“The greatest indicator of life span wasn’t genetics, diet, or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity“

What if…it’s not about how many days you live, but how many breaths you take?

I was first introduced to the power of the breath through a facilitated breathwork exercise. A heavy, holotropic breathing technique that goes for about 45 minutes. That is 45 minutes of intense breathing, with an extended hold at the end, followed with a Savasana (resting pose). 

Before the exercise, we spent a good hour getting prepped to know what we were getting ourselves into, which was major because had I not been prepared…well I might’ve lost my marbles.

During my first session, I experienced Tetany (this was to be expected), which is basically a mini seizure (also referred to as lobster hands) in my hands. I got cold sweats, and I got overly emotional and started shouting “I’m sorry!”. But, afterwards I was in the most zen, blissed out state I’ve ever experienced. A place that drugs try to get you to. But baby, this was free, natural, and all I needed was a comfy cozy spot, my lungs, mouth and my mind to keep pushing.

I was blown away with how I felt the next day. Running felt easier. I felt more meditative over the days. I was SOLD and STOKED to find this new holistic practice.

I reached out to my facilitator, asking what the next step was to go deeper with this breathing stuff, and he said to read “Breath” by James Nestor. So, I did.

And what I found was profound. 

Breathing needs more press and hype because what I’ve learned and am about to share with you rocked my socks off.

Throughout this post, I will be quoting James Nestor’s book, Breath, a whole lot, but do yourself a favor and get a copy for yourself to have with you. To be reminded of the importance of all these techniques and findings. To dive deeper into one of the most underrated tools that ALL of us have access to: our breath. 

Let’s dive in.

WIth every breath, we bring in tens of billions of molecules into our bodies and these influence “nearly every internal organ, telling them to turn on and off. They affect heart rate, digestion, moods, attitudes; when we feel aroused, and when we feel nauseated”(144). Yeah, I’d say our breath is a pretty important son of a gun. 

James starts the book with him and a buddy, Anders Olsson, running a study at Stanford to test the difference between nasal breathing and mouth breathing. 

Nestor and Olsson (both looking to understand the power of the breath) go ten days closing off their nasal cavities and only breathe through their mouths. Then, they’ll go the next ten days being able to breathe through their noses to see and feel, first hand, the difference between nasal breathing and mouth breathing. The results were devastatingly beautiful. At the halfway point of mouth breathing, Nestor’s blood pressure spiked 13 points, his heart rate variability plummeted, body temperature decreased, pulse increased, and mental clarity hit “rock bottom”. 

Towards the end of the mouth breathing segment, snoring increased 4,820 percent. He’s averaged 25 “apnea events”, meaning his oxygen levels dropped below 85 percent. When this happens, the blood can’t carry enough oxygen to support body tissues so you jolt awake in the middle of the night, also known as, sleep apnea. This can lead to “heart failure, depression, memory problems and early death”(29). Yikes!

25% of American adults suffer from sleep apnea. 45% of adults snore. And 90% of children have acquired some degree of deformity in their mouths and noses” (32). Insane, right? 

Mouth breathing also causes the body to lose 40% more water. 

Then when they stripped off the nasal blockages, it felt like a whole new world, and within a few days their levels started to return back to normal.

So, If you get anything from this post…

Nasal breathing -> Yay

Mouth breathing -> Nay

Have you ever been in a classroom, and the teacher mentions something about posture, and the whole class immediately straightens up, feeling slightly bad about not doing it the whole time? Well, that’s kind of how this feels too.

It sucks to hear this if this is how we’ve been habitually breathing most of our lives, but the cool thing about breathing is that, yes it is part of our autonomic nervous system, meaning, we do it without even having to think about it. Breathing can be unconscious and automatic act.

BUT…

It is also something that ALL of us can take control of.

So, if you’re stressing that you’re going to breathe like this forever and it’s going to hurt your health forever…fret not. With PRACTICE, you can make the changes and take your breath AND health back.

When we take intentional control of how we breathe, we can make some RADICAL changes. And I do mean radical.

Researcher, George Caitlin, visited 50 tribes and analyzed their ways of life. They all seemed to have the same “superhuman physical characteristics”. The tribes attributed their health to (can you guess what the secret sauce was?) how they breathe, calling it the “great secret of life” (47). 

Native Americans told Caitlin that breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength, deformed the face, and caused stress and disease…breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong, made the face beautiful, and prevented disease”(47). Many of these cultures have used methods to train children at a young age to inhabit breathing through their nose to reap these incredible benefits. 

Again, check out “Breath” by James Nestor for more mind blowing information on mouth vs nasal breathing.

There’s a ton of information on the scariness of mouth breathing, but baby, we’re just getting started. 

Next, Nestor talks about the power of the EXHALE.

“A typical adult engages as little as 10 percent of the range of the diaphragm when breathing, which overburdens the heart, elevates blood pressure, and causes a rash of circulatory problems. Extending those breaths to 50 to 70 percent of the diaphragm’s capacity will ease cardiovascular stress and allow the body to work more efficiently”(61-62). The Diaphragm is often referred to as “the second heart”. 

I’ve struggled with asthma most of my life, and I never really thought about where the struggle for breathing came from. Looking back, it wasn’t so much getting the oxygen in, the struggle was in my exhale. My carbon dioxide levels. 

Many asthmatics revert to oral steroids to help with this issue. Little do we know that these have radical side effects and don’t fully eliminate the problem to begin with. Our airways are small, tight and shallow making each breath shallow and very difficult. But what if we could work these muscles, like lifting weights? Don’t you think with enough practice we could begin to expand our lung capacity and open our airways?

In 1923, a man from Ukraine named Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko, who struggled greatly with hypertension, was given one year to live by his doctors.

He started to observe the breath. Then, he started to breathe slower, and within minutes his pain went away. Then he fell back into his habitual heavy breathing, and the pain returned. He begged the question, “Was breathing too much making people sick, and keeping them that way?” 

Slower, longer exhales were the secret sauce. Buteyko became the godfather for this approach to “less is more” breathing. When we do this, we increase our carbon dioxide levels which give us a higher aerobic endurance. 

Buteyko travelled to different hospitals and found a common theme with asthmatics and other patients, they all seemed to breathe way too much. Asthmatics were having less asthma attacks after using this technique. The more he traveled and shared this secret, the more testimonies came rolling in. 

Carbon Dioxide is the “chief hormone of the entire body; it is the only one that is produced by every tissue and that probably acts on every organ…it is a more fundamental component of living matter than oxygen is” (78). When I thought of breathing, I always thought of O2, oxygen. But the real magic is in the CO2, carbon dioxide. 

A great practice is to exhale longer than your inhales. One exercise could be to inhale for 4 seconds, and exhale for 6. Keep that running for a few rounds. Then over time you can extend that exhale a little bit longer and expand those lungs. Give it a try and really feel into it. 

Just like any practice, stick with it consistently over time and your body will adapt. The benefits will be incredible.

And, for anyone wondering, Buteyko lived well past that one year, taking his last breath at eighty years old.

Buteyko mentioned this, but many of us may not even be aware of breathing too much, leaving us suffering from chronic overbreathing. Many jobs/settings/environments can put us in a constant state of stress, leading to short/shallow breathing, which snowballs to deeper problems with our health. This breathing overworks our system. 

Buteyko was convinced that heart disease, hemorrhoids, gout, cancer, and more than 100 other diseases were all caused by carbon dioxide deficiency brought on by overbreathing. 

Add title

“The greatest indicator of life span wasn’t genetics, diet, or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity“

What if…it’s not about how many days you live, but how many breaths you take?

I was first introduced to the power of the breath through a facilitated breathwork exercise. A heavy, holotropic breathing technique that goes for about 45 minutes. That is 45 minutes of intense breathing, with an extended hold at the end, followed with a Savasana (resting pose). 

Before the exercise, we spent a good hour getting prepped to know what we were getting ourselves into, which was major because had I not been prepared…well I might’ve lost my marbles.

During my first session, I experienced Tetany (this was to be expected), which is basically a mini seizure (also referred to as lobster hands) in my hands. I got cold sweats, and I got overly emotional and started shouting “I’m sorry!”. But, afterwards I was in the most zen, blissed out state I’ve ever experienced. A place that drugs try to get you to. But baby, this was free, natural, and all I needed was a comfy cozy spot, my lungs, mouth and my mind to keep pushing.

I was blown away with how I felt the next day. Running felt easier. I felt more meditative over the days. I was SOLD and STOKED to find this new holistic practice.

I reached out to my facilitator, asking what the next step was to go deeper with this breathing stuff, and he said to read “Breath” by James Nestor. So, I did.

And what I found was profound. 

Breathing needs more press and hype because what I’ve learned and am about to share with you rocked my socks off.

Throughout this post, I will be quoting James Nestor’s book, Breath, a whole lot, but do yourself a favor and get a copy for yourself to have with you. To be reminded of the importance of all these techniques and findings. To dive deeper into one of the most underrated tools that ALL of us have access to: our breath. 

Let’s dive in.

WIth every breath, we bring in tens of billions of molecules into our bodies and these influence “nearly every internal organ, telling them to turn on and off. They affect heart rate, digestion, moods, attitudes; when we feel aroused, and when we feel nauseated”(144). Yeah, I’d say our breath is a pretty important son of a gun. 

James starts the book with him and a buddy, Anders Olsson, running a study at Stanford to test the difference between nasal breathing and mouth breathing. 

Nestor and Olsson (both looking to understand the power of the breath) go ten days closing off their nasal cavities and only breathe through their mouths. Then, they’ll go the next ten days being able to breathe through their noses to see and feel, first hand, the difference between nasal breathing and mouth breathing. The results were devastatingly beautiful. At the halfway point of mouth breathing, Nestor’s blood pressure spiked 13 points, his heart rate variability plummeted, body temperature decreased, pulse increased, and mental clarity hit “rock bottom”. 

Towards the end of the mouth breathing segment, snoring increased 4,820 percent. He’s averaged 25 “apnea events”, meaning his oxygen levels dropped below 85 percent. When this happens, the blood can’t carry enough oxygen to support body tissues so you jolt awake in the middle of the night, also known as, sleep apnea. This can lead to “heart failure, depression, memory problems and early death”(29). Yikes!

25% of American adults suffer from sleep apnea. 45% of adults snore. And 90% of children have acquired some degree of deformity in their mouths and noses” (32). Insane, right? 

Mouth breathing also causes the body to lose 40% more water. 

Then when they stripped off the nasal blockages, it felt like a whole new world, and within a few days their levels started to return back to normal.

So, If you get anything from this post…

Nasal breathing -> Yay

Mouth breathing -> Nay

Have you ever been in a classroom, and the teacher mentions something about posture, and the whole class immediately straightens up, feeling slightly bad about not doing it the whole time? Well, that’s kind of how this feels too.

It sucks to hear this if this is how we’ve been habitually breathing most of our lives, but the cool thing about breathing is that, yes it is part of our autonomic nervous system, meaning, we do it without even having to think about it. Breathing can be unconscious and automatic act.

BUT…

It is also something that ALL of us can take control of.

So, if you’re stressing that you’re going to breathe like this forever and it’s going to hurt your health forever…fret not. With PRACTICE, you can make the changes and take your breath AND health back.

When we take intentional control of how we breathe, we can make some RADICAL changes. And I do mean radical.

Researcher, George Caitlin, visited 50 tribes and analyzed their ways of life. They all seemed to have the same “superhuman physical characteristics”. The tribes attributed their health to (can you guess what the secret sauce was?) how they breathe, calling it the “great secret of life” (47). 

Native Americans told Caitlin that breath inhaled through the mouth sapped the body of strength, deformed the face, and caused stress and disease…breath inhaled through the nose kept the body strong, made the face beautiful, and prevented disease”(47). Many of these cultures have used methods to train children at a young age to inhabit breathing through their nose to reap these incredible benefits. 

Again, check out “Breath” by James Nestor for more mind blowing information on mouth vs nasal breathing.

There’s a ton of information on the scariness of mouth breathing, but baby, we’re just getting started. 

Next, Nestor talks about the power of the EXHALE.

“A typical adult engages as little as 10 percent of the range of the diaphragm when breathing, which overburdens the heart, elevates blood pressure, and causes a rash of circulatory problems. Extending those breaths to 50 to 70 percent of the diaphragm’s capacity will ease cardiovascular stress and allow the body to work more efficiently”(61-62). The Diaphragm is often referred to as “the second heart”. 

I’ve struggled with asthma most of my life, and I never really thought about where the struggle for breathing came from. Looking back, it wasn’t so much getting the oxygen in, the struggle was in my exhale. My carbon dioxide levels. 

Many asthmatics revert to oral steroids to help with this issue. Little do we know that these have radical side effects and don’t fully eliminate the problem to begin with. Our airways are small, tight and shallow making each breath shallow and very difficult. But what if we could work these muscles, like lifting weights? Don’t you think with enough practice we could begin to expand our lung capacity and open our airways?

In 1923, a man from Ukraine named Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko, who struggled greatly with hypertension, was given one year to live by his doctors.

He started to observe the breath. Then, he started to breathe slower, and within minutes his pain went away. Then he fell back into his habitual heavy breathing, and the pain returned. He begged the question, “Was breathing too much making people sick, and keeping them that way?” 

Slower, longer exhales were the secret sauce. Buteyko became the godfather for this approach to “less is more” breathing. When we do this, we increase our carbon dioxide levels which give us a higher aerobic endurance. 

Buteyko travelled to different hospitals and found a common theme with asthmatics and other patients, they all seemed to breathe way too much. Asthmatics were having less asthma attacks after using this technique. The more he traveled and shared this secret, the more testimonies came rolling in. 

Carbon Dioxide is the “chief hormone of the entire body; it is the only one that is produced by every tissue and that probably acts on every organ…it is a more fundamental component of living matter than oxygen is” (78). When I thought of breathing, I always thought of O2, oxygen. But the real magic is in the CO2, carbon dioxide. 

A great practice is to exhale longer than your inhales. One exercise could be to inhale for 4 seconds, and exhale for 6. Keep that running for a few rounds. Then over time you can extend that exhale a little bit longer and expand those lungs. Give it a try and really feel into it. 

Just like any practice, stick with it consistently over time and your body will adapt. The benefits will be beautiful.

And Buteyko, he lived well past that one year, taking his last breath at eighty years old.

When we look at mammals, the ones with the lowest resting heart rate actually live the longest. This stressed, fast, shallow breathing not only hurts our bodies…it takes days off our lives.

For those wondering if there is a “perfect breath”, Nestor coins it as 5.5 second inhales followed by 5.5 second exhales, which is almost exactly 5.5 breaths a minute. 

It works wonders.

For my athletes, Olympic runners have had incredible amounts of success by decreasing the volume of air in their lungs and increasing the carbon dioxide in their bodies. It’s all about raising the resting carbon dioxide levels. This not only significantly reduces asthma attacks, but creates better lung function and widens the airways, and his patience overall just breathed better. 

We’ve talked about the power of slow, restorative (parasympathetic) breathing, but there is also power in the heavy, intense (sympathetic) breathing. Gurus have harnessed the power of their breath to keep themselves from freezing to death. They do this by heating up their body through the breath, calling it “inner fire”, and this is through those deep, heavy breaths.

If you’ve ever heard of Wim Hof, aka “The Iceman”, he’s a prime, modern day example of this. This man holds records for running a barefoot half marathon on snow and ice, the furthest swim under ice, the longest time in direct, full-body contact with ice, and so much more. He is also the founder of his amazing breathing technique that is practiced by thousands even millions all over the world, the Wim Hof Method.  

In 2011, Wim Hof injected himself with an endotoxin with the component of E. coli. Symptoms usually result in vomiting, headaches, fever and other flu like symptoms. But Wim took a couple dozen Tummo (“Inner Fire”) breaths, and willed his body to fight it off using his breath. Afterwards, he showed no signs of fever or nausea. He simply got up, grabbed a cup of coffee, and left (152). This sounds absolutely nuts, right??

Wim is one of the most energetic, wild dudes out there. He channels life force energy through his breath. Give his practice a try by clicking HERE.

Disclaimer, make sure you’re in a safe setting just in case you were to pass out (don’t be swimming or driving or anything of the nature), and do it on a fairly empty stomach.

It will be uncomfortable, but as I like to talk about on this blog, there is so much beauty on the other side of the comfort zone. Those dreams, and feelings we want but have never felt, lie in the sea of the unknown. 

Breathwork and changing our breathing patterns is undoubtedly amazing. One thing this book talks about towards the end that I really loved was that these exercises are not meant to replace a life threatening procedure. Modern medicine saves lives when lives need to be saved. But there’s an incredible analogy that I’d like to share. “The role of the modern doctor was to put out fires, not blow away smoke” (205). There are a lot of people dealing with fires and going to doctors is prudent, but most of us are dealing with the smoke. Doctors don’t know exactly how to best alleviate this, so many times they prescribe drugs that don’t actually address the route of the pain or problem. This is where breathwork and conscious breathing can become a game changer. Whether it is stress, fatigue, spaciness,, minor illness/sickness, this is an INCREDIBLE tool to tap into. And baby, it’s free. 

There is so much more in this book than I’ve shared here so please please, if this sparks an interest in you, get a copy of the book. 

Here are a few other FIRE quotes from James Nestor’s book, “Breath”:

“Forty percent of today’s population suffers from chronic nasal obstruction, and around half of us are habitual mouthbreathers” (5).

“We lose weight through exhaled breath. For every ten pounds of fat lost in our bodies, eight and a half pounds of it comes out through the lungs…the lungs are the weight-regulating system of the body” (75). 

Nestor checked out an 1830s collection of ancient skulls, and what he found was that they all had expansive sinus cavities and broad mouths. Even though none of them flossed or brushed, or saw a dentist, they all had straight teeth” (12). (This is greatly due to how the cultures BREATHED)

Modern humans are now the only ones to routinely have misaligned jaws, overbites, underbites, and snaggled teeth”(12). Yes, this all has to do with how we breathe. 

“Some methods of breathing will nourish our brains, while others will kill neurons; some will make us healthy, while others will hasten our death” (xvii).

“Billions and billions of molecules you bring in with each breath have built your bones, sheaths of muscle, blood, brains, and organs” (xx)

And here are just a handful of breathing exercises to check into:

• Alternate Nostril Breathing
• Square Breathing
• Wim Hof
• Extended Exhale
• Breath of Fire

For those who love numbers, the data is there. 

For those who are skeptical, try it out, I mean hey, once again, it’s free.

For those who “don’t have the time”, I’m sure you can spare a few minutes a day for some conscious breathing. The toughest part to forming a new habit is staying consistent with it.

This is a lost art. It almost feels like it shouldn’t work because it sounds too simple.

Start off with the simpler techniques. Then give Wim Hof a try. Then, if you’re really feeling the buzz, look into a holotropic breathwork session (This is that intense breathing that can last from minutes to hours). Sounds crazy and impossible, but so very rewarding.

Again, play around. Find what works best for you. Do yourself a favor and please spare some time. Make this a part of your self care/self love routine.

When something triggers you, come back to your breath.

When you feel the overwhelm start to kick in, come back to your breath.

When you’re fuming and want to run someone over, come back to your breath.

Come back to your breath even when things are all sunshine and rainbows. It is the most powerful and quickest way to feel into the present moment.

Add this tool to your holistic health utility belt.

Take your power back.

All love,

-Andrew