If only it were that simple. You breathe anyway, about 20,000 times a day, but how you breathe determines how you feel, focus, and recover. Functional Breathing won’t make your problems disappear. It changes how you respond to them and that makes all the difference.
Yes, you can. In fact, Many people do.
You can breathe too fast, too shallow, or through your mouth instead of your nose.
Good, functional breathing is slow, deep, and quiet.
It uses your diaphragm, not your shoulders and happens mostly through your nose.
Remember: the mouth is for eating, the nose is for breathing.
That feeling usually means you’re breathing too much, not too little. When you breathe fast, you lose too much CO₂, which tricks your body into thinking you’re short of air. Slow it down.
Try to breathe 6–8 times per minute: calm, low, nasal breathing.
You’ll notice your “lack of air” feeling starts to fade, and with it, your anxiety.
Mouth breathing dries your airways, increases your heart rate, and keeps your body in stress mode.
Nasal breathing filters, warms, and humidifies the air and keeps your nervous system balanced. It’s your body’s natural design. The moment you close your mouth; you signal safety to your brain.
You don’t need extra time. You just need awareness. You breathe all day anyway. When you become conscious of even 1% of your 20,000 daily breaths, you start changing how you feel. Close your mouth. Rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth Breathe through your nose: when you’re working, walking, or just sitting on the couch. No one will even notice. But you will.
Often within minutes. Calmer mind. Lower heart rate. More focus. With consistent practice, you’ll notice better sleep, more energy, and sharper concentration. It’s one of the few natural tools where you feel the effect instantly. No equipment needed.
There’s no “perfect breath! It’s a practice, not a performance. The goal isn’t to breathe better instantly, but to notice how you breathe. Awareness is the first step. Change follows naturally.
Short daily sessions, even starting at 2 to 5 and10 minutes make a difference.
Consistency is far more important than intensity.
Like me. That is normal.
You don’t go in the cold because you like it.
You go in to train your mind. Find focus. And stay calm under pressure.
Nope. A cold shower is totally legit and one of the safest ways to begin. It triggers many of the same adaption mechanisms. Ice baths are powerful, but only once you’re comfortable with shorter cold exposures.
There’s no magic number or temperature. The “cold” should be uncomfortable, enough to activate your system, but not so extreme that it shocks you into panic. Think: cool, challenging, but manageable. Over time you’ll naturally drift into colder temperatures.
A few times a week is better than one long session. Consistency is what builds adaptation.
Studies show that 11 minutes divided by 4 times a week is to aim for optimal health.
Cold exposure triggers adaptation: better circulation, reduced inflammation, improved immune response, hormonal balance, deeper sleep, mood elevation. It spices your system, forcing it to become stronger.
Yes. Slow nasal breathing and gentle breath-holds can stabilize body temperature and calm your nervous system.
Yes, and more than most people think.
Hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, low energy. They all relate to your nervous system and oxygen efficiency. By training slow, nasal, functional breathing, you calm the nervous system, balance hormones, and improve energy and sleep.
During menopause, your body changes its natural temperature regulation. Hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings, all signs of a nervous system trying to find new balance.
Cold exposure helps you retrain that system. It stabilizes temperature regulation, boosts mood, and increases resilience. It’s like pressing “reset” on your inner thermostat.
Cold exposure activates brown fat, which supports metabolism and energy. It also influences noradrenaline and dopamine, the “feel-good” and “focus” chemicals.
Regular exposure helps regulate your stress response and balance hormonal shifts making it especially supportive during menopause.
During menopause, your stress response can spike easily, even over small triggers.
Efficient, slow breathing regulates CO₂ and oxygen, lowering cortisol and stabilizing your mood. Think of it as training your body to stay steady while everything else changes.
Stress often hides behind a mask. If you wake up tired, feel restless at night, get easily irritated, or lose focus, you’re not “fine.” Chronic stress creeps in quietly, affecting your energy, mood, and even your health without obvious alarms.
That’s the key problem. Modern life constantly demands attention. Your body never gets a chance to recover. The solution isn’t just relaxation, it’s conscious recovery.
Try small interventions: three slow nasal breaths, a short walk in nature, or a pause at your desk. Even a few minutes of awareness interrupts the autopilot stress cycle.
Yes. There is good stress and ‘bad’ stress. Good stress, is short bursts of stress to build strength and resilience. It’s for a period with the goal to return to your calm afterwards. Chronic tiresome stress depletes you, and your body.
You accumulate “hidden stress.” It can manifest as:
Mental fatigue
Difficulty sleeping
Increased irritability
Physical tension (neck, shoulders, jaw)
Brain fog and poor decision-making
Absolutely. Slow, nasal breathing lowers heart rate, reduces cortisol, and increases CO₂ tolerance. All helping you to switch off faster.
Even a few controlled breaths interrupt racing thoughts and restore calm.
Pause. Inhale through your nose, inhale again. exhale longer and slowly out. Cyclic sighing practice. Three breaths can reset your nervous system quicly.
Because the trail gives you back what the office takes away.
It’s not just running. It’s being outside, in fresh air, surrounded by nature. Every step on uneven ground challenges your balance, coordination, and focus. It’s the ultimate way to recharge, physically and mentally.
Everything. Breathing is your performance limiter. You can train your muscles for hours, but if your breathing is off, your body can’t deliver oxygen efficiently. When you train your breath, you train your endurance.
Breathing through your nose filters, warms, and humidifies the air. It also increases CO₂ tolerance and helps oxygen get deeper into your muscles. The result? Less fatigue, more focus, better recovery. At first, it can feel strange, like you’re not getting enough air. But that’s the training. The Oxygen Advantage method helps you gradually adapt and make nasal breathing your new normal.
Yes, this is normal. Bring a tissue with you. It does dry up in time and the body will adapt. But even in cold air, the nose will run. See the benefits of running with the mouth closed: Benefits of Running with the Mouth Closed OA
Everything. Nature regulates your nervous system. The sounds, the air, the ground under your feet. They all bring your body into coherence. Combine that with nasal breathing, and you’re not just running, you’re reconnecting with your natural rhythm.
Implementing Deep Breathing Exercises in the workplace is a pragmatic approach to provide a low-cost blood pressure and stress reduction therapy to a substantial portion of the adult population in the US, at least 50% of whom have high blood pressure.
A review of breathing practices reported increased feelings of peacefulness, improved reaction time and problem solving, decreased anxiety and reduction of mind wandering and intrusive thoughts.
Deliberate control of the breath (breathwork) can have a therapeutic potential to improve mental health. Results showed that breathwork may be efective for improving stress and mental health.
Workplace Mindfulness programs enable participants to deal more skillfully with stressful events and stress less to improve their well-being. The mechanisms involved can be grouped around awareness/self-regulation, acceptance/compassion, feeling permitted to take care of self, sense of growth and promise of goal attainment
Deep slow breathing can increase vagal nerve activity, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is also associated with better decision-making. This research examined the effects of two breathing patterns on HRV and on stress and decision-making performance . These studies show that brief vagal breathing patterns reliably increase HRV and improve decision-making
Slow breathing techniques act enhancing autonomic, cerebral and psychological flexibility. The study provided evidence of links between parasympathetic activity, CNS activities related to emotional control and psychological well being.
Diaphragmatic breathing could improve sustained attention, affect, and cortisol levels. This study provided evidence demonstrating the effect of diaphragmatic breathing, a mind-body practice, on mental function.
Alternate-nostril yoga breathing has been shown to be useful to improve attention and decrease the systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
A smartphone technology to sample people’s ongoing thoughts, feelings, and actions. People are thinking about what is not happening almost as often as they are thinking about what is and found that doing so typically makes them unhappy.
Whether you’re a leader under pressure, a woman navigating change, or a runner seeking
more from every breath — this is your starting point.