Far more than the physical benefits, mastering your breathing is about mastering your nervous system, which is about taking ownership of, and living life, on your terms.
Voluntary Controlled Breathing Practices
"Perhaps the most potent method for influencing the myelinated vagus is through voluntary controlled breathing practices - VCBP’s. Research documents that breathing gates the influence of the myelinated vagus on the heart (Eckberg 2003). Vagal efferent inhibition of the heart’s pacemaker is potentiated during exhalation and dampened during inhalation." Porges 2017.
A Resilient Brain, Body and Nervous System
"As an individual becomes more proficient in using the active pathways (i.e. controlled breathing practices) as a neural exercise of autonomic regulation, the autonomic nervous system becomes more resilient. This resilience is manifested in a greater capacity to downregulate defense and to support more flexible, adaptive emotional states, social behaviors, and health."
"By enhancing the efficiency and reliability of pathways inhibiting defense systems, the individual acquires greater feelings of safety such that the body shifts to a neurophysiological state that supports health, growth, and restoration." Porges 2017