How breathing changes how you feel

Your breath is a remote control

Here's the cute thing about breathing: it happens on its own, but you can also take over whenever you want. That makes it one of the easiest ways to change how you feel.

• Fast, high, chesty breathing tends to go with feeling stressed and wired.
• Slow, low, belly breathing tends to go with feeling calm.
• Long exhales feel like letting go.
• Strong inhales feel like waking up.

Change the breath and the feeling often follows. Not always, not magically, but a lot more often than you'd think.

Breathe through your nose

Unless a practice says otherwise, breathe in and out through your nose. It slows the breath down and warms and filters the air. Mouth breathing has its moments (a big sigh, a lion's breath), but your nose is home base.

Find your belly

1. Lie down or sit back. Put one hand on your belly, one on your chest.
2. Breathe normally for a few breaths. Which hand moves more?
3. Now try to breathe so the belly hand rises first and the chest hand barely moves.

That's diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing. It's the foundation for everything else in this course.

The three-sigh reset

Your first breath tool, for when you need to calm down fast.

1. Breathe in through your nose.
2. At the top, take a second little sniff to top it up.
3. Let it all go through your mouth in a long, slow sigh.
4. Do it three times.

That's it. It sounds silly, and it honestly feels amazing. Use it in traffic, before a hard email, or after a long day.

How to use this course

One lesson a day, or one a week. Each breath has its own personality. By the end you'll know which one to reach for, depending on whether you need calm, sleep, focus, balance or energy.