Breathe

20 Quotes that Will Make You Want to Breathe More Deeply and Intentionally

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Our breath can be our ally or our foe. 

If we don’t control our breath, the breath will control us and that creates friction, tension, anxiety, frustration, fatigue, and even disease. 

If we know how to breathe correctly, it can be a powerful tool to help us manage mind, emotions, and imbalances in the body.

In fact, having a regular breathing practice offers many mental, emotional, and physical health benefits.  

Yogic and Buddhist sages have known this for thousands of years.

They’ve made conscious, deep breathing a central part of their practice precisely because it’s so effective at taming an overactive mind. 

The Buddha specifically taught mindfulness breathing meditation as a way to transform suffering and increase inner peace.

Adopting a daily breathing practice can be a game-changer in helping you cope with life’s demands, curveballs, and challenges. 

May these 20 quotes be a gentle reminder and a source of inspiration that reconnects you with the calming and healing power of your own breath: 

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. 

Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.” 

– Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, & author

When the breath wanders the mind is unsteady, but when the breath is calmed, the mind too will be still.” 

– Hatha Yoga Pradipika, 500-year-old yogic text 

Emotions and breath are known to have a deep relationship. 

Animals such as the rat and rabbit have fast breathing and so are extremely nervous, mentally unstable, emotionally restless, and live only for a short period of time. 

In contrast, the elephant and turtle are slow, deep breathers and consequently have calmer personality and longer lives.” 

– Dr. Ananda Bhavanni, researcher & yoga therapist

Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health. 

If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. 

There is no single more powerful – or more simple – daily practice to further your health and wellbeing than breathwork. 

Practicing a regular, mindful breathing exercise can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders.”

– Dr. Andrew Weil, Integrative medicine physician & author

Virtually all of the oxygen we breathe is used to produce energy in our cells.” 

– Dave Asprey, researcher & professional biohacker 

Breath is the thing that connects us to the entire biome.

If you think of the Earth as a living organism, the Earth does something very beautiful and complementary to us: 

It inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen, which is why we have this very beautiful oxygen-rich atmosphere. 

And we, in turn, inhale oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. The exact opposite process. 

So there’s this complementary pattern where we breathe in what the Earth breathes out. 

When we breathe out the Earth breathes that back in again. 

And this process of breathing in oxygen into our bodies is a process of transformation. We are literally breathing the outside into ourselves.” 

– Charlie Knoles, meditation teacher 

One conscious breath in and out is meditation.”

– Eckhart Tolle, author & speaker 

You say that you are too busy to meditate.

Do you have time to breathe? Meditation is your breath.” 

– Ajahn Chah, Buddhist monk & author

Breathing meditation can quiet the mind, open the body, and develop a great power of concentration.” 

– Jack Kornfield, meditation teacher & author

By changing patterns of breathing we can change our emotional states, how we think, and how we interact with the world.” 

– Dr. Patricia Gerbarg, Harvard-trained psychiatrist 

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky.

Conscious breathing is my anchor.” 

– Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, & author

Yoga teachings state that if the mind is moving so are the heart and respiration. 

When we are angry, our breath quickens; when we sleep our breath slows down. 

By consciously slowing down the breath and making it rhythmic so that consciousness is not disturbed by it, we can achieve corresponding tranquility.” 

– Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, psychologist, philosopher, & researcher 

When you feel like life is out of focus, always return to the basics of life.

Breathing.

No breath, no life.

– Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid 

You cannot breathe deeply and worry at the same time.

Breathe.

Let worry go.

Breathe.

Allow love and intuition in.”

– Sonia Choquette, author

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” 

– Amit Ray, author & yoga teacher

Breath is life.

We should pay as much attention to it as any other aspect of beingness.” 

– Swami Nostradamus Virato, yoga teacher 

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.

– Sylvia Plath, poet & writer

When we begin to close our eyes and take a couple of slow deep breaths and become aware of it, we’re literally switching nervous systems. 

We switch from that fight or flight nervous system.

As we begin to breathe and we begin to turn on the other nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system, that nervous system is the nervous system of relaxation… 

Your heart rate slows down, your respiratory system slows down, your blood pressure changes. 

All your blood flow goes into your internal organs and into your brain and metabolism, or better said, energy is being rejuvenated and restored and no energy is leaking out to address emergency situations, to address threats.

– Dr. Joe Dispenza, neuroscientist & author 

Deep breathing brings deep thinking and shallow breathing brings shallow thinking.” 

– Elsie Lincoln Benedict, speaker & writer 

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. 

Breathing out, I know I am breathing out. 

Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body. 

Breathing out, I am aware of my whole body. 

Breathing in, I calm my whole body. 

Breathing out, I calm my whole body.” 

– Anapanasati Sutta, The Discourse on the Full Awareness of Breathing

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