Eric Edmeades explains how shallow breathing starves your brain of oxygen and keeps you in a constant state of stress. Most people breathe only into the top of their lungs, triggering higher adrenaline and cortisol while tanking cognitive function. Deep breathing can flip the switch fast.
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Most of us don't breathe very well. And what I want you to know about breathing is that your lungs are designed to communicate with you. And so at the very top of your lungs, the little hairs that you have that extract oxygen from the air you breathe, you have less of them. And the hairs at the bottom, you have more of them. So when you breathe shallow, like you are right now sitting down, crunched over, then air is really only going into the top of your lungs, which means you're running slightly low on air, which means your brain is running slightly low on oxygen. And. And in nature, when that happened, your body knew there was danger. It's called prey breathing. It's how prey animals breathe. Very shallow. And by the way, the more adrenaline and cortisol you produce, the more stupid you become. The joke is, is that most of us live our lives in prey mode most of the time. And that's exactly how people go on the stage. So one of the most powerful things you can do to immediately begin to feel better is to breathe deeply, really deeply.
