Breath: The Habit at the Center of Our Well-Being

Changing seasons can shift our emotional well-being and mood positively and negatively. Consider fortifying your breathing practice to invite healing and deeper reflection on this past year and focus your attention on your intention for the year ahead. While many of us practice daily breathing breaks, new and historical evidence suggests that we have more to learn about the quality and methods of our breathing. The book “Breath,” by James Nestor, explores the compelling devolution of human breathing, shares research on how poor breathing quality affects our health, and offers practical habits to help us improve our breathing.

Habits such as mouth-breathing, elevated breathing rates, and poor breathing posture can lead to health problems. But, as Nestor explains, we can improve our breathing habits, coach our children, and improve our overall well-being. Breathing exercises can be tailored to address muscle cramping (including skeletal, GI tract, and reproductive muscles), headaches, hypertension, sleep disturbances, overwhelm, attention challenges, mood, and overall mental health. Check out these common breathing practices to fortify your daily breathing breaks:

• Equal Breathing (5-6 seconds inhale/exhale) – can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and restore a sense of balance to your mood.

• Alternate Nostril Breathing – can lower heart rate, stimulate creativity, elevate mood, or enable deep calm, depending on the nostril taking the breath.

• Humming Bee Breath – can promote instant calm and relieve head tension.

• Sitali Breath – can relax your mind and lower body temperature.

• Resonant Breathing – can calm stress hormones and improve heart rate function.

• Lion’s Breath – can relieve facial and chest tension.