In this segment, we're going to look at conscious breathing for mental clarity, mindfully focusing on your breath to promote whole brain growth development. Even a few short, simple breathing exercises can improve your brain's performance. We know that the whole body needs oxygen for your brain especially needs oxygen, your brain takes 20% of all the oxygen that you inhale, even though it only compromises 2% of your total body weight, and your brain uses three times as much oxygen as your muscles. Even though all the cells of your body require oxygen, your brain is especially sensitive to oxygen deprivation, your brain cells will quickly die without enough oxygen. And given the fact that your brain controls and regulates almost all the processes in your body. We can see how important it is to really maximize our oxygen consumption.

There was a very interesting study done by a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her name is Dr. Sarah lazaar. And she looked at meditation, specifically mindfulness meditation, facilitated by breath work and its effect on the brain. And what they found by MRI studies is that there was a thickening in the cortex in four areas, and the posterior cingulate, and the temporal parietal junction, and the left hippocampus, and also in the palms. These areas are responsible for learning and memory, compassion and empathy. They also found a decrease in the amygdala, which is the area of the brain responsible for your fight or flight mechanism associated with stress and anxiety and fear.

This was a pretty powerful resource study showing the benefits of breathing and improving brain performance.