It’s important to take a moment to pause and take a long, slow exhale as we navigate life. In our podcast series, "Breathe Away Anxiety," we explore ancient breathing techniques alongside cutting-edge research that reveals the powerful effects of slow, controlled breathing on our mental and physical well-being. We also share Happiness Break meditations to guide you through these science-backed methods, helping you reduce anxiety and cultivate calm in your everyday life.
Summary: Cal Calamia, the first nonbinary winner of the San Francisco Marathon, explores Bhramari Pranayama, an ancient yogic breathing technique that uses humming to promote relaxation. Dr. Gunjan Trivedi later explains how this "humming bee breath" enhances heart rate variability and why it’s key to managing stress. Part of our ongoing series, Breathe Away Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/4jyvkj4t
Time: 15 minutes, or as long as it feels right.
How To Do This Practice:
- Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose for 3-4 seconds.
- Exhale for 6-8 seconds, making a gentle humming sound (like a buzzing bee) as you breathe out.
- Adjust the timing of your inhale and exhale to find a rhythm that feels comfortable for you.
- Continue the practice for as long as feels right, focusing on the sound and sensation of your breath.
Note: This version of Bhramari Pranayama, practiced without specific hand gestures (mudras), was studied by Dr. Gunjan Trivedi.
Guest: Cal Calamia is an activist, teacher, poet, and the first nonbinary winner of the San Francisco marathon.
Learn more about Cal: https://tinyurl.com/25ft296x
Guest: Dr. Gunjan Trivedi is the cofounder of Society for Energy & Emotions at Wellness Space in Ahmedabad, India.
Learn more about Dr. Trivedi and Wellness Space: https://tinyurl.com/r53x6x3x
Read Dr. Trivedi's study about Bhramari Pranayama: https://tinyurl.com/2xnjk6ah
Related Science of Happiness episodes:
How Breathe Away Anxiety (Cyclic Sighing): https://tinyurl.com/4jyvkj4t
How To Tune Out The Noise: https://tinyurl.com/4hhekjuh
Related Happiness Break episodes:
Happiness Break: A Breathing Technique To Help You Relax (Cyclic Sighing): https://tinyurl.com/3dtwyk44
A Mindful Breath Meditation, With Dacher Keltner: https://tinyurl.com/mr9d22kr
Transcript
CAL CALAMIA: It's so interesting because I came to running really as something that brought me joy. And as I started to get older, I started to come to terms with my own queerness, my identity as a queer person, and then later, my understanding of myself as trans. And it felt like in that struggle to understand myself, I was also kind of pushed out of my sport.
And that sport being that sort of place where I could go ground myself, it felt really challenging to try to both be trans and an athlete at the same time. As you can see and hear in the media, there's a lot of demonization of trans athletes. So, starting to sort of grapple with how do I transition and still run?
It was a really dark time for me, being forced to confront that question of, "How do I be who I am and do what I love at the same time?" And, "Why, by virtue of my identity, am I not allowed to do that?"
Number one thing I'm thinking about is breath, and I'm thinking about stress, and heart rate, and things like that, that trans athletes are so often, you know, accused of having an unfair advantage. I'm very stressed out. It is very stressful to even show up. So, I would say that it's perhaps an unfair disadvantage.
DACHER KELTNER: Humming. It’s something a lot of us do while we’re doing simple, everyday things. Like folding laundry, sweeping the floor, taking a shower. But did you know that humming is also an ancient yogic practice? Welcome to the Science of Happiness, I'm Dacher Keltner.
Today we are trying out Bhramari Pranayama —or humming bee breath, a practice shown to help activate the vagus nerve that runs through our neck area, from the cranial nerve to the large intestine, putting our bodies into a relaxed state. Research also shows that humming can help lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and improve our sleep.
Our guest this week, Cal Calamia, is an activist, poet and professional marathon runner. He’s made history as the first non-binary to win the San Francisco marathon. He joins us today to tell us how humming bee breath has helped his mind and body. Later we hear from Dr. Gunjan Trivedi about how humming can help us calm our bodies and stay healthy.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: Humming is an effective stress buster. Relaxing the nervous system and therefore preparing the mind and the body to rejuvenate and recover the energy that we lose when we are stressed, angry, upset, anxious.
DACHER KELTNER: More, after these messages from our sponsors.
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I’m Dacher Keltner. Welcome back to the Science of Happiness. Humming is something a lot of people do without even thinking. And it's part of a yogic breathing exercise that appears in ancient Vedic texts: Bhramari Pranayama. The word, Bhramari, means "bee" in Sanskrit. So, it’s also referred to as humming bee breath because of the sound that you make when you exhale.
[Humming sound.]
DACHER KELTNER: Today, Cal joins us after trying this humming bee breath to soothe his own nerves. Cal, thanks so much for being on the show.
CAL CALAMIA: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and talk about this.
DACHER KELTNER: Cal, you're from Chicago, but live in San Francisco and spend a lot of time traveling, running marathons. And you made history, and I just got goosebumps thinking about it in 2022, as the first non binary winner of both Bay To Breakers and then the San Francisco Marathon. Congratulations.
CAL CALAMIA: Thank you so much.
DACHER KELTER: It’s serious stuff, being a marathon runner. How’d you get to it? Why are you a marathon runner?
CAL CALAMIA: I would say I started really running because I started playing soccer in kindergarten, so I was like five and as a soccer player, my coaches and teammates would always be like, wow, Cal just doesn't get tired.
DACHER KELTNER: Cal never stops running.
CAL CALAMIA: Exactly. Don't take Cal out of the game. So then when I learned in fifth grade that there was a team that was just running, I was like, "Let me try that out and see how that goes." And I just loved it. I think I am a really busy person in my body and in my mind. So, it gets some of that energy out. It makes me feel regulated, makes me feel strong, but it's also something I can participate in actively, which I really like. I remember, I first learned about breathing as a contemplative practice when I used to go out in high school and run with my best friend, Guillermo, who ran cross country. He's a great runner. And he's like, "Here's what you got to do. You just got to slow the breathing down and sync it up with your steps." And I was like, "Wow, you didn't know that. You've been a lifelong serious athlete and long distance runner, Cal.”
DACHER KELTNER: You faced a lot of discrimination in your life, even in the marathon world. And I know that impacts your paychecks and your livelihood. Tell us about what that's like, what you've learned.
CAL CALAMIA: At first there was really no place to go. I didn't know how to sign up for things. There were only male and female options for things.
So I started advocating for non binary divisions, which was really cool. And thankfully, living in the Bay Area, there was a lot of positive support for such divisions. And, you know, the SF Marathon added the division. Beta Breakers added the division. And once I saw that, I was like, momentum, I started thinking, all right, what else can we do? And now we've seen these divisions grow across the entire globe, which has been amazing.
CAL CALAMIA: So I founded Nonbinary Run Club out of San Francisco. It's a huge crew of trans and nonbinary athletes. We meet up and we run. And we just spend time together and we move together and it's expanded so far beyond our meetups and I just love to hear like someone babysat someone else's kid or someone was walking someone else's dog or they had a sleepover that night. You know, there's just these amazing connections that are there and I feel like that, like what you're saying, right? Like that connection and ability to feel love for who you are and connected to other people with your identity. It's really life saving.
DACHER KELTNER: Wonderful. When did you start to learn about the power of the breath?
CAL CALAMIA: I would say early, like early middle school, maybe fifth grade. So, you know, 11, 12 years old. And I think the first way I began to understand that breathing through the context of running was really about exertion and what your breath is telling you about what you have left, what you can do and what you can't do. And it's now something of course that I'm using all the time like there are many different pace ranges that I train in that are deeply related to breathing and heart rate, but ultimately it's a feeling.
DACHER KELTNER: Well, for our show you tried this ancient yogic breathing exercise, Bhramari breath--or humming bee breath. And it's really a simple tool with a lot of benefits for our mental and physical health. It gives you calm and better sleep and reduces stress. There’s data that it activates the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. Can you describe for our listeners how to do this type of humming breath?
CAL CALAMIA: Yes, absolutely. So I just got pretty simple instructions and then I looked up some different videos and I realized, like, it is really simple. So the way that I've done it is really to just close your eyes and take a deep, steady breath in. I've seen a lot of examples where people also put their fingers on their ears as well. Kind of close the auditory process and be more present with what you're doing. And then you really just keep your mouth closed lightly. You're not like, not really exerting, and you just really exhale and sort of hum out as you, you know, sort of as long as you can. And then you just repeat that, whatever feels good for you, maybe five, 10 times.
DACHER KELTNER: Would you be open to showing me how to do it?
CAL CALAMIA: Yeah. Are you going to try it with me?
DACHER KELTNER: Heck yeah.
CAL CALAMIA: Okay. Let's do it.
DACHER KELTNER: The humming bee breath.
CAL CALAMIA: Yeah, let's do it. So go ahead. I'll just walk you through a little bit and then I'll do it with you. So remember, we're just going to take a breath in and then close our eyes and then slowly and lightly hum out and kind of hold onto that for as long as you can, until you sort of run out of that air. Ok. Ready?
DACHER KELTNER: Okay.
CAL CALAMIA: So go ahead and breathe in.
[Both humming.]
DACHER KELTNER: Wow. Do you ever do it with people?
CAL CALAMIA: I haven't yet.
DACHER KELTNER: Wow. That was my first one.
CAL CALAMIA: It felt good. I felt like we were connected.
DACHER KELTNER: Totally. That was really awesome. Don't you kind of want to do more? Like, doesn't it feel so relaxing? But we got stuff to do on this show.
CAL CALAMIA: Right. Exactly. Exactly.
DACHER KELTNER: So tell us about some of the places that you did this, or where you started to build this into a regime that's part of your training.
CAL CALAMIA: I tried places, I definitely did it sitting on my couch, sitting on the edge of my bed, but one of my favorite ones that kept me really in the pattern of doing it every day was after a run. My typical pattern has been to come home and do five minutes of core work, so kind of sit on my mat, stretch out, do my abs there, so it was just what I started to incorporate into sitting on the mat. That's the first thing I do, kind of regulate, calm down, especially after a run. That felt really good. And then get into the rest of the routine.
DACHER KELTNER: Yeah, I hear you. Being a marathon runner, you have a lot of awareness of breath and you know, the sensations of deep breathing and the like. And I'm curious what this feels like for you. When you do this humming bee breath, how would you describe the sensations?
CAL CALAMIA: Ah, it just feels like coming home to my own body. I think that is really big for me. You know, I run a lot and there are social factors that I'm constantly navigating. I'm a busy person. I'm a poet. I'm a professor. Like, there's a lot going on. I think my default can be to be scattered and be buzzing in a different way. So for me, it's like realizing that calm is something that's within me and that I can access if I just give my body and my breath the proper attention.
DACHER KELTNER: I love your phrase, coming home to your own body. And the voice is so powerful, each human voice is unique, right? And it's just where we sense our identity. One of the things we know in the scientific literature is these breathing exercises, in particular, deep exhalation, and then adding the vocalization in the humming bee breath exercise, it can increase heart rate variability, shifting the beats per minute variation in the heart rate rhythm.
And I know as a marathon runner, you must know a lot about your heart and sort of keep track of it. What did you notice about doing this humming bee breath just in the functioning of your heart?
CAL CALAMIA: I actually did notice literal changes. I do track my resting heart rate and my heart rate variability.
DACHER KELTNER: What's your resting heart rate?
CAL CALAMIA: Um, typically it's right around like 48, 49.
DACHER KELTNER: That’s incredible.
CAL CALAMIA: So yeah, so I did notice it dropping a few points lower in the last week in particular. And specifically in the last two days, I noticed an elevated heart rate variability that's outside of my normal range. And I think that it's because I've been preparing to come here, so I've been practicing the breath a little bit extra, I've been thinking about it more intentionally, and I did notice that, that elevated heart rate variability, which is really amazing for me as a person. I mean, it's correlated with obviously like happiness and the ability to adapt to specific changes, but it's also really good as an athlete, and it's indicative of better heart health. So it's exciting. Good news.
DACHER KELTNER: I think about your life, Cal, and you know, you're a competitive athlete, and you got the violence against trans people in our world. You must feel that all the time. And then just our stressful times underneath all of that. You must have a deep sense of how these stresses of your life shift your breathing.
CAL CALAMIA: In general, with my breathing, I've noticed in the last few years, you know, with all the factors that you just described, that the feeling of the breathing feeling really restful isn't quite as automatic. I think I often, without knowing it, am in a more rapid breathing, more rapid heart rate, and it does require an intentional practice to bring myself to a place of calm with my breathing. Whereas other folks might be able to sit down on the couch and feel that way, I'm still reeling about, you know, all that there is for me to do and all that there is for me to fear. So to get to a place of having more steady breathing and a more relaxed, slower breathing rate I think is something that I have to put more intention into.
DACHER KELTNER: Finding that home.
CAL CALAMIA: Exactly. The way that physical health and mental health are deeply deeply entwined. I think if you look at how historically physical health has been gatekept from trans people, opening that door and letting trans people access joy through movement and through breathwork is something that will have really serious positive effects on the current mental health outcomes for trans folks.
DACHER KELTNER: Thank you. What do you think this practice has given to you, just at a broader level?
CAL CALAMIA: Ah, I think just like permission to rest, really. Something I've been working on for years, is like, when can I slow down and when can I, you know, say no and, you know, just really choose to take a break for myself. And I think the work of creating a safer and more inclusive world for trans people feels really urgent to me, especially given, you know, I grew up in the Midwest. I came to San Francisco where things are obviously a lot more inclusive, but I know that there are still young people in the Midwest that don't, you know, have access to gender affirming care. They don't have access to representation and examples and role models, right?
So it feels very urgent for me and it feels very personal. And I sometimes have a hard time setting boundaries with what I do with my time. And making this an important practice that gets time and attention every day, even if it's just for two minutes, in some way, me choosing. Not only resting, but also choosing myself and choosing the longevity of the work that I want to do.
DACHER KELTNER: Well, Cal Calamia, this has been an inspiring conversation. And thank you for doing the practice and thank you for your work in the world. It is urgently needed and it's in good hands with people like you.
CAL CALAMIA: Thank you so much for having me. This has been amazing.
DACHER KELTNER: For me too.
DACHER KELTER: Up next, we’re going to hear from Dr. Gunjan Trivedi about the role our heart plays in sending calming signals to our brains and the importance of heart rate variability.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: So heart rate variability is coded to our breath. So therefore anytime when you slow down the breathing, in other words, slow down also the exhalation, the mind and body benefits.
DACHER KELTNER: More on the science, after the break.
[BREAK]
DACHER KELTNER: Hi everybody, this is Dacher Keltner. Welcome back to The Science of Happiness. Bhramari Pranayama, or humming bee breath, put to the test by Cal Calamia, has been studied by Dr. Gunjan Trivedi and a team of cardiologists, endocrinologists and psychologists. He spoke with us from West Gujarat, India to tell us how this practice affects our parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates several bodily functions like breathing and heart rate.
In one experiment, he recruited 23 participants and had them wear a device that monitors heart signals and variations. His team compared humming to other activities, like sleep and exercise.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: We asked individuals to note down when they had either of these four situations, emotional stress, physical activity or physical stress, sleep and humming. And to my surprise, I realized that the change in heart signals, which is a message that heart sends to the brain, that all is well, is more significant or stronger during humming
DACHER KELTNER: Gunjan found that while some stages of sleep reduced stress levels more than humming, overall stress levels during sleep were still higher due to phases like REM sleep. He also found that humming lowered heart rate -- and importably it increased heart rate variability.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: For example, my heart beats once, like a metronome, once every second. Adding up to 60 beats in a minute and your heart beats with variations still total 60 in a minute. So you'll have it at like, say half a second, then 1.2 seconds, 0.8 seconds, 1.3, and all of that adds up to 60.
DACHER KELTER: This variation in our heart rate is actually a pretty important indicator and signal.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: And it is a very important signal that goes from the heart to the brain. So we think brain runs the heart, but in reality, more than 80 percent of the communication is the signals that go to the command center in the brain, uh, that all is well. And therefore we become calm. It's called heart brain axis, heart brain coherence, in technical terms, heart rate variability. So heart to brain access, which is a core in all ancient breathing practices, chanting practices is very, very powerful.
DACHER KELTER: The brain is always listening to the heart, which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, listen to your heart.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: If you focus inwards, suddenly the heart becomes the focus. So when we inhale, the heart rate goes up. So heart beats faster. And when we exhale, the heart beating slows down. And there's a common sense reason behind why we are created that way. When we inhale, a lot of oxygen comes into the lungs and that needs to be sent to the remote corners of every cell of the body.
Therefore, the heart starts to pump faster. And exhalation, the heart slows down so that over a period of our lifetime, it can rest.
DACHER KELTER: You may be wondering, what’s the difference between other slow breathing practices and humming? Well, it has something to do with a chemical produced in our nasal passages called nitric oxide, a powerful molecule for our cardiovascular system.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: Nitric oxide compared to when we breathe, has 15 times more volume generated during humming. Our heart rate variability is better or more variations in heart signals compared to the gold standard slow breathing, which is five seconds inhale, five seconds exhale. So yes, humming has very profound benefits across multiple systems, whether it's air exchanges, heart signals, nervous system, uh, heart to brain communication, calming the overall hormonal balance through calming the stress axis.
For humming, we have noticed changes in as little as three weeks, but then not two minutes a day. Ideally, 15 to 20 minutes in a day, when you do it for three weeks, you will start to see changes. But, we've had cases and people come with anxiety. And they are in that moment, triggered, disturbed. If it's possible for them to come into a humming activity, they will feel instantly calm.
DACHER KELTER: A lot of us might find humming easier than sitting down, doing slow breathing or meditation.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: The humming process is involving some activity on your part, some mental math, initially, and keeps you more focused compared to slow breathing. Slow breathing is powerful. Don't get me wrong. However, it has more likelihood of newcomers going into wandering, to do list follow up, getting triggered.
DACHER KELTNER: How about when we’re just mindlessly humming while doing chores or putting babies to sleep? Gunjan says that has an impact too.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: Anytime is okay. Except when you are doing activities such as driving, be very careful because it may put you to sleep.
GUNJAN TRIVEDI: If we can focus on balancing the energetic vibrations in the body, that gives a very powerful message to the whole nervous system.
DACHER KELTER: Tune in next week to try Humming Bee Breath during our Happiness Break meditation. In our next episode of The Science of Happiness, we’ll explore how honoring those who came before us can bring support and meaning to our lives today, through a Mexican tradition celebrated by millions: Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
MATHEW SANDOVAL: Grief can be heavy. Grief can be very heavy. And I would say that grief can also be a very lonely process. And Dia de los Muertos, by virtue of it being celebrated collectively, allows the burden and the heaviness of that grief to be carried by a larger community.
DACHER KELTNER: Thanks for joining us on The Science of Happiness. This episode was produced by Truc Nguyen. Our research assistants are Dasha Zerboni and Selina Bilal.
Our sound designer is Jennie Cataldo of Accompany Studios. Our executive producer is Shuka Kalantari. I'm Dacher Keltner. I hope you're having as much fun as I am on this breathing journey through happiness. Have a great day.
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