“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived… this is to have succeeded.”
― Ralph Waldo EmersonÂ
breathing
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 Breathing and its potential effects on our lives, positive and negative, are enormous. Appreciating this enormity is significantly enhanced by learning about the amazing physiology of breathing, which together with understanding breathing as motivated behavior, can account for the profound and far-reaching effects of breathing on health and performance
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mechanics & chemistry
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 Millions of people from around the world include breathing learning interventions in one way or another in their professional and/or personal lives for a multitude of reasons, e.g., relaxation. Most of them, however, focus exclusively on mechanics of breathing (external respiration), e.g., slow breathing, without understanding and addressing their profound impact on the chemistry of respiration (internal respiration), for example acid-base regulation (pH) of extracellular fluids (e.g., blood plasma).
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breathing is psychological
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The relationship between breathing and respiration, mechanics and chemistry, cannot be fully appreciated without understanding the psychological nature of
physiology itself. Breathing, like any other behavior, is motivated and changes as a function of its outcomes. Breathing isn’t simply mindless automation of physiology to be somehow consciously manipulated in the name of self-help. It is truly so much more than this. Simply manipulating breathing physiology for well-intended purposes, without regard to its psychological nature, does not do justice to the richness and complexity of breathing.
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breathing is behaviour
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Learned breathing behavior can be for good or for bad, or both.
Most breathing behaviors, patterns, and habits are learned unconsciously.
What are breathing behaviors? Some examples are breathing slowly vs rapidly, aborting the breath, breathholding (in or out), and gasping.
What makes breathing behaviors “good” or “bad”? Their outcomes! These outcomes, however, can be a mixture of both.
The effects of learning breathing that compromises respiration, can be debilitating, subtle or overwhelming, short term or long-term.
The effects of learning breathing habits that optimize respiration can profoundly improve health and performance.Â
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