IV. Reading Comprehension
Although the link between breathing and physical states may be readily apparent, the connection between breathing and mental
states, though not immediately obvious, is nevertheless irrefutable. It may be useful to visualize the mind-breath connection as a kite:
the state of mind (feelings and emotions) is the kite and the breath is the string that controls the kite. If you exert a smooth, gentle,
steady pull on the string, the kite will in all likelihood soar gracefully like a carefree bird on the wing. If, however, you tug at the
string, the kite will pitch and toss, much like a boat on rough seas, as if desperate to maintain control. So it is with the breath: a slow,
smooth, gentle breathing rhythm matches or brings about a calm emotional state, whereas fast, shallow, jerky irregular breathing
reflects or produces a troubled psyche.
Health workers in psychiatric hospitals have noted that most of their patients are shallow breathers: their breathing is largely
confined to the chest and their inhaled air seldom reaches the deep recesses of the lungs where the exchange of gases takes place. This
is to their disadvantage in terms of mental clarity. If you observe someone who is deeply depressed, for example, you will almost
certainly see very little evidence of breathing. This respiratory constraint is frequently observed when people restrict their breathing
during periods of great stress in order to cut off the flow of painful emotional sensations. In suppressing things too painful to
remember, in order to render them powerless to hurt us, we also curtail healing, life-giving breath. The unpleasantness and pain of
difficult emotions such as sadness, anger and resentment, and their impact on us, come largely from our holding them back and not
letting them through. By directly experiencing such feelings and participating with them through breath, you can free yourself from
the bonds of much of their negativity.
If we learn and regularly practice unrestricted breathing, it can help us to release and eliminate from our mind various unpleasant
feelings stored away. It can do so by facilitating the emergence of denied, repressed or suppressed feelings into the light of awareness,
as a prelude to creatively channeling and regulating that emotional energy. That is, by identifying the negative emotions, feeling them
and expressing them, we are much more likely to be able to move beyond them if we were to resist them and bury them inside. And
working with breath can be one of the quickest ways to overcome resistance to the painful and otherwise difficult feelings.
【題組】40. According to the article, which of the following statements is NOT true?
(A) By means of breathing, we can free ourselves from negative feelings.
(B) We tend to restrict our breathing when we experience painful emotions.
(C) Our unpleasant feelings can be released by confining the air to our chest.
(D) For the sake of mental clarity, we should let the inhaled air to reach the bottom of our lungs.
這段很詳細描述了不好的呼吸方式的事實例證： Health workers in psychiatric hospitals have noted that most of their patients are shallow breathers: their breathing is largely confined to the chest and their inhaled air seldom reaches the deep recesses of the lungs where the exchange of gases takes place. This is to their disadvantage in terms of mental clarity. google翻譯可參考： 精神病院的衛生工作者註意到，他們的大多數患者呼吸淺：他們的呼吸主要局限於胸部，吸入的空氣很少到達進行氣體交換的肺部深處。這對他們的頭腦清晰而言是不利的
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