The power of breath

Written by Jim Chaput
After a 19-year career in financial services, Jim left a leadership position to focus on health and fitness. Jim is a Master Practitioner of Applied Movement Neurology and holds Certificates in Applied Functional Science and 3DMAPS from the Gray Institute. His passion is empowering people to help resolve the pain, tension and insomnia that prevents them from living well.

Our breath is sometimes a reflection of our physiology. Other times our physiology is a reflection of our breath.

There are a couple of simple ways to use your breath to drive your physiology. If you want to liven up, inhale sharply or long to stimulate your sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system. To calm yourself down, exhale slowly or long to stimulate your parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.

You can also control your breathing to override your reflexive reactions. A cold shower is one way I’ve tested this. If I turn the water all the way to cold, my reflexive reaction is to gasp for breath (and maybe freak out). I learned that if I control my breath, I also control my reaction. It’s still uncomfortable and yet it’s surprisingly not a big deal.

If you’re not controlling your breath, is it controlling you?

1 Comment

  1. Pat

    You are right.
    Controlled breathing can put me to sleep and it can get me & my bicycle up a steep hill with ease!
    Your photo reflects both!