Are you breathing correctly?

Grant Leboff: David, one of the things you talk about – It’s a bit counter-intuitive for people – you talk about the importance of breathing. I think most people will go, well obviously I know how to breathe. But actually there’s much more to it than that, so perhaps you can explain a lot more about ‘breathing properly’.

David Hyner: Well breathing properly, depends what school of thought you listen to. Some people say you should take long deep control breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth. Other people say breath in through the mouth, out through the nose. Other people say you should take short breaths and some say, long deep breaths. It’s what works for you. This is what I find from the top achievers I’ve interviewed. They do what works for them. They don’t care what anybody else thinks of them. They’re emotionally intelligent enough to do what works for them. So the biggest advice I would give anyone is don’t dismiss it. Have a go but find what works for you.

Now in terms of breathing effectively, a lot of the top achievers – especially the sports people I’ve interviewed – they are raving friends of deep breathing exercises. And many of them have eluded to what’s called the breath hold or holding on to a breath but only for a couple of seconds. Now if you are, like myself, perhaps not robustly fit shall we say and healthy. It’s important that before you do this – again; you should consult your doctor or consult someone who knows what they’re talking about.

But if you take a long deep breath, if you if we sit up straight… Grant you didn’t realise this was going to be interactive did you? If we sit up straight, and take a long deep breath until you imagine you’re feeling yourself from the bottom to the top and then hold that breath for two seconds and then slowly breathe out and then just allow yourself to physically relax as you breathe out. And then take another long deep breath hold it for two seconds… and relax as you breathe that. Now there’s all sorts of things going on inside us. Your intercostal muscles are being stretched. The little bits of sinew in muscle in between your rib cage, they’re being stretched. Expand your breathing zone in your lungs and when you hold the breath, it creates a little bit of pressure which some people have suggested, that helps a little bit of oxygen to dissipate into the bloodstream which helps you with alertness, being more a feeling of being alive and awake.

So if you’ve got an audience – for example Grant, because I know you speak like myself – if you’ve got an audience begin to fall asleep, one of the best and simplest things you can do is a couple of deep breaths hold it for a few seconds and you’ll find that they’re wide eyed and bushy tailed again, because they get a little bit of oxygen pump in the bloodstream. Because when we’re sedate and sitting down all the time we tend to, sort of, compact our lungs, we tend to take shallow breaths, eventually the intercostal muscles contract. We are not as good at breathing as we should be. Oxygen and water are two of the most powerful things to give us energy and prevent stress.

Grant Leboff: And that’s the point isn’t it? A lot of people think, of course everybody knows how to breathe by definition. But actually, I think that was the point you make about shallow breaths, that actually many times in our day we’re probably not breathing in a way that is helping us to achieve what we want to achieve.

David Hyner: Indeed. And again it’s something that’s just so simple to do. If we just set a little alarm on our little miracle devices of technology to silently vibrate every hour, and every hour just for five minutes, you can still do your work, you can still sit at the computer you can be walking to the train and you can be doing whatever you’re doing, even driving, and just take long deep breaths. The impact, over time, is remarkable and it gives you stamina across a whole day, even for people who are built like myself. Incredible stamina, where other people just get tired and flaky.

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