Tools & Exercise
How To Use Your Breath To Change Your Mind
The power of supplemental breathwork in altering your state of mind
Without even realizing it, the average human takes 20,000 breaths a day. That is 20,000 life-giving inhales and exhales that keep us standing, sitting, running, walking, laughing, loving, drinking, and talking. Breathing is something we do each and every day without a second thought.
While the primary function for us to live, breathing is often overlooked when it comes to wellbeing and vitality. We don’t keep track of our daily breaths on an app as we do with our calories or our steps. We don’t measure the consistency of our breath throughout the day as we do in our workouts. And we typically don’t take supplements focused on helping us to breathe more efficiently as we do with our vitamins and nutrients. Although we do not give breathing the attention it deserves, it takes care of us each and every day.
Breathing is the first thing we do when we are born and the last thing we do when we die, yet between those two moments we completely forget how important that one simple, continuous act is in keeping us alive and how with some very simple exercises we can turn our breath into one of the most powerful, natural tools to aid in the healing of some of our biggest health conflicts. New studies are also emerging to show that controlled breathwork doesn’t just help our beautiful bodies, but our glorious minds too.
Breathing and the mind
Breathing has two primary benefits outside of helping us stay alive: it helps us release waste and toxins from the body in the form of carbon dioxide and it provides our organs with vital oxygen to help them perform properly. One of those organs being the brain.
I know for me, growing up it felt almost like my brain was separate from my body. It made all the decisions and took in very little from the rest of my biological structure. My brain acted without consequence to captain the ship that was my life at that time. However, after recently exploring various types of breathwork like the traditional yogic practice of Prāṇāyāma, or the transformational shamanic breathwork used in various ceremonial rituals, or the powerful holotropic breathwork used in the Wim Hof Method, I realized that my body had a lot more to say about how this life was unfolding and the breath was the communication line to getting my other organs involved to help my brain clean up its act.
It turns out that the heart, lungs, and gut all have their own set of neurons that connect to the brain and while we are taught to believe that all of the information we need is stored in our brain, the systems below our head are doing a lot more for us than we realize.
The brain is connected to all our major organs through the largest cranial nerve in the body called the vagus nerve and when stimulated correctly, the vagus nerve can connect our brains to extremely critical input signals from the rest of our body, having a positive impact on our mental health. The word vagus in Latin means “wanderer”, which accurately describes how the vagus nerve works; wandering throughout the body connecting to various organs, communicating negative and positive information to help them all function correctly and helping our brain understand our bodily needs.
The vagus nerve, and the relationship it has with all of our major organs, plays a key part in the function of our autonomic nervous system, which helps to regulate critical components of the whole body including heart rate, digestion, arousal, and respiratory rate. Within the autonomic nervous system are the parasympathetic and sympathetic mechanisms that control our fight-or-flight stress response and our rest, reset and digest mode, the two states that we constantly oscillate between throughout the day as we breathe. If left on autopilot (meaning we’re not consciously aware of our stress levels and emotions) our nervous system can keep us in that fight-or-flight (sympathetic) state where we’re being unconsciously controlled by our emotions and stressors. But if exercised correctly can start to improve our mental states dramatically.
That is where the breath comes in.
Using our breath as a supplement to alter our state of mind
By utilizing our breath as a tool, just like we use supplements, we can start to play an active role in the function of our nervous system and work with the whole body to make changes in our minds in order to reduce the negative effects of our debilitating mental constructs. Various scientific studies and research papers, like this one out of the School of Psychology at the Queensland University of Technology, are starting to outline the safety and efficacy of conscious breathwork as an aid in the treatment of a variety of chronic mental disorders including depression, anxiety, and excess stress.
In my experience, it is beneficial to look at the breath as we do any other nutritional aid that we would put into our body, except instead of having to wait for the big smiley Amazon box to arrive at our doorstep, we have this powerful, god-given, natural supplement running through us every second of every day that we can tap into at a moments notice.
Here are a couple of supplemental breath techniques for altering your state of mind when you feel like you need a bit of a breather (pun absolutely intended):
Conscious Belly Breathing:
Conscious belly breathing is the simplest supplemental breath technique to turn to in almost any situation. It just takes a bit of focus on the mechanics of how the breath flows through the body and roughly 3–5 minutes of time.
- Sit or lie comfortably.
- Take a couple of breaths to warm up, three or four should do; simple inhales through the nose and exhales through the mouth.
- When you’re ready, put one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly just below your ribs (on your diaphragm to be more specific.)
- Start with a deep breath in through your nose focusing on filling up your belly — you should feel your hand start to rise with your belly.
- As your inhale fills up your belly, let it naturally continue to fill your chest — you’ll then feel your hand on your chest rise as well.
- Don’t hold too long at the top, simply let the breath out as you exhale through your mouth slowly and intentionally, not trying to force the breath out, just letting it naturally flow through your lips, releasing the air from your belly and chest.
- Follow steps 4–6 ten to twenty times, taking your time with each breath.
- When you’re done, notice the sensations in your body and your calm mental state.
1:2 Extended Exhales
The 1:2 technique is exactly how it sounds, you take 2X the amount of time to exhale compared to your inhale. The advantage of the extended exhale allows you to tap into the benefits of the vagus nerve and transition into a peaceful state of mind. This technique is especially useful when you’re in a fight-or-flight situation or feeling highly agitated or stressed. The extended exhale has been shown to help you shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic allowing you to settle into a more calm, restful disposition.
- Sit or lie comfortably
- Take a couple of breaths to warm up, three or four should do; simple inhales through the nose and exhales through the mouth.
- When you’re ready, take your first inhale in through the mouth, filling your belly first, then your chest, to a count of 4.
- Without holding too long at the top, begin to exhale slower than you inhaled, releasing the air from your belly and chest to a count of 8
- Repeat until the mind quiets and all you hear is the counting of the reps
- Take your time to get in the rhythm here, it may take a couple of breaths to get into the groove.
- Once you get the hang of the 4–8 scale and your comfortable and have enough time, feel free to increase the numbers in unison (5–10, 6–12, 7–14, etc.) See how long and slow you can go, you’ll be surprised.
- When you’re done, notice the sensations in your body and your calm mental state.
Breathe Less
A friend and mentor of mine, Giovanni Bartolomeo, host of the Elemental Awakening Podcast, creator of the Elemental Breathwork Program and founder of Elemental Wellness taught me the importance of breathing less in order to increase our CO2 tolerance and improve whole-body function.
We’ve been taught that deep breathing is the best way to bring more oxygen into our cells to repair and revitalize our body, but it is actually CO2 pressure that moves oxygen more smoothly through our systems. The Bohr Effect shows us that the higher CO2 tolerance we have, the more we can enhance the unloading of oxygen into the body to meet the demand of our cellular tissues, which helps to increase control over our autonomic nervous system, decrease anxiety and improve overall cellular performance, among a host of other amazing benefits.
A great way to build up a tolerance is to breathe slowly of course, but also to practice holding your breath on the exhale with some of the exercises above to build up the CO2 in your lungs to be released once you take your next breath in. I recommend checking out the free 7-day breath program that Giovanni has created that teaches a lot of different ways to build up your tolerance and improve overall breathing function.
Tapping into the natural supplement
Knowing what we know now about the breath and the brain, it’s easy to see how much more control we have over our behaviors, emotions, and stressors, it just takes will power to separate ourselves from them and tap into the natural source within our bodies to take us from fight-or-flight to rest and reset, creating freedom from our minds and allowing us to live more presently.
Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment — the key to all inner transformation. Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may also notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind.
— Eckhart Tolle
For more information on the studies, papers, and overall research outlined in this article, please view all sources below.
It is recommended that you conduct the exercises in this article and in any research paper or link provided with the advice and necessary supervision from a trained professional.
This post is part of my $100,000 journey into re-building my mind, body, and inner-self through a series of uncommon experiences that completely transformed my life. Head over here to view more.
Reference list:
Roderik J. S. Gerritsen and Guido P. H. Band, 2018, Institute of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands, Breath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity.
Andrea Zaccaro, Andrea Piarulli, Marco Laurino, Erika Garbella, Danilo Menicucci, Bruno Neri, and Angelo Gemignani, 2018, National Center for Biotechnology Information, How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing
Jordan Fallis, 2017, University of Ottawa, How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve for Better Mental Health.
Ali M Alshami, 2019, PubMed, Pain: Is It All in the Brain or the Heart?
Lloyd Lalande, Matthew Bambling, Robert King, and Roger Lowe, 2011, School of Psychology, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, Breathwork: An Additional Treatment Option for Depression and Anxiety?
Bethany E. Kok, Kimberly A. Coffey, Michael A. Cohn, Lahnna I. Catalino, Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk, Sara B. Algoe, Mary Brantley, Barbara L. Fredrickson, 2013, Association for Psychological Science, How Positive Emotions Build Physical Health: Perceived Positive Social Connections Account for the Upward Spiral Between Positive Emotions and Vagal Tone.
Marijke De Couck, Ralf Caers, Liza Musch, Johanna Fliegauf, Antonio Giangreco, Yori Gidron, 2019, International Journal of Psychophysiology, How breathing can help you make better decisions: Two studies on the effects of breathing patterns on heart rate variability and decision-making in business cases.
Jose L. Herrero, Simon Khuvis, Erin Yeagle, Moran Cerf, and Ashesh D. Mehta, 2017, Journal of Neurophysiology, Breathing above the brain stem: volitional control and attentional modulation in humans.
Michael Christopher Melnychuk, Paul M. Dockree, Redmond G. O’Connell, Peter R. Murphy, Joshua H. Balsters, Ian H. Robertson, 2018, Trinity College Dublin, Coupling of respiration and attention via the locus coeruleus: Effects of meditation and pranayama.
