We breathe in and out around 25,000 times a day and most of us don’t think about it at all.
Getting air in and out of your lungs seems like the most straightforward activity imaginable. Our brain takes care of it without any effort from us, right?
Not according to extensive research of journalist James Nestor. From his new book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. Nestor dug into everything from ancient Chinese breathing practices to modern scientific studies to how free divers teach themselves to hold their breath for five or more minutes at a time.
In the course of his investigations, he discovered breathing isn’t nearly as simple as many of us think. Half of us are chronic mouth breathers, which is linked to a greater likelihood of respiratory infections and poor sleep.
I just couldn’t resist reminding all my readers about what I have said on many occasions: DO YOU EAT THROUGH YOUR NOSE? THEN DON’T BREATHE THROUGH YOUR MOUTH.
A quarter of us “overbreathe”, taking more frequent breaths than necessary, which activates the body’s stress response and negatively impacts our mental and physical health.
Breathing right really can change your life
If that sounds like an overly bold claim to you, a look through the many interviews Nestor has been doing to promote his book might convince you otherwise. In nearly all the interviws, Nestor shares a jaw-dropping story of someone turning around their health by changing how they breathe.
Some of these interviews go deeply into the science of how breathing affects us physiologically and psychologically, but the basic takeaway for business owners-or any other stressed-out professional really is that you should probably be paying more attention to your breath.
The perfect breath
Once you become conscious of your breath, you may realize your technique needs a tune up. Don’t fret.
Improving your breathing is relatively easy. To train himself to stop breathing through his mouth, Nestor simply stuck a small piece of surgical tape across his lips at night.
“I could still breathe through my mouth if I had to. If I wanted to, I could even talk. But I was just training my jaw to stay shut. And by doing this, by breathing through the nose, you get 20 percent more oxygen per breath than breathing through the mouth,” Nestor revealed in an interview.
If you suspect you’re breathing too frequently, there are lots of exercises to try. You can Google “breath exercises” and choose from many. The first step, however, is to try to consciously shift your breath closer to the ideal.
The perfect breath is this: Breathe in for about 5.5 seconds, then exhale for 5.5 seconds. That’s 5.5 breaths a minute for a total of about 5.5 liters of air. If you need help getting to the rhythm, yoga could help. I understand that there’s also a little widget you can get from Google.
Training yourself to breathe correctly isn’t complicated, but it can help you beat back stress, sleep better, stop snoring, get fitter, avoid asthma and allergies, and even focus more easily. That’s a lot of positive changes for such a small intervention.
That’s it for now; see you all the next time.
