6 Lessons from a Month of Better Breathing

Joe Kita, a respected health fitness author, wrapped up his month-long exploration of mindful breathing, and his verdict is in. Joe has been blogging his findings on his Core Performance One Small Change site using core info from our book, "Perfect Breathing."

We're happy to report that he found great benefit in breath awareness. Over the course of the month of July, he used mindful breathing techniques for Sleep, Game-Day, Pressure, Performance and Healing. Though his results ranged from spectacular to mixed (in other words, for him the jury's still out), he arrived at one thought that we felt was particularly salient:

"A yoga teacher once told me that control of the breath leads to control of the body," he wrote,
"which eventually leads to control of the mind. This experiment helped me understand more fully what she meant. When I was regulating my breath, I could feel my heart rate slow and muscle tension depart, which, in turn, helped me relax and focus."

For that alone, developing breath awareness and learning some simple mindful breathing techniques is worth the minimal effort it requires. And no gym membership, new sneakers or special diet is required!

We are thrilled and grateful for Joe's interest in our work. We hope you'll do your own 30-day breathing experiment. We think you'll find the results dramatic, and will give you a valuable tool you can use in everyday life -- even if you've never set foot in a yoga studio or studied meditation. Mindful breathing is for everybody.

Read Joe's full breathing series here. And don't forget to visit www.perfectbreath.com

health science