We do it all the time, when we’re asleep, when we’re awake, when we’re heading to work or simply watching TV. I am of course talking about breathing. It’s a natural thing, we literally cannot be alive if we don’t do it.

So how can you “Master” Breathing? I’m so good I can do it in my sleep! 

Well yes, you do, but as with most things in life, if you do something all the time, you look for the easiest, least effort requiring ways to do it, this makes you lazy.

Okay, so how is someone a “Lazy” Breather then? 

In any given moment, most of us are probably only breathing in using approximately 33% of our total capacity. This is down to a number of factors including, but not limited to, posture, tension, stress, where you are breathing to etc.

Right… 33% isn’t great, how do I raise that?

Well, first off, I’m asking myself a lot of questions, might need to see someone about that… Secondly! Well done for asking those questions, you’re now beginning to think about what you are doing. (Self-Congratulating now? Get a load of this guy…)

There are plenty of ways to increase how efficient our breathing is, and with that will come a number of HUGE Life Benefits.

Things such as posture can be easily corrected, you just need to be good at noticing when you are slacking on them.

But how do I de-stress myself? I’m now getting MORE stressed because I can’t de-stress, this is horrible! (and also your fourth question).

A simple exercise to break this cycle is simply to stop what you are doing, you can close your eyes if this helps, and breathe in deeply through your nose. Imagine when you breathe in that that air isn’t just going to your lungs, but is in fact going deeper into your body. For our purposes here to help you fastest, lets send it to your tummy area,  just below your belly button.

That’s insanely specific, why there? (I’m getting to that, quiet you!)

When you inhale and exhale your diaphragm contracts and relaxes in order to pull and push air in and out of your lungs. By imagining you breathing so low into your body you begin to work the muscle more and, passively, get more out of your breathing when you’re not thinking about it. 

So is this a case of do it once and I’m sorted?

Unfortunately not, this is a long game with a lot of regular work and awareness to get the absolute full benefits from. Everyone starts somewhere though, remember that! If you start today, imagine where you’ll be in six months time? At the same time, imagine yourself in six months time if you have done none of this and you begin to wonder what could have been different?

We all have a journey, start yours now.

If you want to know more about The Breath and how to utilise it, or about how to improve your ability as a public speaker, CLICK HERE now to get instant access to my free training video.