Everyday breathing
Our breathing is a simple and beautiful way to manage how we feel through the day
Our breathing is amazing. After over 10 years of studying our breathing, training in breathwork and designing new ways of learning and practising it with kids and adults, I’m still blown away (pun intended) by what a practical and powerful role it can play in our everyday lives.
There are now many different types of breathwork practice, which can play different roles in your life. For me, it’s all about how conscious breathing helps people through the day, in simple, practical and universally accessible ways; and how it can transform your emotional state very quickly, when you need it without any cost or comedown.
I was first introduced to conscious breathing (i.e. focusing on and controlling your inhales and exhales) as a little boy with a very bad stammer. It helped, although I continued to be very quiet and shy into my late teens. Many years later, I came back to it as part of working with children and young people affected by stress, anxiety and other mental health problems. Spending many months buried in the available evidence with colleagues at Shift, it was clear that conscious breathing has an unequivocal role in helping people manage their emotional state and deal with stress and anxiety.
The two ways we breathe: subconscious and conscious
When I met my partner a couple of years ago, I talked about the time I’d spent training in and teaching breathing and their response, in the nicest possible way, was essentially: “we all f-ing breathe, what are you talking about?!”
They’re right, of course. We all breathe all day and all night without thinking about it. But this is part of the magic of the breathing system: we have two modes.
We have an automatic mode of breathing - the rhythmic inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale that happens involuntarily (to keep us alive and stuff). That automatic breathing is being controlled by a part of the brain called the preBötzinger complex (named after a bottle of wine by some clever academics to sound, well, clever and a bit out of touch).
But, unlike most automatic functions in our body (like digestion, heart beats, eye reflexes etc), we can also actively control our breathing. To do this, we use another bit of our brain, called the parafacial nucleus.
If you stop what you’re doing for a moment, do a big, deep inhale, hold your breath for a moment and then let that out in a nice, relaxing sigh, then you have basically engaged the parafacial nucleus bit of your brain to override the preBötzinger complex bit and take control. Then, when you forget about your breathing, the named-after-a-bottle-of-wine preBötzinger bit of the brain will take over. Most of the time, these two modes will be used in parallel, reacting to different things we’re doing all day and staying in balance.
What has always fascinated me about conscious breathing is that it represents an incredible way of controlling your brain and your emotional state. By using your brain to consciously control your breathing, you are using your breathing to control your brain - or, if you like, your brain to control your brain. Like a beautiful flowy infinity loop. In nerdy language: “The brain, by regulating breathing, controls its own excitability” (Balestrino and Somjen, 1988) - which is basically the level and type of activity in the brain.
What conscious breathing looks and feels like
There are better ways to learn conscious breathing techniques than a blog and there are loads of videos online, but the basics are very simple and here are the 5 main components:
Body position - in whatever position (sitting, standing, lying) you want your back to be nice and straight so your lungs and diaphragm are opened up and everything else to be relaxed (avoiding tense shoulder, stiff neck etc)
Focus - conscious breathing is, unsurprisingly, all about being conscious of your breathing, and focusing on how it feels coming into your nose and out of your mouth; how your belly moves up and down as you breathe deeply with your diaphragm; and how your mind and body feels as you bring your nervous system into balance.
Inhale - the inhale is the activating breath and you want to focus on your breath coming in through your nose and going deep into your belly, feeling it expand
Exhale - the exhale is the calming breath and you want to exhale out of your mouth with a release breath, rather than a blow (like breathing on a mirror, rather than blowing out a candle) and feel your belly contract
Rhythms - there are loads of different breathing rhythms that control how you feel in different ways by shifting the length and strength of inhales and exhales and the length of breath holds at the start and end of the exhales. These are designed to balance and stimulate your nervous system in different ways (more below), with longer inhales making you feel more alert and activated and longer exhales leading to more relaxed and calm.
How conscious breathing controls our emotions
There are super detailed and sciencey descriptions out there of exactly what is happening when you focus on your breathing and use particular rhythms, but the fundamentals are pretty simple and, I feel, rather beautiful.
One way of thinking about conscious breathing is as a really good way of communicating directly with your brain about how you should be feeling (much more effective than actually talking to it).
Let’s say you’re feeling anxious - a whole load of intrusive thoughts are swirling around your head, distracting you or keeping you awake. You’re not in any actual danger, but your brain thinks you are - these intrusive thoughts are putting it on high alert and it sends all those signals around your body. Your heart rate increases, sending more oxygen to your major muscles, adrenaline shoots around your body, your breathing quickens and you might feel cold or sweaty.
When you focus on your breathing and breathe in a controlled way with, for example, long exhales and extended breath holds, you’re telling your brain that your environment is safe - it doesn’t need to be on high alert. This makes sense right. If you’re being chased by a tiger or need to fight someone off, you’re not going to be doing long, slow exhales and pausing in-between breaths. Through that deliberate control of your breathing, your brain acknowledges that the wrong part of the nervous system is activated and shifts to a calmer emotional state.
Similarly, if you’re feeling flat and low energy and you inhale deeply and strongly several times, with shorter exhales and no pauses, you’re telling your brain that it needs to be more alert. But you’re also keeping yourself in balance and exerting control over this activation of your system.
More specifically, you’re controlling your nervous systems through your breathing - activating your parasympathetic nervous system (again, roughly, the calm and relax mode) with those long, slow exhales and breath holds; and activating your sympathetic nervous system (roughly speaking, the fight or flight mode) with those stronger inhales and less pauses.
There is some cool nerdy stuff about exactly how that works and this Andrew Huberman podcast is especially good.
Using your breathing to control how you feel in everyday life
Here are 3 examples of moments during the day when conscious breathing could play a role:
1. Managing moments of stress or anxiety - The Reset Breath
We all have moments when we feel controlled by negative emotions and need to get back to some balance as quickly as possible. This physiological sigh has been proven to be the quickest and most effective way of finding that control, balance and focus.
Summary - 60 seconds of physiological sigh breaths
Routine
Stand up with your arms by your sides
Do a full exhale out of your mouth and feel your stomach draw in
Do a big, full 5 second inhale through your nose into your belly, rib cage and chest
When you’re at the top of the breath, do a short, sharp top up breath - this pops open the alveoli of the lungs, giving you more capacity to take on oxygen
Pause for 1 second and then exhale through your mouth as a sigh for 5 seconds -
Repeat 5 times (or as many as you like) - feel your mind and body getting under control and into balance with every sigh
Open your eyes and enjoy the feeling of having reset your nervous system
2. Getting energised and alert - Strong Energising breathing
If you wake up and need to get yourself ready for the day or have moments of feeling flat or low energy during the day, this is a great way to activate your sympathetic nervous system in a controlled and balanced way.
Summary - Two rounds of strong breathing over 10 minutes
Routine
Do a quick warm up - stand up with your hands by your side; as you breath in through your nose for 5 seconds, bring your arms up above your head into a full stretch; hold for a 2 seconds; exhale out of your mouth for 5 seconds, bringing your hands back down to your sides; repeat 5 times
Get into position - Sit with your back straight (on a chair or crossed legged) and shoulders, arms, neck etc all nice and relaxed; close your eyes
Round 1: 10 strong breaths
Do a big exhale, feeling your stomach draw in; follow this with a big deep inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, then a nice, relaxed exhale for 3 seconds; repeat this 10 times, with no pause after each exhale
At the 10th breath, exhale just part of the air from your lungs and hold the rest in; relax your neck and shoulders; hold for as long as is comfortable (10 seconds is comfortable for some, a minute or longer for others); return to relaxed, slow breaths when you’re ready
Round 2: 15 strong breaths
Repeat the above rhythm for 15 strong, deep breaths
At the 15th breath, exhale partially and hold; you should be able to hold it comfortably for a bit longer this time
Fully exhale when you’re ready; follow with 5 second inhales, 5 second pause, and loooong, slow exhales (10+ seconds if that’s comfortable)
When you’re ready open your eyes and start to move your hands, arms and shoulders around; slowly stand up and move your body around in whatever way feels good
Notice a feeling of alertness, balance and calm and enjoy it!
3. Coming together as a group - 5 minutes of Group Breathing
We often come together with others in our day, as a pair, a small group or a full team, and want to work through something. Think about all the different mindsets, emotions and daily experiences that people bring into those groups - someone might have just had a stressful conversation or commute; someone might be feeling anxious about the space; someone might be feeling flat and low energy.
Conscious breathing as a group gives you a practical way to get synchronised - a kind of collective rebalancing of your nervous systems and emotional states.
Summary - Group Box Breathing
Routine
Introduce - explain the activity as a short, simple way for the group to feel some shared balance and focus as they prepare to talk and work together; recognise that it might not be for everyone and if anyone would like to sit quietly through it, they’re very welcome
Demonstrate - show breathing in through your nose, deep into your belly and out through your mouth with a relaxed exhale; demonstrate the box breathing pattern - a full exhale, followed by a 5 second inhale, 5 second hold, 5 second exhale, 5 second hold and repeat
Get into position - ask the group to sit with their backs straight and their shoulders, arms, neck etc all nice and relaxed; and to close their eyes
Kick-off and count - talk the group through the first step (a full exhale) and count aloud each 5 second inhale, hold, exhale and hold; continue to count for the first 4 breaths and then let the group continue in that shared rhythm
Check-in - after 2 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes
Ease out - ask the group to slowly open their eyes when they’re ready, move their arms around; invite the group to enjoy the feeling of shared calm and focus; invite any reflections if you like
Enjoy and keep an eye on &breathe for more breathing ideas and events. We also offer remote or in-person group breathwork sessions for teams.
