Can you breathe your way to feeling better? – podcast

At the start of the new year, many people try to introduce new habits to improve their health and wellbeing. In this episode, we ask whether there is a simple technique right under our nose. Can you breathe your way to feeling better?

John Crace, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer, tells Hannah Moore about his experience attending a guided breathing session with breath coach Alan Dolan. Although initially sceptical that it might be ‘a bit too new age’ for him, he found it brought him a deep sense of calm. ‘I felt really at a kind of peace with myself that I hadn’t felt for ages, you know, I wasn’t fighting anything,’ he tells Moore.

Rebecca Dennis, author of And Breathe: The Complete Guide to Conscious Breathing and Let It Go: Breath Yourself Calm, explains why breathing techniques can be an effective way of soothing anxiety and working through past traumas. She tells Moore how these techniques can be used in your everyday life.

Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian

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