The breath is vital to the act of switching between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system. Or, to go between the crisis state of fight or flight, and relaxed state of meditation. The interval of breathing can tell as to the excited state of the dividual, where high stress and high excited states involve faster breathing. Breathing is among the few functions of the body that can be managed by the mind and nervous system, where we can intentionally breathe or leave it to the system to do so for us. This creates a link, a method to which one can affect the other. The same way breathing naturally increases in excited states, we can intentionally slow it and match the physiological symptoms of another state, say calm, and in so doing we bring the body and mind to match it. This proves incredibly useful in many meditations and is the reasoning behind re-teaching breath before anything more in many circles.

Meditate.

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