Learning to breathe properly can literally change a person’s life. This is what many doctors and experts say about health and habits. Yes, breathing is an automatic process. But no, that doesn’t mean we always get it right. “Breath work” helps to improve our sleep, digestive, immune and respiratory functions while reducing blood pressure and anxiety.

In recent years, there has been a huge surge in interest in breathing, at least in the Western wellness world (spiritual practices such as Buddhism and Hinduism have long recognized the benefits of good breathing). It’s never too late to learn how to do well at something we’ve done all our lives.

What are the most common mistakes? The first is mouth breathing. Simply put, the nose is designed for ventilation and the mouth for digestion. Mouth breathing is inefficient because there is less resistance to airflow, making the respiratory rate much faster than it should. Mouth breathing does not allow too much air to enter the lower lobes of the lungs. This is why we feel dizzy and tired.

The second problem is that most people breathe primarily from the upper chest. When we use our chest muscles to breathe, the diaphragm, the main muscle responsible for breathing, stops. Then breathing becomes shallow and we often experience tension around the neck and shoulders. It creates a choking feeling and tells your brain and body that you are in danger.

we breathe so fast. The third problem can be said to be speed. When you take an average of 16-20 breaths per minute (10-14 is a good target, but 6-8 is ideal), your brain adapts by thinking you need to breathe all the time. “This sets a false alarm in our bodies. And it creates shortness of breath, brain fog, and premature fatigue,” said Denzel Dion So, a breathing coach, in this Vice report. And he points out that “there’s a big difference between surviving and thriving.”

bad habits forever. Aimee Hartley, another expert in yoga and breathing techniques, explained that about 80% of the people she works with have bad breath: “If you watch a young child breathe, it’s instinctive: their stomach swells with every breath.” . Hartley believes that when kids start school, bad habits start to set in and last a lifetime: they sit for long periods of time, move less, and experience emotional stress (we were designed to breathe shallowly when threatened; this is how we feel now all the time).

“We go into fight-or-flight mode and the muscles contract. We start to hold our breath much longer than we should,” he explains. These micro-holds of the breath translate into an adult dysfunctional breathing pattern.

What is the best way to breathe? LSD breathing: light, slow and deep. When we say breathe in lightly, we mean taking in a smaller amount of air through your nose and at the same time exhaling a nice, smooth breath through your nose. The feeling of shortness of breath is normal and this is exactly what we want to become tolerant to carbon dioxide (CO2). You should hear almost no sound while breathing and imagine a small feather floating in the air. That’s how thin and light it has to be.

Slow means prolonging the breath as much as possible and pausing briefly at the end of the exhalation. Rapid, shallow breathing is associated with an agitated mind. Often, we are so accustomed to thinking that we have to take the next breath without actually internalizing it, that it is absolutely okay to stay deep in the breath.

to reduce stress. While it is widely accepted (and the NHS recommends) that diaphragmatic breathing can reduce feelings of stress and anxiety, there is little high-quality research to support many of these claims. If we are breathing well into the diaphragm, we can send messages to our body that we are safe.

Studies have shown that controlled breathing can reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva, and another study has shown that controlled breathing can change brain chemistry, increase concentration by affecting levels of another stress hormone, norepinephrine, and keep the brain healthy for longer. . There has also been an increase in the use of breathing exercises to help people with asthma.

Should it change based on context? Yes, there are various breathing patterns that can be used during exercise, depending on the intensity. There is a time and place to breathe quickly and through your mouth (during intense physical activity or when your nose is stuffy), but it’s often better to use your nose. Professional combat athletes and other endurance athletes benefit from breathing through the nose as it helps stabilize heart rate and achieve faster recovery rates when it comes to conditioning.

It is highly recommended to breathe through the nose during sleep. A sign that you’re doing it wrong is waking up with a dry mouth or lips. Undiagnosed sleep apnea, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, is a serious sleep disorder and is deeply associated with mouth breathing. If you usually wake up feeling tired, it’s also a sign that you’re starting to breathe through your nose while you sleep.

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