Stark reality + hope

This week, and next, two classes in The Blissful Breath Academy will graduate, becoming skilled, and compassionate, breathwork teachers. They will help many people to breathe better. But, the breathing revolution isn’t just taking place in the Chapel of Ease (our venue) - it’s slowly, and surely, expanding across the world! 

However, this is still the stark reality: 

“Exercise all you want, eat all the right food, sleep eight hours a night, but if you are not breathing right, you will always be sick.”

- James Nestor (investigative journalist and best-selling author) speaking on The Diary of a CEO. 

It’s estimated that 98% of adults don’t breathe correctly. 

Here’s the hope: 

Breathing better is relatively simple and here are ways we can do it right now: 

  1. Breathe through our nose more than our mouth 

  2. Take a few minutes everyday to breathe slowly and calmly 

  3. Master our exhale 

Each of these points are big subjects in their own right. But, I want to give you some quick, effective and simple ways to start improving right now. 

I want to break each of these down for you and give you the tools you need to start making these changes. 

When we do, nearly every way we measure our health, our mood, our understanding of life, improves.

Breathe through our nose more than our mouth 

I spent the first 30 years of my life breathing through my mouth. It resulted in asthma, crooked teeth, respiratory problems and loads of other issues. We know now from science that breathing through our mouth is often the root cause of these problems. Imagine, mouth breathing can even change the shape (and thickness) of our skulls!

Once I started to learn to breathe through my nose, everything started to improve.

Our nose cleans the air, humidifies it, warms it and prepares it for our lungs. Even our immunity improves from breathing through our nose. 

Although western medicine is only waking up to this now, this is common knowledge in ancient traditions like yoga. That is how I started to breathe through my nose. 

So, this is the first suggestion for you: go to yoga classes!

Nearly all yoga is done by breathing through the nose. It’s a great way to make the (difficult) transition from mouth breathing to nose breathing. 

Second suggestion: try taping your mouth closed during the day or night. I have been using this tape called MyoTape for years. There are loads of other tapes out there too. Experiment and see what works best for you.  

Take a few minutes everyday to breathe slowly and calmly 

When we slow down our breathing, we reduce stress and worry, we feel calm again, our health improves and we feel like we have more space between our thoughts.

Here are two (free) ways to do that now: 

Master your exhale

When we learn how to exhale fully, with no force, we begin to take control of how we feel. Within a few long, slow exhales, a part of us called the vagus nerve activates. It drops the heart rate, softens the body and helps us feel safe and calm again. This simple way of breathing can calm us down despite the pressure we face. 

I want to give you this gift: this exclusive guided breathing meditation will help you slow down, feel calm again, let go of worry and drift off into a blissful state of mind. All by breathing out slowly. 

This recording is part of The Breathe With Níall App.

So, there we have it: a few ways we can improve how we breathe. 

But, I feel paying more attention to our breath shouldn’t be an arduous task. It shouldn’t be another rod to beat ourselves with. Instead, spending a few minutes breathing everyday should be enjoyable. It should be pleasurable. It should be something we look forward to. It should be sacred even. 

That’s the hope. 

breathworkNiall O Murchubreath