You breathe about 20,000 times a day.
But if someone asks you, "Where is your breath right now?" you might pause for a moment, and then realize—you don't actually know.
People under a lot of stress almost always share the same physical characteristic: shallow breathing. It's not because they don't know how to breathe deeply, but because their bodies have been in a state where deep breathing has become difficult for too long.
Stress: How to Change Your Breathing
When the brain senses a threat, the sympathetic nervous system immediately activates—the heart rate increases, muscles tense, attention narrows, and the body prepares to fight or flee.
Breathing is part of this reaction.
In a state of combat or flight, breathing automatically becomes faster and shallower—quickly delivering oxygen to the muscles so the body can act immediately. This mechanism is extremely useful in the face of a real threat.
But the pressures of modern life aren't a lion. They're deadlines, financial anxiety, strained relationships, and endless messages. These threats don't require you to run away; they're just constantly present, keeping your sympathetic nervous system in a state of mild activation.
The result is that many people's bodies maintain a "preparedness to deal with threats" breathing pattern for a long time—fast, shallow, and paused in the upper chest—even when they are not in any real danger.
Where did the diaphragm go?
A complete deep breath relies on the diaphragm.
The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle located at the bottom of the chest cavity. During inhalation, it moves downward, increasing the volume of the chest cavity, expanding the lungs, and gently pushing the abdomen outward; during exhalation, it rises, the abdomen contracts, and the air is expelled.
This complete diaphragmatic breathing allows each breath to truly reach the lower lobes of the lungs—where the richest gas exchange surface is located, and it is also the most direct signal for the parasympathetic nervous system to take over.
However, under chronic stress, the function of the diaphragm is compressed.
Prolonged physical tension causes the abdominal muscles to contract continuously, limiting the downward movement of the diaphragm. A prolonged forward-leaning posture causes the chest cavity to collapse, confining the diaphragm to a restricted position. A long-term habit of shallow breathing dulls the neural control of the diaphragm, making it increasingly difficult for it to be fully activated.
Gradually, you forget how to truly breathe.
Shallow breathing, what did I do?
The effects of shallow breathing are far more extensive than most people realize.
The nervous system cannot switch
Deep diaphragmatic breathing is one of the most important sources of stimulation for the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a major trunk of the parasympathetic nervous system—it slows down the heartbeat, restores digestion, and puts the body into repair mode.
When breathing is too shallow, the vagus nerve doesn't receive enough stimulation, and the sympathetic nervous system remains dominant. The body cannot truly recover from stress, even if you've sat down to rest.
lymphatic circulation stagnation
The rise and fall of the diaphragm is the primary driving force of the lymphatic system. Shallow breathing almost eliminates this force, causing metabolic waste to accumulate in tissues and chronic inflammation to spread silently.
The core cannot actually work.
The activation of the deep core is closely integrated with diaphragmatic breathing. When breathing is too shallow, the diaphragm cannot fully descend and ascend, the natural changes in intra-abdominal pressure disappear, and the deep core system loses its most important activation signal.
Thinking becomes unclear
The brain needs a stable supply of oxygen. Shallow breathing reduces the efficiency of oxygen exchange with each breath, causing the brain to operate in a state of mild hypoxia—making it difficult to concentrate, causing mental fatigue, and reducing the ability to regulate emotions.
You can feel it now.
Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen.
Take a few normal breaths, don't try to change it, just observe—which hand is moving?
If only the hand on your chest is moving, while the hand on your abdomen is almost still, your breathing is stopped in the upper part of your chest cavity, and your diaphragm is not fully involved.
If your abdomen is also moving, gently pushing outwards with inhalation and gently retracting with exhalation—the diaphragm is at work.
Many people realize for the first time how shallow their breathing is when they take this test.
What did Chanrou do to her breathing?
Chanrou places breathing at the core of all her exercises.
It's not about reminding people to breathe during exercise, but about closely integrating the pattern, depth, and rhythm of breathing with every movement—letting movement guide breathing, and breathing guide movement, with the two reinforcing each other in a precise coordination.
Restart the diaphragm
Chanrou's breathing training begins with feeling the movement of the diaphragm.
When you inhale, feel your abdominal cavity expanding in all directions—not just your abdomen protruding forward, but also expanding backward, to the sides, and to the pelvic floor. This four-way expansion is the result of the diaphragm moving completely downward.
As you exhale, feel your abdominal cavity gently contract, your diaphragm naturally rise, and your deep core system is activated synchronously within this contraction.
Use movement to free your breathing.
The gentle undulation of the spine and the movement of the chest cavity allow the long-collapsed chest cavity to regain space and the long-contracted abdominal muscles to regain elasticity—creating the space needed for the diaphragm to move fully.
When the chest cavity opens up and the abdomen relaxes, the diaphragm is no longer confined to a compressed position, allowing it to move freely and breathing naturally becomes deeper.
Rhythm, which allows the nervous system to switch
Chanrou's movements are rhythmic, and her breathing finds its own rhythm within this rhythm—not through deliberate control, but by the natural flow of her movements, her breathing becomes regular and deep.
This rhythmic deep breathing continuously stimulates the vagus nerve, allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to gradually take over—the body truly switches from combat mode to repair mode.
The "clear-headedness" that many people talk about after Chanrou's class is exactly the feeling after this switch happens—it's not just that the body relaxes, but that the nervous system truly calms down.
Breathing is a tool you can use at any time.
Chanrou's newly established breathing pattern is effective not only in the classroom.
Once you learn full diaphragmatic breathing, this pattern will gradually permeate your daily life—during high-pressure meetings, in moments of anxiety, and when trying to calm your body before bed.
You don't need to wait for Chanrou class to use breathing.
It's a tool you have at all times, but you may not have actually used it in a long time.
People under a lot of stress don't know how to breathe properly, not because they don't know how to breathe, but because their bodies, under long-term stress, have gradually forgotten how to truly, completely, and deeply breathe.
