Breathe correctly for a very long life (video)

5 ways to improve breathing with James Nestor

(Penguin Books UK, 2/7/22) Author James Nestor says we're all breathing wrong. Here he breaks down five ways to transform our breathing, from increasing our lung capacity for longevity to stopping breathing through our mouths.

• Order a copy of the book Breath

There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: Take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, we humans have lost our ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.

In Breath, journalist James Nestor travels the world to discover the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like yoga to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can [as the Buddha recommended in the practice of mindfulness of in-and-out breathing called anapanasati:

• jump-start athletic performance
• rejuvenate internal organs
• halt snoring, allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases
• even straighten scoliotic spines
• improve the beauty of the face.

None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. We'll never breathe the same again.

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