Air Force

We take 20,000 breaths a day. Yet, most of us are doing it wrong. Learning to breathe properly may just transform your life, says Rebecca Newman.

- Rebecca Newman

A challenge of motherhood I had not expected was postnatal depression. I’d never been depressed, and I didn’t think I ever would be. Around the birth of my baby, Luke, last spring, things were hard. On a bad day, I felt sucked underwater, struggling for air. It’s getting better now, but it has evolved into a less-stifling but persistent anxiety: if the baby gets sick then maybe I won’t do a good job on this story and then…. Throughout this time, I’ve noticed in myself a kind of breathlessness. I feel the air getting stuck at the top of my chest, as though I don’t deserve to take in more of the oxygen around me. It was, therefore, with some excitement that I started to read about the restorative power of better breathing.

It sounds simple. While resting, adults breathe about 12-20 times per minute, yet many of us might be doing it ineffectively (as researched by Lung.org). Advocates, including Lena Dunham, Karlie Kloss and a host of medical experts, believe that a minute of regular, mindful breath work can bring calm, lower blood pressure, increase mental acuity, and help improve fitness levels. Apple and Fitbit have created breathing apps to encourage regular practice. “If I had to limit advice on healthier living to one tip, it would be [learning] how to breathe correctly,” says Los Angeles-based medical specialist Dr Andrew Weil.

So, I book in to see Transformational Breath (TB) facilitator Rebecca Dennis (yes, that job actually exists). I arrive at her London studio armed with loose trousers and moderate expectations. I’ve tried meditations where the focus is breathing, but my mind wanders. And anyway, who wants to be the creepy yoga person with the ostentatiously groaning exhale?