhaps there’s a little less
external stress which is causing my response to be less, but I think
there is positive benefit from our sessions as well.
- I’ve noticed that I
have had fewer heart palpitations and fluttering than I had previously.
- Breathing overall
seems easier and deeper into the lower part of my lungs.
- I have done some light
exercise on the elliptical machine at the gym to observe my breathing.
I went easy per your orders. I noticed how my first incline was to
mouth-breathe, but I consciously made sure that I only breathed through
my nose and tried to fill my lungs. It felt a little foreign to do
that, but I adjusted to it as time went on. Doing this made me much
more aware of how much I mouth breathe.
- I like wearing the
strap because it’s not distracting or bothersome but it occasionally
makes me think about checking in with my breathing. I also assume that
it’s partially responsible for encouraging me to breathe past my chest.
- I think I’m making
some good progress with daytime breathing. Also, as I’ve mentioned,
I’ve had a couple of good nights without my dental appliance, but a
couple that I haven’t done so well. The last couple of nights I have
used my appliance mainly because I wanted to ensure I got a good night’s
sleep for the next day at work. I’ll continue to experiment sleeping
without it on the nights when I feel that I have the luxury of
experimenting.
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