In their first session with me, many of my clients tell me; “I know I’m not breathing properly” or the more worrysome: “I’ve been told I’m not breathing properly”. They’ve been told to be “more mindul” to “Breathe more deeply” and to “relax”, and they’ve tried all sorts of things, but to their dismay they find they still can’t “breathe properly”. 

The very phrase “not breathing properly” is a very problematic one.  Firstly, they must be breathing properly or they would be dead! Ok I’m picking up on semantics, but the wording “not breathing as efficiently as you could” would be so much better and more accurate. And by efficient, I mean getting the most beneficial return for each breath you take. 

Secondly, being told that your breathing depends on your mindfulness also seems at odds to me, although I can see what its driving at. This sentence is stating that the more mindful and in the present you are the better you will breathe.  True. But it is also true that it’s the tension caused by the nervous system going into fight, flight, freeze and fawn (being submissive) or rest and digest that changes the effectiveness of that breath, however (and this is the clever bit) you can change the nervous system by controlling the breath. Breathing is driven by your autonomic nervous system and therefore runs regardless of where you’re brain is at, again otherwise you would die!  

Thirdly, being told to “relax” is the fastest way to create tension as you inevitably try to work hard to do it! And as the lovely Eric Franklin says: “Tension is an argument with function.” 

So let’s start again.  What does efficient breathing look like? 

 Simply put, our breathing apparatus is like a set of bellows.  The handles (ribs) draw apart, allowing the bag (lungs) to open and draw air down into them. The diaphragm is literally the mechanism that allows this to happen.  So as the ribs expand, the diaphragm lowers, the bottom of the lungs are stuck to the diaphragm so they are pulled open and air is drawn into them.  

In the above Franklin Method^© picture you can see the diaphragm sitting across the centre of the body a bit like a hoodie shape. It’s big and so its movement affects a lot of other structures around it.   

For example, the more it moves up and down, the more the lungs move (expanding and contracting) so the more air comes in and out and therefore you get more oxygen to run on, but also below, the more the organs move, such as the intestines, bladder and kidneys.  Some (like the kidneys) move because they are attached to the diaphragm itself, and others (like the bladder) move because they are indirectly attached – in this case to the kidneys. It’s like dominoes. And the good functioning of those organs is reliant upon that movement.  

The pressure of organs moving downwards and upwards also changes the intraabdominal pressures and this in turn (put very simply) kick starts all the core muscles working. If you are not using this system then other things have to work harder and gripping occurs (in the lower back, under the ribs, in the bum and of course the shoulders). 

So now perhaps you understand why diaphragmatic breathing is so important. Breathing = internal exercise for your body. Of course, it also brings exchange of gases to your blood – oxygen in and CO₂ out which helps that body run well. And it helps the smooth running of your core muscles which help dynamic stability so that we can walk run and play with less tension in our outer muscles…which means we can breathe better….ooh its a spiral!  

Now its autonomic, so it just happens. Everybody Breathes.  And I would argue that everyone is attempting to use their diaphragm. The issue that causes most of the problems  as I keep mentioning is TENSION. 

Obviously, there are lots of elements that create efficient breathing: the ribs, the diaphragm, the lungs, plus a load of different muscles.  So, the trick to helping someone breathe more efficiently is to work out where the tension is residing. 

Take the ribs for example – most of my clients can take a big breath quite well by expanding their ribcage out nicely.  But many of them struggle to let the ribs completely drop back down.  They sort of release to halfway.  Try it yourself.  Take a big breath in (allowing the ribcage to expand outwards instead of tip upwards) and then let the air out and notice if you are hanging on to some tension.  See if you can let your ribs drop any further?  To allow complete relaxation and release of the ribcage you might find you have to shift your whole tension levels around your neck, shoulders and breastbone. If you just practice this, you will be a long way down the road to getting more efficient breathing. Of course, there’s many other things we can notice about the mechanics of breathing, but that’s the easiest one to start with. 

Now let’s add stress into this.  Are we able to fully release those ribs if we are stressed?  Often not, because stress makes us tense up our muscles and often the muscles we tense are the very ones that need to let go on an out breath (the shoulder muscles, neck muscles and even jaw muscles).  This makes us take smaller breaths and, in some cases, even hold our breath and stop the diaphragm moving altogether. 

So, to help clients breathe better, they need to become aware of their stressors, the triggers to their breath holding habits. To do this we must remember that our biological bodies have not evolved at the same rate as our society. Our bodies run on two modes driven by the need to survive and our brain still operates on this system. 

How to survive? 

Nowadays all the rest and digest areas are suffering. 

Eat Drink: real unprocessed food is harder to find- Fake food is abundant 

Water: lots of sugar in lots of drinks ( 22 tsp in a year ideal often 22 a day now) 

Sleep: 7-8 hours in 4 hour shifts (undisturbed) someone else was looking out for bears 

Social: Working as a supportive team for mutual benefit (Challenging when everyone is under different pressures) 

The problem is that the “bears” that now lead to us switching into Flight, Fright, Freeze and Fawn are much tinier and harder to spot than humungous bear growling obviously at us. I call them the invisible bears and I get my clients to work out what theirs are. 

Take this example from one client.  He realised that: 

His alarm clock made him jump 

The phone ringing made him hold his breath 

A certain work colleague made him clench his jaw 

Driving made him tense his shoulders 

Listening to loud noises gave him headaches 

Looking at the computer screen made his eyes hurt 

Thinking about work projects gave him heartburn 

All of that could happen within hours of getting up.  So when does it stop? When does he recognise he’s been chased by a bear and get back to safety?  When does he have a good laugh with the team over how he escaped its clutches? He worked out never… when he went home, the bears came too.  So he used a glass of wine….. 

I think this is a very familiar pattern.  So, a huge part of breathing better is working out what your own safe spaces looks like – what or where are your caves?   

Of course, the cave is a metaphor for the places where you truly escape and relax. My caves are built around swimming, playing piano, going for walks and doing pilates. I also enjoy planned nights/quality time out with good friends, my family and husband. What are yours? And how often can you visit them?  The more bears you have, the more time you need in your caves!  It’s a balance. 

So, there we are – two different ways to affect your breathing habits.  If you apply both I guarantee you will feel better because you will be working both the mind and the body simultaneously and that is the fastest way to change. 

If you want a session to explore your breathing habits further, I’d love to help you, so do get in touch!

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