Given that you’re reading this email, I’m going to assume that you’re alive and breathing. You get enough oxygen to support your physiological requirements. You know how to inhale and exhale like a champ. What could be missing?

Sorry to say, there’s a pretty good chance you aren’t breathing correctly. You can breathe well enough to live, sure, but you can probably breathe differently and breathe better. 

How Do You Breathe?

Let’s do a test. Put your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your abdomen. Take a big breath through your nose or your mouth (whichever is most natural for you), slowly. Really fill your lungs. Note which hand rises more. 

Did your right hand move first and most, with your left hand lagging behind—if it moved at all? Did your shoulders go up? If so, you’re a chest breather. Most of you reading this will be in this camp. Fewer people will notice the bulk of the action is happening under their left hand, in the belly button region. Those people are belly breathers. Guess which one is better? (Hint: It’s the latter.)

Keys to Proper Breathing

1. Use your diaphragm

Proper belly breathing originates from the diaphragm, a sheet of muscle located between the thoracic and abdominal cavities. Engaging your diaphragm increases the amount of air exchanged with each breath and encourages a more optimal breathing rate.

2. Breathe slowly

An optimal breathing rate, according to scientists, is somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six breaths per minute while at rest. This is the frequency at which breathing and heart rate sync, known as resonance, which is associated with higher HRV, lower blood pressure, and lower stress. 

3. Breathe (mostly) through your nose

Mouth breathing isn’t bad—it will get the job done—but it’s far less than ideal. Unless you are engaging in vigorous exercise, nasal breathing should be the default. 

4. Observe good posture

Observe your current posture. Given that you’re looking at your phone or laptop, chances are that your back, shoulders, and neck are all rounded forward. Try taking a deep breath in that position. Now sit up straight and pull your shoulders back and down to a natural (not exaggerated) position. Breathe deeply again. Better, right? 

Proper Breathing Takes Practice

• Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Place one hand in the middle of your chest and the other on your belly.
• Inhale through your nose to a count of five, letting your belly expand as your diaphragm asserts itself. Your ribs will also expand, and your chest may rise some. This is fine as long as the belly moves first. 
• Slowly exhale while gently contracting your abs. 
• Continue to take deep diaphragmatic breaths for a couple minutes, striving for inhalations and exhalations each lasting around five to six seconds, for a total of five to six breaths per minute.