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In episode 112, “How to Breathe Correctly for Optimal Health, Mood, Learning & Performance,” I discuss how deliberate respiration (breathing) represents a unique and powerful bridge between the subconscious and conscious mind — and how specific breathing protocols allow us to shift the state of our brain and body in powerful ways. In this newsletter, I explain how to use specific breathing patterns to influence your brain-body state and thereby positively shift your mood, physical capacity, and focus — and improve sleep. Indeed, even brief, deliberate breathing protocols, if done correctly, can positively impact all these around the clock — not just during the breathwork practice.
Why We Breathe
Breathing allows the body to draw in oxygen (O2) and discard carbon dioxide (CO2), or more accurately to balance ratios of O2:CO2 in our brain and body. When we inhale, oxygen fills and passes from millions of tiny sacs (“alveoli”) in our lungs, into our bloodstream. Once in the blood, a carrier molecule, hemoglobin, helps deliver the oxygen to the cells of the brain and body. While carbon dioxide is a cellular waste product, it is also essential for proper oxygenation of our cells. Carbon dioxide changes hemoglobin’s shape to help liberate bound oxygen into the surrounding cells and tissues.
Carbon dioxide levels also relate to our body’s pH (level of acidity). During exercise, body pH drops slightly, and that results in increased oxygen offloading to exercising muscles. When exhaling, carbon dioxide is removed from the bloodstream, passing from the to the alveoli into of lungs and then, with the exhale exiting the body via the mouth or nose.
At rest, the brain has the most metabolically active cells in the body and thus requires significant levels of oxygen. Improper O2:CO2 ratios can put the body in a hypoxic state (lack of oxygen) and negatively affect cognition and physical function. In order to constantly monitor levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the body, parallel mechanical and chemical pathways vigilantly regulate breathing patterns.
