On average, we breathe in and out 22,000 times a day. These breaths can activate the brain’s networks, affect the nervous system, help treat chronic pain, relieve muscle tension and improve blood flow. Breathing patterns can indicate when something isn’t right in our bodies and can be used as a tool to ease physical and mental stress—feelings we’ve endured plenty of over the past two-plus years.
“The way we breathe has a direct relationship with mood, anxiety, stress regulation, memory, attention, focus and body awareness,” says Dr. Monica Vermani, a Toronto-based clinical psychologist and author of A Deeper Wellness. “Breathing deeply has a positive effect, and shallow breathing has just the opposite.”
While it might be instinctual, many of us could learn how to breathe better. “As children, we’re born…