You’re Probably Breathing Wrong Right Now

Real quick, check in with your breath right now.

Is it shallow? Quick? Deep?

Are you breathing with your belly or your diaphragm?

Is your breath in the upper chest or reaching into your lower lungs?

You wouldn’t think it, but as modern humans we have even managed to mess up our breathing.

Modern life is too stimulating for our brains.

Between the different types of screens we’re exposed to, always being available (think texts, messaging, social media, phone calls, emails, etc), certain types of music, to EMFs, fake lights, etc…

… it is the polar opposite of what our brains are wired for.

One of the responses to this overstimulation of the brain is more rapid breathing…

… because this overstimulation triggers fight/flight/freeze in us, and one of the natural changes that comes with this state is rapid breathing.

When we’re being confronted with an actual threat, like a sabertooth tiger, that rapid breath is important so we can run, climb, fight back.

But when the supposed threat is our own smartphone, the cell tower, or TV, that rapid breath will get us nowhere…

… nowhere, except for getting an overactive cardiovascular system, an over busy brain, too much cortisol (overactive adrenals), basically affecting every organ and system we have.

Because of the negative effects of all the overstimulation (which most people consider normal nowadays, but our bodies and brains do not), many different breath practices have cropped up.

The different breath practices serve different purposes, but the main one I like is the one that returns us to our real, natural, healing breath.

The perfect breath is 6 seconds in, 6 seconds out, silently, and always through the nose.

Initially, doing this will cause air hunger for most people.

Air hunger is that feeling of wanting to take a deep breath or sighing or yawning.

That’s because with our messed up breathing, we’ve messed up our body chemistry.

The body is very particular about what our CO2 levels should be, as well as our oxygen levels.

We need the right CO2 levels to achieve proper oxygenation of our tissues, including the brain.

With all the over breathing that we do, we manage to drop our CO2 set point too low.

So when we do the ideal breath of 6 seconds in and 6 seconds out, we allow that CO2 level to rise.

Because our CO2 level set point has been screwed up and is too low, that need to sigh or yawn shows up to drop CO2 back down.

That means, we actually need to retrain our CO2 set point to be at healthy levels.

We want that CO2 because not only does it help with proper oxygenation, it also stimulates the vagus nerve (this nerve is very important for our rest/digest/heal nervous system – the one we’re supposed to be in).

From that perspective, when we start relearning to breathe correctly, we want to feel that air hunger!

And notice, earlier I distinguished between breathing with your belly vs breathing with your diaphragm…

… at some point people started teaching about breathing into the belly, which got misconstrued into breathing with the belly.

When that happens, it’s the core doing the breathing.

We need the core to stabilize us though, and we need the diaphragm to breathe.

But if the core is doing the breath, it’s not stabilizing the spine (and back injuries ensue).

Besides practicing the perfect breath, there are techniques that can help correct that CO2 level and help you regain your perfect breath easier.

One such practice to correct CO2 levels (and there are more) is:

• Take a normal breath through the nose and out.
• Pinch nose and hold breath for 5 seconds (if you can).
• Let go of your nose and breathe normally through nose for 10-15 seconds.
• Repeat.
• Make sure your breath stays light and slow.

This practice, and the ideal breath, are great ways to start reseting your breath and your nervous system.

To dive deeper into this, I recommend checking out the Buteyko method.