Some of you may know that Olivia saved my life in London last year; here’s a brief reprise.
I had just started chewing a mouthful of steak when a piece of gristle and fat separated from the rest of the piece, and slid quickly down my throat, lodging across the trachea—instantly I knew I could not breathe. I could not breathe out; I could not breathe in. I stood up; time slowed. The certainty that I could no longer breathe was profound. I was mute; I signalled that I could not breathe. Olivia ran around behind me and slapped me as hard as she could in the middle of the back, several times. Nothing changed. Still behind me, she clasped her arms around me and began the Heimlich manoeuvre and at the same time I slumped forwards against the pressure of her arms; the small fragment of fat and gristle popped out. Life restarted.
Last night I realised (for the first time) that my habit is to breathe out before taking a mouthful of food. (This just goes to show that even someone who has meditated as long as I have, and have felt the movements of the breath many, many times, can still have 100% blank spots about regular daily life habits.) How do you breathe when you eat?
The significance of this habit, always breathing out before taking a mouthful, cannot be overstated: fundamentally, it is dangerous. If your breath is out as you place food in your mouth, you will be at least partially breathing in through your mouth as you begin to chew—which means you can breathe a part of this into the wrong place. As well, compounding the danger, you cannot breathe out if something does become lodged. This is precisely what happened in London. Had I been on my own, I’d be dead.
Last night, seeing and feeling this pattern clearly, I paused before every mouthful, and breathed in. Only when the breath was full did I place the food. I noticed that introducing this tiny pause had a number of effects: I became more aware of the appearance of the food on the spoon and I was able to appreciate its appearance. Once on the tongue, I breathed out as I started to chew. Absolutely no chance of choking here.
The most amazing aspect of this was to realise how unaware I was about a tremendously important aspect of how I ate. ‘What else have I missed?’ was my second thought.
More prosaically, please observe how you actually eat a mouthful of food. If your habit is to breathe out before putting food in your mouth, try doing it the way I suggest. Does this make any difference for you?
For me, like all awarenesses, I cannot not be aware of this from now on.
kitlaughlin 
First of all, I am glad you were okay!
I put food in my mouth as I breathe in. Just like eating a bowl of ramen: slurping it in. Chewing my food while breathing in and out naturally. Swallowing as I breathe in – naturally, there is a brief blocking of breath while swallowing.
There is something about not talking while having a mouth full – choking hazard. 🙂
Slurping noodles is a different matter, I believe: one is doing that with awareness, and the lips are pursed (and with the tongue behind). The danger, I now believe, about talking and eating is the same as what I am describing: no problem while actually talking (because the breath will always be moving out when you do) it’s when you have to breathe in again.
Breathing whilst eating and drinking allows you to smell as well. Wine tasters do it, and when you drink a fine whiskey or brandy it enhances the experience again. I am a fast eater, but I might just take your advice before I too get myself into the same entanglement.
Agree, especially the comment re. spirits tasting and drinking, and I do this myself. My more important point is to ask yourself when eating, in the instant of placing the food into your mouth, have you breathed out? If you have, you are at risk, I feel, especially if you’ve breathed out fully.
Interesting! I just paid attention to my natural breathing pattern while eating lunch (scambled egg on bread; so fairly soft). I breathe in as I put the food in my mouth, then breathe several times through the nose while chewing, then breathe out before I swallow. At this point there is still a bit of reserve in my lungs so I could try to breathe out a bit more if I choked. But I definitely do not try to breathe in while swallowing, nor do I breathe through the mouth while chewing like you say you do. It would be safer to swallow while the lungs are full, but I found this difficult to attempt – I suspect there is a natural reaction to not have the lungs very full while swallowing, so that the oesophagus is not compressed at all. Interesting that you naturally did it differently.
Also its interesting how our awareness switches off without us noticing. We think that our awareness (because when we are awake we are conscious all the time) unrols in front of us like a continuous movie. But in fact our awareness is continually switching off, and our consciousness fills in the gaps, so that we think we’re aware all the time even though we’re not. This was emphasised to me by magicians, who identify what they call (I think) the “off moments” (about half a second) when we stop noticing things, and that is when they do their switches.
Marvellous, Jim. I posted this partly to see how many people breathe like I used to, at least when first placing food in the mouth. I need to go back and revise the original (I have; I added “you will be at least partially breathing in through your mouth as you begin to chew”. And once that breath is in, then breathing in and out through the nose is the norm for me, too.
It is the speed with which the mistake I describe can happen that is most shocking (literally, the space of a partial breath in). A fraction of a second, in other words.
There’s also this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
I tried to include it in the earlier ones as an edit but couldn’t see how to do it.
I have seen these before (or ones similar); the misdirections are all to do with directed attention. I am pointing to undirected attention: more potential for harm there, I feel. Thanks Jim!
Blessings to you Kit…keep breathing X
(think British/Cockney accent here): “Doing me best, mate!” Love to you, Jim!