Breathing Methods

Rapid, deep breathing lowers your vitality, reduces your resistance to disease, and leads to an agitated state of mind.

You need to breathe better!

Your brain requires the right amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide for clear thinking. Your muscles need it for vitality. And your digestive system needs it to utilise the food you eat and to get rid of waste products.

Our breathing mechanism is automatic and is based on past habits. Many of us develop bad breathing habits which result in an overall reduction in health.

Our breathing mechanism should be as natural as that of a healthy baby - but is more usually based on acquired habits such as:

Mouth breathing
Upper chest breathing
An irregular or gasping rhythm.

Better breathing - your route to calmness

Altering your breathing quickly alters your mood. And developing good breathing habits begins to improve vitality, better health, and calmness.

For example sitting quietly and allowing your breathing to become calmer, slower and shallower can produce a calmer state within a few minutes.

So being able to alter your breathing - to temporarily move from 'automatic' to 'manual' control puts you more in the driving seat of your own emotions and the general rule is

Deep breathing tends to produce more agitation
Shallow and slow breathing produces calmness

Becoming skilled at changing your state through altering your breathing boosts your confidence in your state-management ability so that unwelcome moods become just that - unwelcome. Not fearful, or threatening, nor in some way indicative of personal weakness or inadequacy.

Having the breathing skills to alter such unwelcome moods puts you in charge of yourself.

Incidentally, while you can very quickly change your state using breathing methods you also need to change your thinking patterns to ensure that the change of state continues. If you only alter your breathing but continue with the same old thoughts the unwelcome moods will quickly return.

The Breathing pages

Breathing Calm

How better breathing helps with anxiety

The Sigh Breath

A quick anti-anxiety tool

Easy Breathing

Use this technique to relax and let go

Breathing tips

To get the most from using your breathing methods

Diaphragmatic Breathing

The healthiest way to breathe

Buteyko Breathing

How you can balance your oxygen/carbon dioxide levels for optimum health

Important: please read our caution regarding all health-related advice.

Breathing for better health