There are various reasons for this ranging from a more stressful lifestyle to habits weve carried through from childhood. Because most of us have more stress in our day to day living and we exercise a lot less, weve become a generation of upper chest breathers and only use the top portion of our lungs. The effect of this is that we breathe more rapidly to get oxygen in when we get stressed.

Because our bodies dont know whats going on in the outside world it assumes by this breathing and breath holding that we are in grave danger (maybe were being hunted down by a tiger?) it switchs on our fight or flight reflex and our body gets pumped up with adrenaline and other hormones to get ready to flee and by the end of the day we can find ourselves totally on edge and come home and flop on the sofa exhausted.

As you know yourself the benefits of a few deep breaths to help you calm down in a stressful situation, we can now logically see that we are actually adding to the stress in our bodies by continuing to breathe this way. To start to turn your life around by proper breathing, be aware of how you breathe in your day to day living if you do find yourself in situations where you tighten up or hold your breath.. take a few deep breaths, youll find yourself starting to relax and be able to think clearer and at least now you wont be adding to the stress your bodies under!