The Importance of Deep Breathing, with Science-Backed data

Hello!  Welcome, or welcome back to my website where I write to share my knowledge and research about various topics related to health, wellness, and yoga.  In this post we’ll unpack the question, “Why is Deep Breathing so important?”  And, perhaps, another related question you’ve wondered, “Why is my Yoga teacher going on and on about breathing?”  Ha, you’re not alone in that, I’ve asked it myself before I became an instructor. 

In my Yoga Treacher Training, I learned about the benefits of deep breathing, naturally, but I wanted to hear it from the medical industry. So, to prepare for this post, I’ve combed the internet and read many science-backed articles to support this subject. And I will be citing them here, with quotes from doctors, researchers, and professors for those of you who may be skeptics like me.

Also, if you’ve been following along with me recently, maybe you’re expecting this topic, as we’re systematically exploring the Eight Limbs of Yoga.  This month we’re on Limb number 4, Pranayama, which is translated most frequently from Sanskrit as Breath Control.  Though, like many other words in Sanskrit, there is a much deeper history behind it.   

If you are new or missed the first few limbs and want to learn in order, feel free to click these links to read about the Eight Limbs of Yoga, 1. Yamas, moral guidelines, 2. Niyamas, self-disciplines, and 3. Asana, postures.  But this post is just as relevant as a stand-alone topic also. 

Why Deep Breathing

So, I’m sure you’ve all heard the advice from someone, your doctor, therapist, yoga teacher, TV personality, etc to Just Breathe.  But do they tell you why?  To relax, right?  Well, here’s what the professionals say.  This article for Scientific American, describes what happens anatomically, when we take deep breathes.

“Slow, deep breathing increases the activity of the vagus nerve, a part of the parasympathetic nervous system; the vagus nerve controls and also measures the activity of many internal organs.  When the vagus nerve is stimulated, calmness pervades the body: the heart rate slows and becomes regular; blood pressure decreases; muscles relax. 

When the vagus nerve informs the brain of these changes, it too, relaxes, increasing feelings of peacefulness.  Thus, the technique works through both neurobiological and psychological mechanisms.“

Christophe Andre, French Psychiatrist

Parasympathetic Nervous System

For those of us who are not in the medical industry (like me), let me break down my rudimentary understanding of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).  The Central Nervous System consists of the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic systems, (among other things of course, disclaimer, I’m not a doctor).  The Sympathetic system associates with our fight or flight responses and the Parasympathetic system controls the body’s ability to relax. 

The Sympathetic nervous system was a bit more critical to activate during our prehistoric days when humans were more frequently concerned with survival.  Imagine being attacked by a lion while gathering dinner – your Sympathetic nervous kicks in and you fight or flight, depending on your skillset.  Nowadays, most of us, aren’t usually being confronted with life-or-death situations and it’s more beneficial for us to lean into the Parasympathetic side of the nervous system. 

Think of your boss or Michael Scott annoying you with a non-politically correct comment.  You don’t want to fight him or run away, unless you’re actively looking for a new job! 

Exercise for your Lungs

Have you heard statements like, “We only use about 20% of the capacity of our Brain?”  Well, our lungs are kind of like that too.  Except good news – we know how to access the remaining portion of our lungs, while scientists are still trying to figure out the brain. 

This article written by experts at Rush University explains it in a no-nonsense manner writing,

The truth is, that like the rest of our body, our lungs require daily care and attention to function at their best.  The ordinary breathing that we do day in and out isn’t enough to keep the oxygen flowing through the body at peak levels.

Lungs at rest and during most daily activities are only at 50 percent of their capacity.  Like the rest of your body, lungs thrive on movement and activity.  You need to challenge the lungs with more intense activity.  And to help counteract the buildup of toxins, caused by environmental pollutants.

Gagan Singh, RRT, a respiratory therapist

I find this fascinating!  So much media centers on training our bodies to build muscle and eating nutritious meals to in improve health, which is great and all, but until I read this article, I never heard a medical practitioner advise to Exercise your Lungs.  Luckily for me, I do this frequently in my yoga practice.  And it’s so much more pleasant than running or eating salads.  (yeah yeah, I do that too, but I’m not exactly thrilled about it)

Tree Visualization

There are thousands of breathing techniques, in yoga or otherwise, and I’ll link an article at the end of this post for you to read further and try out.  The basics are not rocket-science – to start with, just breathe in and out and count to 5 or so.  Others can get a little more complicated with specific hand placements and movements of the diaphragm, but good teachers or apps can guide you. 

I’ll just share one of my favorite techniques.  I learned this somewhere in my yoga teacher training, and I found a similar example on this website to validate it:

In order to understand this fascinating system, think of a tree.  Your windpipe is the trunk of the tree, with the airways being the branches.  The leaves of our respiratory tree are the alveoli at the end of the bronchioles.  It is in these air sacs that oxygen is passed into the bloodstream and pumped throughout the body as well as removing carbon dioxide through exhalation. 

Deep breathing is more efficient because it allows your body to fully exchange the outgoing carbon dioxide for incoming oxygen. 

Dr. James Hoyt, a pulmonoloist at UCHealth Pulmonology Clinic

So sometimes as I’m performing my breathing exercises, I visualize this upside-down tree in my diaphragm and imagine my inhales traveling all they down the trunk, through the branches, and into the little leaves.  There, the breath ruffles the leaves, performing this magic cleansing exchange, and then my exhale gently carries the stale air out.  

And if I’m really focused, sometimes I repeat the mantra:

I am inhaling calm

I am exhaling stress

This tree visualization naturally elongates the breath.  And it’s a little less monotonous than simply counting the seconds – for added benefit, imagine a really big tree!

Breathing to prevent stress

Most people think of deep breathing as simply a remedy to a situational problem. Think of the Office or annoying child examples earlier.  But what if I told you that continued practice of breath control can help prevent future stress?

Well, that’s exactly what the Scientific American article has documented!  After conducting clinical studies, these results were validated,

In addition to providing immediate relief, regular breathing exercises can make people less vulnerable to stress, by permanently modifying brain circuits.

Christophe Andre, French Psychiatrist

I love how this reinforces the concept described earlier – that your lungs are muscles that require training, and continued training produces positive results.  Healthy Lungs, Healthy Life. 

To put it in a cheeky persepctive, I will now tell my husband that I’m not going to yoga for fun, I’m preparing for our children’s teenage years!

Pranayama

Lastly, I’d like to make the connection between deep breathing and Yoga.  The Eight Limbs of Yoga is the foundation for Ashtanga yoga, or the eight-fold path toward liberation.  It is also the way of life for many early (and modern) practitioners in India.   I wrote more extensively about the Eight Limbs here. 

As I mentioned earlier, Pranayama, or Breath Control is the 4^th Limb of Yoga. 

But in Yogic studies, Pranayama is so much more than breath control.  Prana doesn’t just mean Breath in Sanskrit, it’s more like the all-consuming Life-Energy.  The Chinese would call it Chi.  And one can make correlations between the postural practice of Yoga to strengthen individual energy, to Tai Chi. 

My version of the Yoga Sutras, the sacred text that first introduces the Eight Limbs of Yoga, contains a forward that explains Pranayama this way,

“Pranayama…is the process whereby the ordinary and relatively weak manifestation of prana in the nervous system is purified and strengthened.”

Alistair Shearer, athor, teacher

Does this quote, expanded on the text written a thousand years ago, sound similar to the medical studies I cited, written within the last 10 years?  He continues on to discuss stress,

“Breathing exercises form part of this process, allowing the refined Prana to penetrate deeper into the nerves (nadis)…and release blocks of accumulated stress, which in yogic terms is the whole content of held and unresolved past experience – trapped memories, emotions, desires.  As the nervous system becomes pure, this vitalizing flow of energy…increases.” 

This quote is a lovely segue into the topics of the Chakra Energy systems, I’ve written about here for further reading, and the Kleshas which I’ll expand on in the upcoming months. 

Yoga and Breath Control

So, I hope I’ve sufficiently explained the many reasons WHY breath control is so important.  And while you can always practice deep breathing techniques at home, allow me to offer one last suggestion: Add Yoga Classes to your routine.  Yoga classes are packed full of breathing exercises!  Your Yoga teacher will literally tell you how to breathe, how long to breathe, and time it perfectly with postures that are intended to work together with the inhales and exhales to stimulate your Parasympathetic Nervous System (and look at you, you know what that means!)

I’d love for you to take one of my yoga classes, follow me on Instagram to view my current schedule.

Thank you for reading, friends. As always, I appreciate your support of my website and journey as a writer/teacher.  I’ll leave you with this link for instructions on various deep breathing techniques and suggested durations.  Please leave a comment and let me know what resonated for you in this post!