It’s a dark night…

And you’re in a hurry to get home.

So you decide to take a shortcut through an alleyway behind an industrial estate.

It’s the stuff of horror movies.

Up ahead, shadows seem to shift in the streetlight.

Suddenly, you hear noises.

Footsteps, perhaps…. something moving in the undergrowth behind the wire fence.

Now, unless you have nerves of steel, a few things are likely to happen.

Your heart rate will go up….

And your breathing will change.

You’ll start taking short, shallow, fast breaths at the top of your chest.

This is because your body has gone into ‘fight-or-flight’ mode.

We’ve evolved this mechanism to help us in times of danger.

Because rapid shallow breathing helps give your body the energy it needs for fast reactions – like running away from a sabre toothed tiger.

But it’s not designed for everyday life in the 21st Century.

Yet this shallow breathing is how many of us breathe MOST OF THE TIME!

And it could be the reason why you struggle at times with poor focus, low concentration, brain fog and anxiety.

The 21st Century Breathing Crisis

Modern lifestyles have changed the way we breathe.

We spend much of our time hunched over screens – phones, laptops, tablets and computers.

Or we’re stuck behind steering wheels and kitchen tables turned into makeshift desks.

This posture compresses the abdomen and rib cage, leaving your diaphragm little room to move. So your breath goes directly into your chest, shoulders and neck.

When this kind of chest breathing takes over from belly breathing, your lungs can’t expand fully.

This disrupts the natural exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, triggering fatigue, brain fog, and anxiety.

The problem is that this kind of shallow breathing becomes habitual.

So we do it regardless of where we are.

To make matters worse, we live in a culture where we’re constantly under stress.

Financial pressures… work deadlines… family problems…

Then there’s all that disturbing global news we’re exposed to throughout the day on our phones, TVs and internet.

Not to mention the constant notifications on our phones from friends, colleagues, businesses and social media followers.

This all causes shallow breathing, too.

It’s like being in that dark alleyway ALL THE TIME, even when you’re at your desk or lying in bed.

This gives us a constant sensation of never quite getting enough air…

So we breathe faster to compensate…

And this increases carbon dioxide loss, which triggers further shortness of breath.

So it’s a vicious cycle!

This is why people now breathe primarily through the mouth, gulping at the air rather than allowing a full breath to unfold through the nose and expand the diaphragm.

You might not really notice this happening.

But the clues are when you sigh a lot, or you have to take a deep breath now and then, even though you’re sitting down doing nothing.

Over time, shallow breathing makes you gradually more stressed, more tired, and less able to concentrate.

How to Breathe Yourself into a Better Frame of Mind

I recently read an interview with James Nestor, author of a bestselling book called Breathe.

He wrote it in the wake of the pandemic, when millions of people struggled with respiratory problems.

But it remains a popular book because breathing difficulties are so ingrained in our modern society.

“You can go into any ancient culture, from the Greeks to Hebrews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Chinese,” says Nestor “and breathing was fundamental to their health.

It’s only in the industrial era, in the past few hundred years in the west, that we’ve started ignoring it, just like we started ignoring our diet.”

He adds: “I think just being able to breathe normally is something so few people do, and that sounds crazy until you look at the stats, and you start counting how many people have asthma, they snore, have sleep apnoea.”

Nestor’s research shows that when you breathe into your chest, rather than your belly, it sends messages to your brain that you are stressed.

So even if there’s no external stress actually occurring in the real world. It doesn’t matter, because – internally – your body remains on high alert.

This might be good for seeking out danger in a dark alley, but it’s disastrous for long periods of deep focus.

You’ll feel mentally active, yet you’ll struggle to finish tasks, solve problems, or hold complex ideas in your mind.

However, the good news is that while bad breathing CAUSES the problem, it’s also the solution.

Because if you can train yourself to breathe more deeply and slowly, you can calm your nervous system and put yourself into a more focused frame of mind.

Nestor recommends a method where you inhale for 5.5 seconds…

…then you exhale for 5.5 seconds.

This means you’ll take 5.5 breaths every minute.

But try not to breathe through your mouth directly into your chest.

Instead, take soft, slow breaths through your nose, letting your belly rise and fall naturally.

This activates your ‘vagus nerve’, which calms your heart, lowers levels of stress hormones, and improves your circulation.

Here’s a simple routine to try next time you feel tense, tired and lacking concentration.

• Sit upright on a chair.
• Rest a hand on your belly and another on your chest.
• Inhale through your nose for 5.5 seconds, letting the belly hand rise while the chest stays still.
• Exhale slowly through lightly pursed lips for 5.5 seconds.
• Repeat for two minutes.

To make this kind of breathing more habitual, try building this into your daily life.

For instance, do this when you wake up…

Then again before an important work session…

And again at the end of the day when you’re getting ready for bed.

You should find that you begin to subconsciously re-adjust your breathing over time.

If you do try this, please let me know if it has an effect!

Or maybe you have your own breathing exercises that you’d like to share?