In this interview with „personal philosopher“ Brian Johnson, Buteyko breath teacher Patrick McKeown talks about breathing in relation to thinking: „by focussing on the breath, we take control back over our minds“. He maps out how „there are two types of thoughts, „productive thoughts and repetitive thoughts“. The productive thoughts are neccessary for planning activities, the repetitive thoughts are unnecessary and keep going round and round in a loop, not leading to an activity. As opposed to other animals, because of our thinking „we tend to focus on what‘s not going on around us“. The mind takes over from sensations just after a couple of seconds, for example, when we hear a piece of music, at first we‘re „all ear“, but after a few notes, the mind has taken over, spinning its mix of productive and, more often than not, repetitive thoughts. The type of breathwork that is based on awareness, on „knowing what‘s going on“, trains us to get out of our heads and into our bodies by „1. connecting to the breath, 2, connecting to the inner body, and 3. being in the present moment.“ The head/body divide affects our „energy and concentration levels“ which are necessary to accomplish the task at hand. In other words, if we‘re always thinking ahead, we‘re not getting ahead.
The information in the interview is mostly not new but the clarity with which Patrick McKeown talks about the relation between breathing and thinking in general and about his own learning curve with it, make this interview well worth listening to.