08/27/2025
You should be diaphragmatically breathing all the time, especially during activities that benefit from deeper, calmer, more efficient breathing. Here’s when it’s particularly important:
• At rest: Diaphragmatic breathing helps maintain a relaxed, balanced state, supporting better oxygen exchange and reducing unnecessary tension.
• During sleep: Proper diaphragmatic breathing can improve sleep quality and lower nighttime stress responses.
• During exercise: Especially in activities like yoga, swimming, running, or strength training, diaphragmatic breathing improves endurance, efficiency, and core stability.
• During stress or anxiety: Conscious diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the “rest and digest” system), helping to calm the body.
• When speaking or singing: It supports better breath control, voice projection, and stamina.
• When recovering from illness: Deep breathing can help prevent lung complications and support overall healing.
In short: Ideally, diaphragmatic breathing should be your default mode — but especially focus on it when you are resting, needing to calm down, physically exerting yourself, or speaking/singing.
Not sure how to diaphragmatically breathe? Here is a good place to start:
Place one hand on your upper chest and the other just below your rib cage. This will allow you to feel your diaphragm move as you breathe.
Breathe in slowly through your nose so that your stomach moves out against your hand. The hand on your chest should remain as still as possible.
Tighten your stomach muscles, letting them fall inward as you exhale through pursed lips. The hand on your upper chest must remain as still as possible.
Once you are able to do this you can expand to 360 breathing: expanding our breathing into side ribs and back. Let me know if you need more help!
