And Breathe...

Scrambling to keep up as the year snowballs into its chaotic end? This simple health upgrade that you can do in your sleep could improve everything from your energy levels to your sex life, as long as you do it right

- Charlotte Haigh

Breathing, much like the act of manoeuvring one leg in front of the other and navigating traffic circles on your drive home, is easy until you actually think about it. Become aware of your lungs expanding and contracting inside your chest and you’ll wonder how you’ve managed to do it on autopilot for your whole life. So, try not to go blue in the face as we tell you that respiration is big news.

Breathing spaces and workshops are cropping up in London, New York and LA and it’s set to become a major wellness trend.

It makes sense. Anyone who’s ever been told to “take a deep breath” will know the calm-thef*ck-down power of a few lungfuls. Rebecca Dennis, transformational breathing coach, cites the link between the nervous system and inhale/exhale on repeat. “The sympathetic nervous system is the one responsible for your fight-or-flight response,” she explains. “When activated, it raises your heart rate and blood pressure, diverting blood to the brain and skeletal muscles and flooding the body with adrenaline and cortisol. But breathing fully from the diaphragm stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which slows your heart rate, lowers blood pressure and diverts blood supply towards the digestive and reproductive systems. It means that breathing in the right way can interrupt the cycle of adrenaline and cortisol, which contributes to chronically high stress levels and acts as a precursor to panic attacks and anxiety.”