The respiratory system bridges the conscious and subconscious minds and there is an integral relationship between state of mind and breath. When one is calm and quiet, the breath is calm and quiet and the resting breath rate is sympathetically calm and quiet. When a person responds to stress stimuli, the breath-rate climbs proportionally. By controlling the breath, one is able to control their state-of-being at all times and begin to exert some control over the mind.

Building Resilience and Coherence
Breathing is critical in building resilience. Resilience is the capacity to prepare for, recover from, and adapt in the face of stress, challenge, or adversity. The benefits of resilience include better sleep, improved teamwork and morale, the ability to deal with difficult clients, an increased ability to focus and solve problems, and enhanced creativity.
Conscious breathing helps to shift into and sustain a more balanced state. A concept fundamental to resilience is coherence. Physiologically, coherence is a state in which the immune, hormonal, and nervous systems function in a state of coordination. Coherence is the optimal state in which the heart, mind, and emotions are in sync and balanced. Coherence is the first objective in cultivating breath work practice.

Breathing Correctly
Believe it or not, many people do not know how to breathe correctly. Breathing correctly means that when taking a deep breath, the abdomen actually expands outward. Many people take small, shallow breaths while sucking in the abdomen.
Place your hand on your abdomen and see if it expands on the outward breath. Are you limiting how much your abdomen moves outward? Are you restricting your breath? Learning to breathe deeply by using your abdomen is key to learning how to breathe correctly.
During abdominal breathing, your diaphragm draws air into and expels the air out from the lowest and largest part of the lungs. In order for the diaphragm to move freely, your abdominal muscles must completely relax. When you take a deep breath, the abdomen moves outward.

Abdominal Breathing
Lie on your back. Place the palms of your hands on your abdomen and spread your fingers apart. As you breathe, feel the movement between your first rib, your navel, and your hips. Notice movement in the back of the body, too, around the kidneys and the lower back below your waist.
Inhale for four seconds. As your lungs fill, your abdomen expands; notice how your hands rise and your fingers draw apart. Exhale for four seconds. As your lungs empty, notice your hands moving down and your fingers coming together. Repeat the in and out breaths for two minutes.

When breathing correctly, it relaxes the autonomic nervous system, the heart, digestion, and other key body functions. The nervous system runs through the entire body; it is everywhere. By breathing correctly, we have the ability to calm and harmonize our body.