Teaching people to breathe might seem redundant. You do it on average 20,000 times a day, mostly without thinking. And a good job, too. You can’t exactly afford to forget.

Within wellness circles, however, “breathwork” practitioners are blowing up, from Dutch guru Mr Wim “The Iceman” Hof and his disciples, who huff and puff according to his Method before jumping into ice baths or running up mountains in shorts, to Mr Stuart Sandeman of Breathpod, who coaches everyone from Olympic athletes to corporate clients, including JP Morgan and Virgin Money, Nike and lululemon, Wilderness and Lost Village festivals.

“Conscious, connected breathwork has been going on for years,” says Mr Sandeman, a judo black belt and former banker and DJ, in his Scottish lilt. “I think it’s getting the limelight because of people saying, ‘Wow, this works.’” The method of controlling or becoming conscious of your own breathing can activate or deactivate physical, mental and emotional states. Mr Sandeman says it is “the most remarkable tool we can use that’s free, accessible and legal”.

With fewer barriers than meditation – you don’t have to sit cross-legged, for one – breathwork can be as prosaic as “box breathing”, a stress management technique employed by Navy Seals: inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds. Or it can be as profound as releasing past trauma. Mr Sandeman got into breathwork after his girlfriend died from breast cancer. He recently launched Breathpods for offices, which have been adopted by Google and provide a guided, trancey soundtracked half-hour experience that’s positively trippy. One feedback form likened it to “a rave tent at a festival without the drugs”.

You can’t be conscious of every breath, otherwise you’d never get any of the things done that are causing you stress in the first place. So take a deep breath, and find some of Mr Sandeman’s teachings below on the best times to breathe.

To take control of your breath, be sure to breathe fully, via your diaphragm (your stomach) and not with your chest, in a light, relaxed and regular pattern. Ever notice that you’ve been holding your breath, perhaps because you were concentrating? You should also breathe through your nose, not your mouth – another common mistake. Any breathlessness you might feel is CO2, not lack of oxygen, says Mr Sandeman, who suggests it takes three to four weeks to retrain yourself to breathe through your nose, which he says is also better for recovery during exercise.

“A lot of people say, ‘I don’t know why I feel anxious,’ but they’re talking and then taking a gasp of air,” says Mr Sandeman. “Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, gasp, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.” He explains that gasping is a survival mechanism that gives you an injection of energy to combat a threat, which means you’re unnecessarily triggering your fight-or-flight response. On the flipside, you can override that response “very rapidly” by locking down your runaway breathing. Breathe in through your nose for five seconds and out through pursed lips for 10. “You can even add a little hold.” This activates the vagus nerve, your heart’s brake pedal, which runs from your brain over your ticker to your diaphragm. A perceived threat can trigger you all over again, in which case, repeat as necessary.

In terms of a daily practice, Mr Sandeman suggests “resetting” first thing every morning with deep, diaphragmatic breathing for five minutes. “Even less than that, three minutes – and a bit of shaking, just letting go,” he says. “When we move the body in that way, it calms the nervous system as well.” You should also be aware of your breathing while you sleep. “There’s a load of research now that says you will not get a deep sleep by breathing through your mouth,” says Mr Sandeman. He has an unorthodox, DIY solution. “It’s a bit out there, but I get clients of mine to tape their mouth up when they go to bed at night,” he says. “It stops snoring, it stops sleep apnoea, it stops all these things.” Try 20 minutes during the day first to reassure yourself that you won’t suffocate.

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