Everyone knows that breathing is important. The alternative is not an enticing option. If I watch a movie and there is the typical tank-filling-with-water as someone tries to escape scene, I find my chin lifting up as the water rises. No one wants to be without air as we cannot sustain a lack of fresh air for very long at all. The average is a matter of seconds to a couple of minutes for the untrained adult. Your body wants to survive, more than wanting to breathe, it needs to breathe. Your fascinating body needs key elements to survive, such as: water, food, shelter, warmth, air to name a few. The body craves breath.

Without any conscious thought from you, your body will continue to breathe. When you decide how to breathe and when to breathe there can be all sorts of effects on our biology, our mood and our energy.

For a moment lets go back in time to your biology lesson from teenage years ... When you inhale, the diaphragm (a dome-shaped muscle found just beneath the lungs and heart) moves downward allowing space in the chest cavity to increase. This gives the lungs extra space. The ribs and intercostal muscles (the muscles between the ribs) aid movement by helping the chest cavity enlarge, thereby pulling the ribs in an upward and outward movement. As your lungs expand, they suck air into the body via nose or mouth, and the air goes into the lungs and makes its way to air sacs called alveoli, which are super thin. The alveoli and their structure allow oxygen from the air to enter the bloodstream. Whilst this is happening, the waste gas (carbon dioxide) moves into the air sacs to be breathed out = exhalation.

Why does this matter to you? Oxygen rich blood from the lungs is pumped around the rest of the body feeding the tissues and cells, essentially nourishing them. As well as this, we get rid of waste material that would build up in the body causing problems. Essentially, when you breathe, the body obtains energy through cellular respiration; the oxygen flooding the body then cleanses, opens, soothes and nourishes your body and mind.

So how can you change your breathing and what will it do for you?

Deep breathing is one of the simplest, most convenient and readily available free tools to combat a multitude of widespread issues.

Stress reduction - Breathing deeply activates the part of the brain which connects the nervous system to the endocrine system. The endocrine organs (glands) make and release hormones that regulate sleep, mood, sexual function, growth and development plus many other things. These hormones are ‘happy’ hormones which are released when you repeatedly take deep breaths; they have a calming effect and you feel good.

Pain relief and management – Breathing decisively influences pain processing and it is an essential feature in dealing with pain perception and effect. Not only is the perception of pain reduced but the triggering of the endorphins aka ‘happy hormones’ gives the body natural pain relief.

Improved immunity – When the body is highly oxygenated, it uses nutrients and vitamins more effectively. When the blood is filled with really great things it makes it difficult for illness to remain in the body.

Detoxification – As we exhale we take waste from the body in the form of carbon dioxide. By breathing deeply the large volume of oxygen cleanses the body eliminating more waste thereby having a detoxifying effect on the body. More than two thirds of overall waste expelled from the body occurs through the breath.

Energy increase – Your body has more than 30,000,000,000,000 cells. This is written in standard notation for effect. It is this volume of cells that need oxygen to function optimally. For a moment consider how deeply you would want to breathe to feed every one of the 30 trillion cells that make your magnificent self??

Digestive improvement – With repeated deep breathing, there is a healthier blood flow which enables organ functionality. If I say more about the importance of a healthy digestive system and its effects we will be here for hours, lets save that for another day ...

Blood pressure – Breathing exercises can help lower blood pressure.

Emotion management – Deep belly breathing stills a racing mind and helps soothe in the midst of chaos. During strong emotion, breathing deeply can manage anger, despair or anxiety to help you to become imbued with a sense of calm. The real key to emotional management is awareness, regular breathwork and some additional things which we will cover in the days ahead.

There are many more benefits to simple deep breathing these are a few to get started. For some of you reading this article, the idea of deep breathing with your belly expanding under your hands will be akin to lying in a hammock in Hawaii. You may be imagining yourself starting to float in bliss as you relax and still your inner self. For others this is not the case and I wish to acknowledge that.

If you have lived with chronic stress or trauma, it is possible that you experience significant constriction in your diaphragm, which is your primary breathing muscle. The secondary breathing muscles such as the intercostal, pecs minor and abs are the muscles of the neck, chest and belly. Different muscles accept a different amount of the load required when breathing in activity or at rest. However, if you live with chronic stress or trauma the diaphragm does almost none of the work needed. The other muscles mentioned take on additional work, thereby allowing the diaphragm to do less.

If a stressful situation is occurring such as, you are late for the job interview of your dreams, you have spilled orange juice all over your shirt plus your phone has died, you are probably not slowing down to consider your breath. The chance of your breathing being full, rounded, soft and steady are very low. Your whole belly and chest area is likely to be constricted and tight, which would be normal and expected. Even if you made it to the interview, magically, and someone happened to have a fresh shirt in your size lying around, you would still experience residual stress and tightening of your diaphragm.

I have lived in London for over a decade and worked with global corporate companies for most of that time. Existing in that huge city with multiple demands and methods of communication when everything was deemed ‘urgent’ did not lend itself to breathing in the way I describe as being beneficial.

When I was at my most stressed (one of my most stressed times) I recall one of my yoga teachers advising me to ‘stand still, calm down and just breathe’. I almost uttered words that sweet girl had never heard before. When you realise how not okay you are, how unable you are to relax, how unable you are to take a deep breath, it can panic and scare you. For some people I have worked with they have described our work as making them feel terrified, confronted and like they just cannot breathe at all. Deep breaths are not simple for some and as I say a lot of the time… Accept where you are now and let’s start from there. If you have new swear words for me here I have to say I do love to learn. Smiling here.