Breathing Is Your Superpower

Breathing is commonly overlooked as a major contributor to optimal health. We breathe 20,000-25,000 times a day, so how you breathe matters. Breathing plays a role in mental and emotional health, digestion, lymphatics, core function and posture, blood pressure, sleep, hormones, and much more. Unfortunately, most people begin to lose this optimal pattern of breathing early in life – as early as their childhood years- whether it's from a single traumatic event to jaw structure, allergies, small nasal valves, deviated septums, large tonsils and more. Science proves that breathing is in fact, your superpower.

We can go three weeks without food, three days without water, and three minutes without air. Breathing isn't something you commonly think about. In fact, it's an action that generally goes unnoticed altogether. The first thing you ever do after exiting the birth canal is take a deep breath. When your breathing is compromised, however, your health can be negatively affected. For instance, while stress can lead to bad breathing, bad breathing will almost certainly affect your ability to manage stress. Like a domino effect, it can topple onto other major systems in your body: your digestive, lymphatic, immune, and/or endocrine (hormonal) system, disturbing your chemical makeup, sleep patterns, ability to detoxify and, most notably, your body's overall movement quality, core function, and posture. If that information doesn't unveil the importance of breathing, consider this: On average, we breathe 20,000-25,000 times a day. It's that's necessary. That integral to what we do at and in every single moment. Therefore, HOW we breathe matters immensely. And the better we are at breathing, the better our health will be. Or, to state it even more bluntly, the better we are at breathing, the better our lives will be. This is precisely what makes breathing our superpower.

Dr. Arianne Missimer is an award-winning Doctor of Physical Therapy, Registered Dietitian, yoga teacher, and mindfulness educator. She is the Founder of the Movement Paradigm, an integrative health center focusing on mindset, nutrition, and movement blending Eastern and Western philosophies, rooted in neuroscience, functional medicine, and movement science. As a cancer survivor, mover, athlete, and America Ninja Warrior competitor herself, she is dedicated to providing you with powerful dietary interventions, movement, sleep, and mindset reframing techniques to empower you to heal your body, alleviate inflammation, and live with vitality. She has spent over 20 years in the field with most of her career studying, practicing, and sharing the power of breath.