A. What to tell to your closest relatives
There are several related challenges here: what you are going to tell to others, their reactions, and your ability to convince them so that they may even join you. Moreover, your future success depends on acceptance and support of people who are important and closest to you. One of the Buteyko’s colleagues Doctor S. S. Souliagin noticed, “A significant influence, spoiling the efficiency of the method, is produced upon the treatment and its remote results by members of the patient's family not willing to, accept the novelty. When someone begins to change due to practicing DVBM, his loved ones often react in negative way. That is why a good idea is to attract the whole family to learn DVBM.” (Souliagin SS, Common Mistakes Observed When Using DVBM [in Russian], in Buteyko method. Its application in medical practice, Proceedings of the conference of Soviet doctors practicing the Buteyko breathing method, ed. by K. P. Buteyko, 2-nd ed., 1991, Titul, Odessa.)
In fact, I thought about this challenge (to convince nearest relatives of my students) for many years and made some changes in the way I promote and explain the Buteyko method to new people. All Russian doctors and Western practitioners, when asked about the mechanism of the Buteyko method, start to speak about CO2 effects, dangers of hyperventilation, and goodness of breathing less. However, most listeners immediately assume that the Buteyko method means less oxygen for the body (If you breathe less, you get less oxygen!). But the whole world tries to get more oxygen in tissues to improve cancer, heart disease, diabetes, chronic fatigue and many other conditions. There are now oxygenated drinks, oxygen tanks, and even hyperbaric oxygen chambers. (All of them, in the long run, are useless and do more harm than good, but can save lives in extreme cases.) Hence, your relatives, after hearing about CO2 and breathing less, often lose their interest and any further conversations will not produce positive results and may even further increase the gap of misunderstanding. Promotion of the Buteyko method must be based on a simple scientific and practical fact: the Buteyko method improves body oxygenation.
Hence, if you are to explain to others anything about the Buteyko method or your breathing exercises, tell them that you want to improve body oxygenation by better breathing day and night. You want to have such a breathing pattern so that day and night, 24/7 you have great tissue oxygenation. Moreover, ask them a simple question: How should we breathe for maximum body oxygenation? Be tactful and respectful. Let your relatives and friends express their views. This is what you have in common with them and other people: how to have more oxygen in cells of the brain, heart, and other muscles, tissues and organs.
If they suggest an idea of deep or big breathing for better oxygenation, discuss the effects of voluntary hyperventilation. Why do we faint or pass out after about 1-2 minutes of heavy breathing? (As you see here, your theoretical understanding and ability to convey your knowledge will play a role here even though you may yet did not practice any breathing exercises!)
Finally, you may suggest them to watch only 2 video clips (Parts 01 and 02) from YouTube.com or GoogleVideo.com. These clips, about 15 minutes long, are about oxygenation, stress-free BHT test, and breathing patterns. (The links are on the Home page of this website.)
If your relatives and friends do not express interest and enthusiasm (e.g., after your past CO2-based explanation), but you are still passionate about their involvement, try the following. Ask them about the optimum breathing pattern for maximum body oxygenation and tell them about a genuine source of educational information: www.normalbreathing.com developed by a Russian-born Moscow University PhD and Honors graduate who translated Russian medical studies.
B. What to tell to your friends and other people
There is no absolute need to immediately involve your friends and other surrounding people in learning the method. Simply, tell them that you are working on better body oxygenation. Only if they get really curious, you can go into further details. Some weeks or months later, your vital health will be the best advocate to convince them in importance of oxygenation and breathing.
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