Your Breathing Sucks. Master Your Breathe, Master Your Mind.

[ExploringReality]

Are you breathing properly? Probably not if your like most people, living from they're heads and out of touch with their bodies. There is a whole new world that opens up to you once you understand the significance of breath and understand what diaphragmatic breathing is and how to do it. You probably breathe through the chest and you're not even aware of it until you're reading this and you start to notice that you're taking short shallow breaths that stop at your chest. This is your sympathetic nervous system and this kind of breathing triggers fight or flight. Which is why most people live in panic and fear because they're not breathing properly.

shallow chest breathers are stuck in a survival pattern — sympathetic mode. But what you’re doing is flipping the switch into parasympathetic dominance. That’s where growth, recovery, clarity, and peak flow live.

Why Diaphragm Breathing Is Everything:

 

Most people breathe shallow from their chest, which only uses a small part of the lungs and keeps the nervous system tense. It’s like trying to fuel a race car with just a few drops of gas.

 

Diaphragmatic breathing is when you breathe deep into your belly. The diaphragm (a dome-shaped muscle under your lungs) moves horizontally and fully expands your lungs from the bottom up. This fills your body with oxygen and clears tension.

 

But here’s the gold:

The real power isn’t in sucking air in.

It’s in pushing air out.

 

When you exhale and draw the belly in, you:

Fully empty the lungs (like wringing out stress and toxins)

Activate your core and nervous system reset

Make space for a full, effortless inhale

Unlock deep stretches, power, calm, and flow

Think of it like this:

If you don’t empty the cup, you can’t fill it with clean water.

If you don’t exhale fully, your next inhale is shallow and limited.

Chest breathing = survival mode

Diaphragm breathing = mastery mode

It’s the difference between anxiety and peace, tension and flow, average and elite.

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:06 PM by ExploringReality

[PenguinPablo]

Absolutely this is big time. So many negative emotion loops persist because of the broken breathing pattern. I try to do HRV breathing usually between 4-5 Breaths per minute using an app 1-2x a day. Easiest way to do it is by implementing diaphragmatic breathing to lengthen the breath cycles, with the out breath slightly longer 60:40 ratio. And on the breath out let go of all the physical tension.

[ExploringReality]

Yes it's amazing how so many people engage in armchair philosophy and speculation all the while overlooking the significant but ever present breath of Life that they suck at. The game is not sucking air in especially when you're tired, the gold is exhaling pushing the diaphragm inward.

[WikiRando]

Even something as simple as watching the breath for me has given incredible results, and yoga / kriyas are all about the breath. It's absolutely one thing that many people are severely missing. 

I do practices every day which aim to deepen the breath over time. 

[ExploringReality]

@WikiRando

Amazing! I wrote the post the way it is not to judge people, but to be evocative and to arouse them out of their ignorance of the power of breathing because people take it for granted, thinking they know how to breathe. 

Yes there are amazing books on Leo's book list on Kriya yoga, but once you understand and practice diaphragm breathing it really puts those practices into a whole new light. Because I've noticed one of the main things that was missing from my practice with Kriya yoga was my not understanding how to use the diaphragm when breathing instead of the chest.

[Sugarcoat]

One thing that can cause non ideal breathing is a distended belly (what’s usually called bloating). Something that contributes to the bloating is the diaphragm being contracted (being down) and pushing on the abdominal contents. This makes breathing more shallow as the diaphragm is not going through as complete of a range of motion. So if you wanna improve breathing it’s crucial you get rid of any abdominal bloating. I used to struggle with bloating massively and managed to cure it and I feel significant improvement in my breathing

[ExploringReality]

@Sugarcoat

What caused your bloating? Was it junk food and just a poor nutrition?

[Sugarcoat]

1 minute ago, ExploringReality said:

@Sugarcoat

What caused your bloating? Was it junk food and just a poor nutrition?

It was this condition called abdomino-phrenic dyssynergia. It’s when the body coordinates the muscles wrong. The diaphragm is supposed to go up (relaxed position) when you eat to make space for the abdomen, but with this condition it goes down instead (contracts) so it pushes on abdominal content creating the bloated look. It’s more common than we think but it’s not very known. 
 

 For me it didn’t matter what I ate, plus I’ve always eaten relatively healthy so it wasn’t the food type. It’s not quite known what causes it. In my case I have a different spine curvature which affects the position of my ribcage, I’m pretty sure that contributed or even caused the problem. That combined with stress and fast eating and overeating. 

[ExploringReality]

@Sugarcoat

I see, take care of yourself. 

[Sugarcoat]

3 minutes ago, ExploringReality said:

@Sugarcoat

I see, take care of yourself. 

I cured it, thanks

[UnbornTao]

Useful reminder, thank you. 

[integral]

Useful reminder, I applied it today I feel like I made progress

[Yimpa]

5 hours ago, Sugarcoat said:

In my case I have a different spine curvature which affects the position of my ribcage, I’m pretty sure that contributed or even caused the problem.

I've got a bit of scoliosis and my body parts are assymetrical.

It's not wrong, it's just different.

[ExploringReality]

@integral  @UnbornTao

Keep breathing through that diaphragm! While exhaling, draw the belly inwards as your diaphragm moves upwards in its resting position. When your inhaling, make sure to feel your diaphragm pushing down as your belly expands out. It's a different mode of breathing and takes a bit of practice, but man!!!! This is powerful. The yogis have know about the breath, prana, and how to unlock the mysteries of reality through the diaphragm. 

[Sugarcoat]

9 hours ago, Yimpa said:

I've got a bit of scoliosis and my body parts are assymetrical.

It's not wrong, it's just different.

I think I have just a slight scoliosis too but what I have mainly is a more flat thoracic spine and a bony bump at the bottom of neck. I’m fine with it, except it caused my bloating I think