I learnt how to breathe better and it changed my life

Although all these feel appealing, my more modest ambition is to develop a way of managing my feelings when under pressure. I recently received a parking ticket. Like all parking tickets, it was an attack on a hapless individual by a bureaucracy set on crushing the human spirit. How could I halt the gnawing anger and sadness that overwhelmed me when I opened the notification? James Nestor has a solution.

“What’s happening there is your sympathetic nervous system is triggering all that response. If you suddenly get scared, your heart will speed up and your breathing will keep it in that feedback cycle.” Shallow, fast breathing speeds up the heart and increases feelings of vigilance which, in turn, promotes more fast breathing, leaving you trapped in your response. 

A calming technique

To counter this, Nestor teaches me a calming technique. Incidentally, this is probably the most useful thing you will read all day. “Take three big inward breaths, one on top of the other with no exhale between them, and let the breath fall out naturally.” He demonstrates and I follow. Each has a tiny pause, and all are through the nose. “And when you come back, breathe steadily, four to six seconds in and four to six seconds out.” 

This is signalling to the body that you are safe and everything is OK. I imagine you are trying this now, as I did, and feeling your pulse come down and an increased sense of calm. The technique works in a way that no conscious effort to talk yourself down ever could, and it works, most importantly, without the need to buy into any belief system.

At this point in my masterclass, I’m ready to jump into more demanding exercises and begin enjoying the raft of life-enhancing benefits. Instead, Nestor takes me through some regular, everyday breathing. It turns out that despite my swagger about my ability to keep myself alive through regular inhalation, like most of us, I’ve been doing it wrong.

My habitual breath is a shallow, high-in-the-chest action requiring very frequent intakes. I set up my webcam so he can see me on our Zoom link. (The Maestro classes themselves are pre-recorded.) Nestor has me lying on the floor with a book on my stomach and asks me to breathe in a way that moves the book. I’m breathing into my stomach, then moving the same breath up into my chest before releasing it, and all the time using only my nose. 

I’m engaging all of my lungs, not simply the upper part, and by using my nose and not my mouth I’m gaining more oxygen and enjoying the nasal filter effects that keep me from infection and reduce my intake of evil floating things.