Hey everyone, it's K-Sunga here. I just want to let you know that we've launched a brand

new call and advice podcast called Dear Headspace. Each week the headspace teachers, along

with some amazing new friends, are answering your questions about relationships, work,

life, mindfulness, and just about everything else. It's so different from anything we've

ever created and we're so excited for you to hear it. Dear Headspace comes out every

Tuesday on the Headspace app and anywhere that you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.

Hi, it's Andy here and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Thursday morning. Today I thought

we would have a look at the breath. The breath may not sound particularly exciting, other than

the fact that it keeps us alive, of course. It's one of the things that people write in most

about, I think, to Headspace. We get very hung up on the breath and when meditation or

in meditation when we're asked to focus on the breath, it's very easy to complicate things

and we might think that we have to breathe in a special way. We might think that I don't

know, that there's a particular technique to the breath, something like that. I think

it's really helpful to understand the place of breath, not just in meditation but also in

our life and how the breath can help not just regulate our physical sensations but also

our mental activity. The way I've always understood it is you can really approach this in two ways.

You can lead with the body or you can lead with the mind. When we consider active conscious

breathing techniques, you might find them in yoga, you might find them in other traditions

and disciplines where you consciously breathe in a particular way with the idea of changing

the feeling in the body or changing the activity of the mind. So that's sort of leading with

the body. We're using the body to breathe in a particular way and in breathing that

then tends to influence our mental state and the way we're feeling. The other way, leading

...