WORDS:^YOZUSHI^ |^PHOTOGRAPHY:^
GETT
Y^ IMAGES^ |IMAGE^ MANIPULATION:^ COLIN^BEAGLEYD
aniel LaRusso is tired. A Jersey
boy transplanted to suburban LA,
he is tormented by a local karate
gang and now, for reasons he can’t quite
fathom, he finds himself polishing a
handyman’s collection of classic cars.
He attempts to complain – after all, he
came to Mr Miyagi for martial arts
training, not to volunteer as some sort of
valet – but the old Japanese American
growls, “No questions!... Wax on, wax off.”
What makes for memorable cinema
might not always translate to good life
advice, as anyone who has ever tried
to wax-on or wax-off his way out of a
fight will attest. Yet what Miyagi says
immediately after those famous four
words has a solid basis in neuroscience:
“Breathe in through nose.” Doing so could
help you respond faster and better to
danger, be that in the form of a Cobra Kai
black belt or your boss in a foul mood.
In a study recording electrical activity
on the surface of the brain, researchers
at Northwestern University found
that deliberate nasal breathing helped
to co-ordinate activity in the piriform
cortex (linked to your sense of smell),
the amygdala (your emotions) and
the hippocampus (your memories).ONE WORD
ANSWER #56
QUESTION
Which body part
will help yourespond to danger
and make better
decisions?Nose
ANSWER
Participants were presented with images
of faces and asked to identify “fearful”
expressions. When inhaling through
their nostrils, they accomplished this
with far more speed and accuracy than
when breathing through their mouths.
With your limbic system whipped into
a state of heightened synchronisation
by the air streaming through your
nostrils, your ability to make good
emotional judgements is enhanced,
just when you need it most.
Nasal inhalation can also help you
in other ways. The same study noted
significant improvements in your brain’s
ability to encode memories as you
breathe in, while separate research points
to a potential 10-20% increase in the
uptake of oxygen during workouts.
Meanwhile, after learning of her electoral
defeat to Donald Trump in 2016, Hillary
Clinton steadied herself through the
ancient yoga practice of breathing in
through one nostril and out through
the other – a technique linked to relief
in “acute stressful situations” by
researchers at Manipal University in
India. As Mr Miyagi says to Daniel-san,
“When you feel life out of focus, always
return to basic of life... Breathing.”