Quickest way to improved health

As a coach I’m regularly asked, “What’s the best way to improve my health?”
Not so long ago I may have answered, “Sleep 8 hours every night,” or “Make sure you drink good quality water.” Something of these sorts…
Truth be told 8 hours of sleep daily will vastly improve your health, but there’s a better and quicker way – Breathing!

Yes, by simply breathing better and improving oxygen circulation throughout your body, you can certainly improve your health, vitality and longevity. In a recent intellectual dialogue with a fellow coach, he wisely reminded me, “We breathe roughly 25000 times a day and that’s just a fact.”
As they say, numbers never lie – This really got me thinking. If a person does something correct 25000 times, that would logically make them much better at that particular skill. Vice versa, if we do something badly 25000 times, we will more than likely end up with negative repercussions.

So imagine you’re hunched over in bad posture all day and repetitively (25000 times) breathing incorrectly: It won’t be long before many pains and problems start to occur.
Oxygen is the most important thing a human needs to be alive.
Without food – humans can survive for months.
No water – a few days, if you’re lucky.
No oxygen – a few minutes, if you’re really fit.

No breathing, no oxygen. No oxygen, no life.

Thankfully there’s a lot more awareness growing towards this topic nowadays. People like Wim Hof, Stanislav Grof, Brian Mackenzie and Paul Chek, to name a few, have been preaching this for some time! Turns out they are right.

The following Is valuable knowledge I’ve learnt to improve my breathing, thus far:
Its best to breathe in and out of the nose.
Mouth breathing triggers fight/flight instincts.
Train abdominal and wave breathing.
468 parasympathetic breathing helps to calm down/sleep.

I recently enjoyed multiple podcasts where the hosts interviewed James Nestor, who shared tons of insights into how we can breathe better. I greatly recommend everybody check him out.
I encourage everybody to start a breathing practice of some sorts. Shamanic, Holotropic or Wim Hof – anything is better than nothing!
I can say with certainty I’ve noticed great benefits accruing to myself as I’ve paid more attention to consistently nasal breathing throughout my day, and I hope everyone who reads this will too.

Keep breathing,
Gareth