How to breathe when you travel (and use public restrooms)

Hey there, it's Achin. In this video, I want to give you some tips on how to breathe when you travel. I also want to give you some tips on some bonus tips, really, on how to breathe when you're using public restrooms. So I travel quite extensively, actually. I'm in a hotel right now, as you can see behind me. And one of the things that I have to ensure, because oftentimes I'm speaking at events, is that my immune system stays healthy. Can't afford to be sick, can't afford to be sniffling, nor do I want to. So I would imagine that if you're watching this video, you don't want to either. So a few things I'm going to do. I'm going to give you about 10 ways to help regulate and balance your immune system and create the right defenses against the outside world, with breath being the main keystone that we're talking about here. And these things are probably things that you've heard me say before, but it's more about raising your awareness in specific circumstances. So the first thing is, how do we breathe when we're traveling, especially when we're surrounded by other people? So a couple things to keep in mind is I always encourage people to do something called coherence breathing. Coherence breathing is. Should be really our default breathing pattern. This is six seconds in, six seconds out. Tongue at the roof of the mouth. Breathing in and out through our nose. This should be how you breathe most of the day or whenever you bring your awareness, your thought awareness to your breath. That's how you want to be breathing. So just a quick way for you to check in by breathing slow. We're allowing the air that's entering in through our nose to be properly filtered. Our nose is a physical filter. We have nose hairs that help us do that. And it's also a biological filter because we produce something called nitric oxide. And nitric oxide is a molecule that has antiviral, antibacterial, and antipathogenic effects on the air that's coming in. So it acts as a disinfectant so that the air that's going into our lungs is being purified and cleansed, and that's maintaining a healthy lung microbiome. So breathing in and out through the nose is going to be one of your first steps that you can take. Tongue at the roof of the mouth, six in, six seconds out. The next thing that you can do is you can. Humor humming further increases nitric oxide. So simply breathing through your nose increases nitric oxide. Six fold humming increases it 15 fold humming is one of those things that lengthens your exhale, so it drives you into a more parasympathetic state, which is when our immune system is most vigilant. And because it increases nitric oxide, it's going to increase your defenses. So when you're walking through the airport, you could be humming. When you're on a break, if you're at a conference, you could be humming. You could be humming on the airplane very softly. No one's going to hear it with the roar of the jet. So humming is something that you can do as well to increase your defenses. Now, you don't want to be humming constantly like a lunatic, but periodically, if you can hum for three to five minutes, that's going to really increase nitric oxide and increase your vigilance. Next thing that you can do is, is make sure you pack mouth tape. I've been talking about mouth tape. For the last five years. I've been mouth taping consistently. I've probably only missed two or three days in the last five years. And mouth taping is going to ensure that I'm breathing in and out through my nose, especially while I'm sleeping. So that's going to maintain a healthy immune system. And it's going to make sure I'm filtering the air that's coming out of the hotel. You also want to make sure when you get a hotel room that if you have any inclination of water damage or you smell mold or it smells musty in there, that you ask the hotel to change your room immediately. Before you unpack, before you do anything, just go back downstairs and let them know that this room is unacceptable and that they need to give you another one. Because if we're sleeping in that room, spending maybe two, three, four days in there, we want to make sure that the quality of the air that we're breathing is not compromising our health. So mouth taping. And then, of course, the quality of the air in the room is going to be very crucial. Next thing I want to talk about is positive pressure. So positive pressure is really simple. And it's just that instead of air coming in and inhaling, we're exhaling under certain circumstances. So if somebody were coughing or sneezing around you, you wouldn't want to inhale, you'd want to exhale, because that pushes things out. It doesn't allow these particulates to enter into your body. Less work for your immune system. And of course, it's better to play offense than defense when it comes to your immunity. So if you're in a crowded space, okay, if you're walking by a group of people, right, and you just don't know what, what you're going to breathe in. If you're breathing in around them, create a positive air pressure. So breathe out slowly. You don't have to breathe out forcefully. Just breathe out slowly. And that's gonna ensure that nothing is coming into your body. Next is, how do we breathe in public restroom? So this is a question that I get quite often because nobody likes the smell. Nobody wants to inhale poop particles from other people. So what I do is I take a few cleansing breaths. That means a deep inhale, fully exhale, do that about four or five times. The main thing you wanna do is you wanna get rid of the CO2. So the exhale is the most important part here. And then the last inhale that you do, you're gonna then hold your breath and then you're gonna slowly exhale. You're gonna exhale as slowly as you can. So you go into the bathroom, do your business. If it's a number one, then you should be able to, you know, get done in time. And then you don't even have to breathe while you're in the bathroom. You can be exhaling, maintaining that positive pressure the entire time. Now, if you do have to breathe, then you're gonna breathe as slowly as you possibly can. Okay? So just sipping the air in, allowing your. Your nasal mucosa to cleanse the air so that you're inhaling as little of it as possible, but you're also filtering it as best you can. You wanna practice slow exhaling as a daily practice. I practice this at every stoplight I come to. So every time I get to a stoplight, I take a few cleansing breaths, I take a full inhale, and then I exhale as slowly as I possibly can. This builds up my CO2 tolerance. The urge to breathe actually comes from wanting more CO2. So this is a way that we could build up our tolerance to CO2 so that we don't have the urge to breathe. So when we're in certain circumstances, like a bathroom, then we can maintain that positive pressure for extended periods of time. All right, next is nitric oxide, so you can supplement with nitric oxide support products if your nitric oxide levels are naturally low and nitric oxide nose dives after the age of 40. So for men and women, chances are, if you're not doing something to increase nitric oxide, eating the right foods, getting sunlight, you know, Nasal breathing, you might have low nitric oxide levels. So you can increase nitric oxide by taking capsules. And there's other, you know, potions and powders and things like that that you can take. That might be a great defense system for you. One thing that decreases nitric oxide production is mouth breathing, but also mouthwash. So if you're at events, you know, it's always nice to have fresh breath. I use peppermint oil instead of using an alcohol based mouthwash because that's going to kill the bacteria that helps you make nitric oxide and that's going to compromise your immune defenses. So don't use mouthwash. Use essential oils like peppermint instead. And then of course, supplement with nitric oxide if you need to. Next, if somebody coughs or sneezes around you, I kind of alluded to this already, but what you would do is you would maintain positive pressure, okay? So try to avoid the area if you can, but if you're caught up in it and you can't do anything about it, then you would maintain positive pressure, blowing the air slowly out of your nose. That way you're not inhaling any particles. And again, it's better to play offense than defense when it comes to your immune system, immune health. Next thing is get outside. So when we're in an airplane, the air concentration of CO2 is very high. When we're in hotel rooms, that concentration can be very high. Outdoor air has a parts per million of CO2 concentration of about 400 to 440 somewhere in that range. Whereas when you get on a plane, it's up to 2,500 is the highest I've measured. And in hotel rooms, you can get up to 1800, which is the highest I've measured. So get outside, get some fresh air. That's gonna help, you know, you know, liven your mood, but it's also going to help support your body by eliminating that high concentration of CO2. And it's also gonna help you reset your circadian rhythm as well. And the next thing that I wanna share is don't be fearful, right? So this isn't all about fear. It's really about, you know, being aware. And once you have that awareness, then you can make better decisions. And if it's something as simple as what I shared with you today, why not apply this information? Why not share this information with your family and people that you love and care about? And if you found this video helpful, why not share it with others? So I hope that helps. And just to recap I wrote them down here so I have them in front of me. Is you want to breathe in and out for six seconds. That's your default breathing tongue at the roof of the mouth. And you want to make sure that you are breathing slowly and intentionally. Humming is another way to increase nitric oxide. Mouth tape is something you want to have in your bag, in your toiletry bag with you. I have a couple of different rolls in different places in case I forget. And if I do forget, then I ask for a band aid. Any hotel will give you a band aid. Next is figure out when you want to maintain positive pressure. Positive pressure blows air out of your nose instead of sucking the air in. Less work for your body. Better to play offense than defense. Next. We talked about how to breathe when you're in a bathroom. So you take some cleansing breaths. Fully inhale and then hold and exhale slowly, again maintaining positive pressure. If you do need to breathe, breathe as slow as you can when you inhale. Next is nitric oxide support supplements. Those are gonna help increase your nitric oxide levels, help increase your immune defenses. Don't use mouthwash, that's alcohol based, especially because that kills the bacteria, positive beneficial bacteria in your mouth. That helps you make nitric oxide in your nose and that, you know, downregulates your immune defenses. Next, if somebody's coughing or sneezing around you, maintain that positive pressure. Try to avoid the area if you can, but sometimes that's hard or impossible to just blow out. That's going to be beneficial for you. Nine is get fresh air. And number 10, don't be afraid. Right. Fear lowers our immunity. Be aware, be conscientious, be intentional, especially with how you breathe. If you found this helpful, please share. I think more people need to hear information like this. Lots of love. I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now.