Yes the sensational headline is necessary. Let me explain.
What is the #1 health and longevity hack? It is not diet or exercise or even sleep. It is the thing we all do 25,000 times every day. You guessed it, breathing!
Trouble is we don’t breathe very well these days. With our sedentary, perennially stressed lifestyles, shallow breathing is the norm. How many breaths per minute do you take? I have had participants in some of my workshops count their breaths for a minute and answers have ranged from 22 to 60! Turns out the healthy range is 4.5- 6 breaths per minute. 80 percent of us over-breathe most of the time.
Shallow breathing sets off the sympathetic nervous system and makes the brain believe we are in some sort of danger. This is the kind of breathing that is observed when people check their email and other communication channels like slack. You have heard of sleep apnea, when people stop breathing while asleep, email apnea is a lesser-known condition that causes people to hold their breath when dealing with stress inducing email. Mouth breathing is a related habit that has harmful effects. Breathing through the nostrils filters out disease-causing agents and moistens, compresses the air which helps our lungs to extract more oxygen from each breath. Breathing less and through our nostrils can avoid health issues we attribute to ‘old age’ and 'poor genes'.
Here is what you can do. Try the 365 breathing method. Thrice a day, take six breaths a minute for five minutes. This means inhaling for 5 seconds and exhaling for 5 seconds. Do this at the start of your day, then about mid-day and again when you finish work. This resets the system and you will find yourself breathing better and feeling less stressed. Also consider increasing your general level of physical activity and organize work away from email.
Inspired by ideas from James Nestor's book 'Breath' and Dr. Jay Wiles's episode on The Dhru Purohit Podcast
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