Slow… down…
Throughout the animal kingdom, breathing can offer valuable insights. For example, breath rate is correlated with heart rate, energetics, and lifespan.
Typically a lower breathing rate is associated with a slower heart rate, more efficient energy expenditure, and a longer lifespan:
As you can see, on average an elephant breathes 40x slower than a mouse, and its heart beats 20x slower.
Each breath and heartbeat come at a cost to the body’s energetic resources. Do less, use less energy, live longer. So, it’s no coincidence that we see such a gulf between the life-span of these animals.
Humans fall somewhere between mice and elephants, averaging 60-100 heartbeats per minute and 18 breaths per minute.
Turns out, our resting breath rate only needs to be around 6-10 breaths per minute!
This gap only becomes even more pronounced when we look at a full day:
18 breaths per minute = 25,000 breaths per day
10 breaths per minute = 14,000 breaths per day
We’re over-breathing, by 11,000 extra breaths, each and every day!
Why is over-breathing a problem?
1) Breathing more than you need to places a high demand on your heart and cells. In doing so, not only does your heart get overworked, but it diverts energy from other important biological processes. Your body ages faster, and your health suffers.
2) It’s common knowledge that over-breathing is a symptom of stress e.g. hyper-ventilating, like the GIF above
However, over-breathing is also a cause of stress. If stress is left unchecked, it can cause your health to decline rapidly.
Pretty vicious cycle right?
Why does this happen?
Millenia ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors regularly found themselves in life-threatening situations, in the fight for surivival. To deal with these threats, their bodies needed to be able to instaneously switch to a hyper-alert, high energy state.
This super-power, is of course the stress response, of the Sympathetic Nervous System. To help facilitate this response, several changes happen within the body, one of which is: breathing speeds up.
We evolved to spend only short bursts of time in this highly-stressed state, but today most people are in some degree of this state, almost constantly. Which means, among other things, that they are breathing way too much, and their bodies are paying the price.
What can we do about it?
Luckily, the solution couldn’t be simpler:
Slow…. it… down…
That’s all it takes. Slow down, breathe less, and live longer.
Some incredibly effective techniques to slow your breathing down are: Cyclic Sighing, and Bhramari Pranayama
So, just take it easy 🤙🏾