Learn how to breathe and feel better

Guess what? There is a direct link between the breath and emotions. Researchers in Belgium had a brilliant test of this (Phillippot, Chappele, Blairy, 2002). They had people come experience different emotions in the lab, which you can reliably do by showing film clips that arouse anger, sadness, happiness. They noticed that, lo and behold, each emotion was associated with a different breathing pattern and depth. But these researchers didn’t stop there. They went further to show that having people breath in these patterns without showing the film clips induced the same emotions they experienced while watching the films – striking evidence showing that we can influence our emotions via our breath. 

​WHAT'S ALL THIS MEDITATION ABOUT?

Research on meditation is flourishing. It has been shown to increase well-being, decrease stress and boost immune function (Davidson et al.,  2003), increase focus and attention (Jha et al., 2007),increase feelings of connectedness to others (Hutcherson, et al. 2008), and to increase compassion. Groundbreaking research with both novice and long-term meditators has shown that a part of the brain associated with awareness of self and others, the insula cortex, gets bigger with through the practice of meditation (Lazar et al., 2005). For more information on research, see work by Dr. Richard Davidson.