Is Your Breathing Normal? Understanding Healthy vs Dysfunctional Patterns

Questions About Breathing?

Before we dive into specific breathing issues, it’s important to first understand the fundamentals of healthy breathing.
Whether it’s high-level breathing for performance, low-level breathing for everyday activities, or breathing for stress and anxiety management, maintaining good breathing mechanics and patterns is essential.

Why Breathe With A Good Pattern?

Several Great Reasons:

Improved Ability to achieve baseline calm as well as managing stress and anxiety
Performance: Low level breathing (walking to your letterbox may be tough)
Performance: High level breathing (improved endurance and strength with sports)
supports healthy facial development, proper teeth alignment, improved sleep quality, enhanced focus, and overall wellbeing.

Poor Breathing can use up to 30% of a total bodies energy consumption

Good breathing can use as little as 2-4% of a total bodies energy consumption

Common triggers affecting breathing

Altitude
Anaemia
Anxiety or low-grade chronic depression
Asthma, COPD, chest problems
Chronic pain – physical or emotional
Decreased blood glucose (skipping meals)
Fluorescent light/strobe lights
Grief and loss
Hormone upsets (PMT pregnancy or menopause)
Humidity, lack of moving air

Insomnia or broken sleep
Mouth-breathing/nasal & sinus problems
Poor posture or bad ergonomics at your desk
Post-operative or injury problems
Stimulants, caffeine and sugar
Talking a lot and fast
Tight clothes
The terrible twins – stress and fatigue
Post viral exhaustion
Work hassles, or redundancy

What Does a Good Pattern Look like?

Our Natural Breathing Pattern Is:

Breathing in and out through the nose
Low chest/abdominal pattern
10-14 breaths per minute
A relaxed pause at the end of the out-breath

Using the diaphragm is the most efficient way to breathe, especially at rest or during low levels of activity.
The best examples of this can be observed in lying, sitting, and standing positions, as shown below. You’ll notice the belly moves while the chest remains mostly still. We’ve intentionally exaggerated the belly movement in these examples to make the breathing pattern more visible; in reality, the movement is typically much more subtle.

Lying Down Breathing

Sitting in a Chair Breathing

What Is Disordered Breathing?

Disordered breathing occurs when upper chest breathing—often faster and through the mouth—becomes the dominant breathing pattern, particularly at rest.

It may also involve frequent sighing, yawning, breath-holding, sensations of breathlessness, or the feeling of not being able to take a full breath in or out. Over time, this dysfunctional pattern can lead to a wide range of symptoms, including dizziness, anxiety, tingling sensations, chest pain or tightness, blurred vision, and a sense of being easily overwhelmed or constantly on edge.

The first step toward restoring balance is breathing retraining. By learning to return breathing to a calm, diaphragmatic pattern, the body and mind can begin to shift back toward a more balanced and regulated state. With consistent practice, this skill becomes the foundation for improved physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

In today’s fast-paced world, the ability to truly relax and be present is often compromised. That’s why the initial goal is to help individuals experience a deep sense of baseline calm with guided support—before learning to apply that same calm independently at home, at work, and in high-pressure environments.

Chest Dominant Breathing in Supine

Chest Dominant Breathing In Sitting

Chest Dominant Breathing In Standing

Further Information on Breathing:

What About Performance Breathing?

Improving the strength and endurance of our breathing muscles is essential not only for everyday activities but also for meeting our most demanding sporting goals. We have a page dedicated to this area here for those interested.

If you’re struggling with your breathing—whether it’s stress-related, performance-driven, or just feeling “off”—we’re here to help.

Book a breathing assessment with Nick and start retraining your breath to support better sleep, focus, energy, and overall wellbeing.

Click Here to Book an Appointment or Call 8515 0326

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