Breathe through your mouth as often as you eat with your nose

Breathing – right.  The first thing that we all do, and the last thing that we all do.  And all of those breaths in between.

On average, we breathe about 12 – 15 times a minute, which means we take around 25,000 breaths each day or getting on for 675,000,000 breaths over the course of a lifetime.  Mostly, we take our breath for granted – it’s just something that happens.

Did you know though that the way we breathe has a tangible impact on our physical and mental health and wellbeing?

The quicker and shorter our breath, the more the mind thinks that we are in danger and prepares us to fight the tiger that’s about to bite us, or to run away from it.  When the brain thinks that we are in danger, it releases the stress hormone cortisol.

When stress becomes our daily companion and nightly bedfellow, it changes the size and shape of our brains, and causes aging and damage at a cellular level in our bodies, exposing us to a range of preventable illnesses and health conditions.  The good news is that we can take back control of the way we breathe and use our breath to change the way we live.

A daily breath practice increases our positive emotions, reduces stress, anxiety and depression, increases emotional stability and resilience and positively impacts on our immune systems and metabolism.  And, given that we can’t breathe in the past or the future, our breath anchors us into this present moment so that we can cultivate a sense of here and now and enjoy the simplicity of just being.

The importance of our breath is threaded throughout Yogic philosophy and teachings.  Patanjali identified the Breath (Pranayama), as one of the 8 limbs of Yoga, writing:

“Pranayama is the conscious, deliberate regulation of the breath replacing unconscious patterns of breathing.” (2.49)

“It involves the regulation of the exhalation, the inhalation, and the suspension of the breath.” (2.50)

“The regular practice of pranayama reduces the obstacles that inhibit clear perception”. (2.52)

(As translated by T K V Desikachar).

In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika we are told that “When the breath is unsteady, the mind is unsteady.  When the breath is steady the mind is steady” and that “correct pranayama will weaken all diseases”.  We are advised to breathe through the nose, breathing long and slow, and to balance the inhale and exhale.

The starting point for my personal breath practice is Coherent Breathing – as described and prescribed by Stephen Elliott and Drs Gerbarg and Brown (and many, many others).

In this practice the breath is slow and low, and we breathe in for a count of 6 and out for a count of 6, with no pause between the inhale and the exhale.  Breathing in this way brings us to the flow state, balancing all of the body’s systems and helping us to function at maximum efficiency.  There are lots of variations to this way of breathing:  introducing a soft purr in the throat (Ujjayi breathing), breathing through alternate nostrils, Humming Bee Breath and so on.  For me, it’s the fundamental, anchoring breath that underpins all my practice and teaching. 

Taking our breath rate down to around 5 – 6 breaths a minute brings us to a state of alert calm, reassuring the brain that we are safe and well, lowering our blood pressure and increasing our resilience to stress.  Balancing the breath evenly and equally between the inhale and the exhale lifts and lowers the Autonomic Nervous System with each breath, bringing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems into balance.

Breathing this way also increases Heart Rate Variability and improves vagal tone.  High vagal tone is associated with improved digestion, lower blood pressure, better mood, resilience to stress and less anxiety.  It can also impact positively on levels of inflammation in the body.

Simply put: “A calming practice that places the heart, lungs, and circulation into a state of coherence, where the systems of the body are working at peak efficiency.   There is no more essential technique, and none more basic”.  (Breath – The New Science of a Los Art; Brian Johnson).

The other cornerstone of my breath practice is Nasal Breathing.

Breathing through the nose is just an all-round good practice to get into the habit of doing.  Apart from the obvious stuff that we all know – that breathing through the nose filtrates out harmful particles before they enter the body, helping to keep us healthy – there are a whole host of other proven health benefits from nose breathing, far too many to list here.  It is worth mentioning though that nasal breathing increases the oxygenation of the blood (good for the skin as well as internal organs), and increases the potential for nitric oxide release by 15 times.  Nitric oxide is the good stuff, and is important because it’s a vasodilator which means it increases blood flow and reduces blood pressure, improves heart health and cognitive function.  It’s also anti-viral and anti-bacterial.

Habitual mouth breathers run increased health risks which may include asthma, tooth decay and gum disease, allergic reactions, snoring and sleep apnea.  In his excellent book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor explains fully and vividly the benefits of nose breathing and the risks of mouth breathing.

And of course, the time when we are most likely to breathe through the mouth is when we are asleep. 

Which brings me to mouth tape. 

Taping the mouth shut at night is another game changing practice which in addition to all of the benefits of nose breathing, also improves sleep quality, reduces the likelihood of snoring and sleep apnea – and also reduces the need to get up and pee during the night!

Hopefully, this blog has helped you to take a breath, and reconsider your most basic function so that you can change your breathing habits forever.

Please do get in touch with me if you would like to talk about anything contained here, or if you would like more information. I’d love to hear from you: gail@dancingwarriors.com.