According to a website branded as Conscious Breathing, poor breathing habits are characterized by the following: fast and/or shallow breathing, frequent sighing, snoring episodes while asleep, manner of heaving big breaths before talking, holding one’s breath amid concentration, recurrent clearing of the throat, and having the mouth left open during physical activities. 

We may often wave these off as normal, but such habits eventually lead to an unbalanced nervous system that disrupts our internal balance, ensuing higher levels of stress; tighter airways that demand the body to work harder; constricted blood vessels that may result in higher blood pressure; and decreased energy which leaves the cells to embrace survival over development.

Today, let’s spend some time focusing on our breathing, and how to take those 25,000 breaths per day count. 

Learning What We're Not Taught 

Pursuant to an article amongst those published in Better Humans, it generally takes just these five principles to make the most out of the thousands of breaths we take each day:

• Breathe through your nose instead of your mouth, so you would inhale efficiently refined air instead of airborne viruses and bacteria.
• After breathing through your nose, leave the job to your diaphragm (which makes use of the space below the lungs and the heart), so you would breathe nicely and deeply.  
• Take ahold of how you breathe: practice doing it in a more relaxed way.
• Find out the natural rhythm of your body, then tune your breathing into it.
• Lastly, do everything silently.

These are probably easier said than done, though, so here is a list of how you can eventually adapt proper breathing habits:

• Come up with at least five “naturally occurring triggers” in the format of If -> then plans through which you could check your breathing. One example of this would be: If I lie down on my bed, then I will check my breathing.
• Every time you come across these triggers, analyze your breathing – from how you are doing it to what might be causing it.
• Finally, you adjust your breathing by the cycle of inhaling through your nose for 2-3 seconds and exhaling your air intake for 3-4 seconds followed by a pause of 2-3 seconds. In addition, make sure you are relaxed and in an upright position.

It’s worth your time to pause and take a closer look at how you breathe. Always remember that breathing properly gives way to better sleep, a calmer mind,  reduced body pain, more stable emotions and even weight loss.  Improving the way you breathe can improve your over-all quality of life.