
Today I’m sitting down with Patrick McKeown to talk all about breathing. Patrick is an international breathing expert and author who’s worked with thousands of clients doing targeted breathwork. His client list has included everyone from women with anxiety, to elite military forces, and Olympic athletes.
While breathing may sound simple (and it is!) many of us are doing it wrong. This can have huge consequences for our mental health, sleep quality, and more. Children especially benefit from healthy breathing habits. A large British study found a 40% increased risk of special education needs in children with disordered breathing during sleep.
Patrick shares how breathing exercises and training our breath can help everyone from moms, and children to athletes have a much better quality of life in so many areas. Our talk today even inspired me to start mouth taping at night again (more on that in the episode!). Everyone needs to breathe, we might as well optimize it. I hope you’ll join me and listen in for today’s episode!
Episode Highlights With Patrick McKeown
- Why he left school at 14 and what he learned by doing this
- The importance of breath and how many of us are probably doing it wrong
- How we can use our breathing to influence the mind and stress states
- Why carbon dioxide drives our breathing patterns
- The importance of nasal breathing
- A simple breathing exercise to try to start paying attention to your breath
- The importance of nasal breathing even during exercise
- Can mouth taping at night (or even during exercise) improve breathing
- Why oxygen uptake is actually higher with nasal breathing compared to mouth breathing
- A reason to consider taping your mouth at night
- How taping the mouth at night can benefit kids sleep
- The connection between nose or mouth breathing and facial shape and oral health
- Breathing exercises for mental health
Resources We Mention
- Oxygen Advantage Website
- Online Breathing Course for Anxiety
- Online Breathing Course for Women (Use code WellnessMama50 for 50% off through 2022)
- The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter by Patrick McKeown
- Close Your Mouth: Buteyko Clinic Handbook for Perfect Health by Patrick McKeown
- Anxiety Free: Stop Worrying and Quieten Your Mind – Featuring the Buteyko Breathing Method and Mindfulness by Patrick McKeown
- The Breathing Cure: Develop New Habits for a Healthier, Happier, and Longer Life by Patrick McKeown
- Myotape
- Mouth Tape
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
More From Wellness Mama
- 472: Josh Trent on Breathwork for Health, Inner Peace, and Learning to Feel Safe In Your Body
- 558: Dr. Jay Wiles on Simple & Effective Ways to Control Stress Response and Improve HRV
- 375: How to Breathe the Right Way (& Why It Matters!) With Max Gomez From Breathwrk
- How Breath Helps the Body: Simple Breathing Exercises You Can Do Anywhere
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