Breathing supports everything we do — from exercise and sleep to our overall health and wellbeing.
“The base stone of that pyramid that leads to being healthier and stronger,” says James Nestor, who wrote Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. “If you’re doing that wrong, it doesn’t matter what else you’re doing,” he says.
The Art of Wellness sat down with the New York Times bestselling author to understand how and why breathing properly is so important. To become a diaphragmatic breather, Nestor says, you simply need to stop over breathing.
I’ve been breathing for a really long time, but had no idea there’s a correct way to breathe. Are most of us doing it the wrong way?
Yes. The bad news is most of us are doing it incorrectly. You can get by breathing dysfunctionally — it will keep you alive, just like you can get by eating 20 Twinkies a day and it will keep you alive, but it will not keep you nourished. And that’s the big thing that I don’t think a lot of people truly understand or appreciate. They say, ‘I have a mouth, I can breathe out of my mouth.’ Sure, you could sleep three hours a night, but it won’t help you progress in any meaningful way on your health journey. The mouth is a backup system for the nose. There are over 30 different functions associated with the nose; this is not a random appendage. This is how evolution designed us, adapted us to breathe.
To explain the best method for breathing, describe how it begins.
When we take that breath in through our nose, we’re forcing that breath to go through this labyrinth of different structures in the nose to get to the airway. Because it takes time for air to pass through these bones, breathing through the nose forces you to slow down your breath. It also pressurises that breath. That slower, pressurised air is more easily absorbed when it reaches your lungs.
Another advantage to nasal breathing is that it’s a line of defence against bacteria, viruses, allergens and more. Nose hairs capture dust, pollens and pollution. Our nose is our first line of defence.
You mentioned that mouth breathing should only be a backup method. Why?
When you’re breathing through your mouth, you are exposing yourself to everything in the environment with no filter at all — it’s like drinking water straight out of a dirty stream or lake.
When mouth breathing, you tend to breathe fast. This leads to chest breathing, which signals to the brain that you are stressed. If we’re already stressed and we’re breathing through our mouths, it only further stresses us out. This is why the vast majority of people who suffer from panic attacks are mouth breathers; they’re chronically overbreathing.
So, nose breathing is slower, calmer and offers more filtration. And mouth breathing offers no filtration and triggers stress. What’s next?
Next, we go down into the chest. Again, when we’re breathing through the mouth, we’re naturally inclined to breathe through the chest. Well, what’s wrong with chest breathing? People say, ‘I’m still getting air in. I’m still getting oxygen.’ The problem is most of that air goes in and goes out without ever reaching the lungs, so you never use it. It’s like eating a bunch of food, chewing it up and spitting out the majority and saying, ‘Why am I always hungry?’ You must get the oxygen past the airway and the chest area into the lungs for that air to have any purpose in your body. The majority of people are wasting some 50 percent to 70 percent of the air they breathe in.
I’ve heard the term ‘breathe low.’ What does that refer to?
Diaphragmatic breathing. If you train people to breathe at half of their respiratory rate, taking slower and deeper breaths, it’s transformational. You can change your diet, eat less fat, exercise, and sleep, but if you’re not breathing well, none of those things will truly benefit you in the way they could. Breathing is the foundation. If you’re doing that wrong, it doesn’t matter what else you’re doing.
Can you give us a few breathwork tips or practices to do at home?
Take either hand and place it just below your belly button, breathe through your nose and into that hand to a count of around six. Then, exhale through your nose at that same rhythm. Make a slight humming sound. Do that for at least a minute; two or three if you are able.
For some people, developing a new habit can take a couple of weeks; for others, it takes a couple of months. Start slow. Practise when you are watching TV, reading a book or doing the dishes. The point is to keep a slow and comfortable rhythm.
If you can elicit such a dramatic physiological change in your body after just a minute or two of slow, rhythmic breathing, imagine what you can do by breathing this way for an hour, or all day, week, month or a year. It will dramatically benefit your health.