Given that breathing is a gift from nature to us, it seems as though it’s one of the easiest aspects of our health to ignore.

People with asthma and other related respiratory conditions will tell you how happy they are when they can breathe easily.

The same goes for the rest of us human beings who experience and then overcome a stressful, fight or flight situation. Likewise, sleep apnea sufferers too.

For the rest of us, it’s only when, for example, I ask people at our breathing education workshops to listen to their breathing that they become slightly uncomfortable in doing so.

Similarly, when people are asked to perform any one of six core breathing techniques to relax mind and body in a breathing session, it’s sometimes only then that individuals in the group begin to think about/appreciate their breathing and acknowledge the role of the breath in how they think, feel and function.

It is a curious phenomenon, but once you try, you’ll experience what i’m describing.

In fact, it’s that curious, many people including the medical profession are unwittingly ignorant of the power of breathing optimally for good health and it is often subsequently ignored in efforts to place a diagnosis where required.

Within a working environment as well as a social one, relaxed breathing can have a massive impact on someone’s overall disposition in terms of e.g. mood and performance.

There are many useful lifestyle tips you can adopt to breathe better, here are just a few:

Practise nasal breathing at all times

Exercise, if only mildly, mouth closed!

Eliminate sighing, sniffing, big yawning, deep breathing

Overthinking – eradicate negative thoughts by focussing on the breath

Use carbonated water when enduring a talkative day!

Technology – focus on the breath during laptop/mobile phone use

Sleep – put your brain to bed two hours before yourself

Live more in the parasympathetic i.e. and less in a heightened sense of anticipation

Finally, have a think about your own breathing. Is it normal? What is ‘normal’?

Light, quiet, effortless, soft, through the nose, tummy-based, rhythmic, gently paused on the exhale. This is how we breathed until the comforts of modern life came along.

There are three levels of breathing:

So softly that the person next to you can’t hear you breathe

Softly so you can’t hear yourself breathe

So softly that you cannot FEEL yourself breathe

Try and measure your breathing – via what we term the Control Pause which is a comfortable breath hold:

Take a small silent breath in through your nose

Allow a small silent breath out through your nose

Hold your nose with your fingers preventing air from entering your lungs

Time the number of seconds until you feel the first distinct desire to breathe in

If it’s less than 40 seconds, learning how to breathe optimally will make a huge difference to your health.

Joel Jelen FBPI

Reset Breathing www.resetbreathing.com