I have read this book multiple times and feel that it is a great place to come back to. Breathing is something we do all day, every day. As I often say in our yoga classes, we breathe approximately 20,000 times a day, but it is rare that we actually stop to observe the breath — its consistency, the movements it creates through the body, its depth, or the space we have available to breathe into.
Our breath is a powerful tool that allows us to influence our nervous system. By speeding up the breath, we can stimulate a more sympathetic response — our fight, flight or survival system. By slowing the breath down, particularly with a longer, controlled exhale, we can encourage the body towards a more parasympathetic state — our rest and digest system.
This means that something as simple as breathing gives us a way to consciously influence how our body responds to stress. When we shift towards a calmer parasympathetic state, the body can redirect more of its resources towards processes such as digestion, recovery, repair and immune function.
So, what actually happens when we breathe?
Our bodies are fascinating and are constantly working to keep us alive. I thought I'd give you a brief overview of what actually happens every time you take a breath.
When you breathe in through your nose, the air is filtered, warmed and humidified before travelling down the trachea (windpipe). The trachea then divides into two bronchi, one leading to each lung. Inside the lungs, these bronchi branch into smaller and smaller airways until they reach millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli.
The alveoli are where the magic happens. Oxygen passes through the thin walls of these air sacs and into the surrounding capillaries, where it binds to red blood cells. This oxygen-rich blood then travels back to the heart, which pumps it throughout the body to supply your muscles, organs, ligaments, tendons and every other tissue with the oxygen they need to produce energy and function efficiently.
At the same time, carbon dioxide — a waste product produced by our cells — is carried back through the bloodstream to the lungs. It moves from the blood into the alveoli and is then breathed out through the nose or mouth, completing the cycle.
But breathing is about more than oxygen
One of the things I find most interesting about breathing is that it sits in this unique space between being automatic and voluntary.
You don't need to think about breathing to stay alive. Your brainstem will continue regulating your breathing while you're sleeping, distracted or going about your day. But unlike many of our other automatic processes, we can also consciously take control of it.
You can't simply tell your heart to slow down or your digestive system to work faster. But you can consciously change how quickly and deeply you breathe — and through this, influence some of the systems connected to your stress response.
This is one of the reasons breathwork can be such a useful tool.
Your breath and your nervous system
When we are stressed, rushing, anxious, exercising or under threat, breathing often becomes faster and shallower. This forms part of our sympathetic nervous system response, preparing the body to act.
Heart rate may increase, blood flow is prioritised towards the muscles and systems needed for action, and the body becomes more alert.
This response isn't bad. We need it.
We use our sympathetic nervous system when we exercise, run, surf, lift weights, concentrate on something difficult or respond quickly to a situation. The problem is when we spend too much of our day sitting in a heightened state without giving the body opportunities to come back down.
Slower, controlled breathing can help shift the balance in the opposite direction.
When we slow our breathing — particularly when the exhale is relaxed and slightly longer — we can increase parasympathetic influence through pathways involving the vagus nerve. Heart rate can begin to slow and the body receives signals that it doesn't need to remain quite so alert.
In other words, the breath can become a bridge between the mind and the body.
The diaphragm does more than you might think
Your diaphragm is your primary breathing muscle. It sits underneath your lungs, separating your chest from your abdominal cavity.
When you inhale, the diaphragm contracts and moves downwards, creating more space within the chest for the lungs to expand. As this happens, you may notice movement through the abdomen and lower ribs.
When you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and moves back upwards.
Ideally, breathing shouldn't only happen through the upper chest. The rib cage is designed to expand in multiple directions — forwards, sideways and backwards.
Try it now.
Place one hand on your chest and one around your lower ribs. Take a slow breath in through your nose and notice where the movement happens.
Do your shoulders lift?
Does your belly move?
Can you feel your lower ribs expanding sideways?
Can you feel any movement into your back?
There isn't necessarily one "perfect" way to breathe all day, but simply becoming aware of these patterns can tell us a lot about how we are holding ourselves and responding to our environment.
You don't need to breathe deeply all day
This is an important distinction.
More breathing isn't necessarily better breathing.
When we breathe very quickly or excessively, we can breathe out more carbon dioxide than the body needs to. Carbon dioxide isn't simply a waste gas — maintaining an appropriate level of it is important for normal physiology, including regulation of blood pH and oxygen delivery to tissues.
So when I'm talking about breathwork for relaxation, I'm not necessarily talking about taking enormous breaths.
Think slow, quiet and comfortable rather than forcing as much air into your lungs as possible.
A simple breathing exercise
One of the easiest ways to start using the breath is to make your exhale slightly longer than your inhale.
Try:
Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.
Exhale slowly for 6 seconds.
Continue for around 2–5 minutes.
The breath should feel easy. You shouldn't feel like you're gasping for air or forcing yourself to reach the end of the count. If 4 and 6 doesn't feel comfortable, shorten it. The exact numbers matter much less than creating a slow, relaxed breathing pattern that feels natural for your body.
You could use this before bed, after a stressful day, after training, before a meeting, at the beginning of a yoga practice, or simply whenever you notice yourself rushing.
Sometimes the simplest tools are the most useful
We spend a lot of time looking for things we can add to improve our health — supplements, treatments, routines, technology and increasingly complicated protocols.
But sometimes it is worth coming back to the things our body is already doing.
Breathing is one of them.
You are going to take thousands of breaths today whether you think about them or not. You don't need to control every one of them, and you certainly don't need to breathe "perfectly."
But taking a few minutes to actually notice your breath — where it moves, how quickly you're breathing and how it changes when you're stressed or relaxed — can be an incredibly simple way of reconnecting with what is happening in your body.
Sometimes a reset doesn't need to be complicated.
It might just start with one slow breath.