Breathing, Overbreathing, and Mindfulness

Abstract

Overbreathing is one of the most common and yet overlooked breathing problems that people experience. A few irregular breaths can send us into a condition called hypocapnia, which leads to a variety of physiological, emotional, and behavioral consequences. The purpose of this paper is to review the physiology of breathing and overbreathing, discuss the impact of overbreathing on human physiology and behavior, review ways to recognize overbreathing, and discuss mindfulness-based skills that may be used to teach healthy breathing and correct overbreathing.