This method of breathing is comprised of an even  6-second inhale and 6-second  exhale with no pause. This is the nasal breath practice to hone for 20 minutes each day, bringing the heartbeat into a regular, rythmic alignment with the body’s overall frequency. It enables you to be ‘breath aware’ as you go about your day.

 

James Nestor, in The New Science of A Lost Art, describes it as: “A calming practice that places the heart, lungs and circulation into a state of coherence, where the systems of the body are working at peak efficiency. There is no more essential technique and none more basic.”

 

Stephen Elliott, Life Scientist and originator of Coherent Breathing, says it delivers all the benefits of exercise and of meditation to the brain.

 

Eminent Neuroanatomist Bud Craig says the goal of any treatment is to soothe the right front insula, the part of the brain that aggregates all feeling, where body meets brain in what some consider to be “mind”.  

 

The Coherent breath technique draws on the imagination, colour, counting, posture/movement and bi-hemispheric lateralization - a fancy term to describe two sides of the brain - each with cognitive specialisms. For example, counting has the ability to focus the left hemisphere of the brain, while colour does the same for the right hemisphere. When we count our breath, it’s very difficult for the brain to do anything else which means we can cleverly combine breathing with imagination, colour or counting to alleviate stress/anxiety, reduce panic and increase focus.