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The Mel Robbins PodcastImprove Your Breathing for Better Health From #1 Breath Expert In The World | Mel Robbins Podcast
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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Transform Your Health By Switching From Mouth To Nose Breathing
- Mel Robbins interviews breathing expert Patrick McKeown about how most people breathe dysfunctionally, especially through the mouth, and how that quietly harms health, sleep, and mental state.
- McKeown explains why nasal breathing is the biological default and details how it boosts oxygen delivery, calms the nervous system, improves focus, and reduces issues like anxiety, snoring, and sleep apnea.
- They walk through practical nasal-breathing drills, nose-unblocking exercises, and gentle breath patterns for relaxation, as well as how to retrain lifelong mouth breathers (including with mouth tape).
- The conversation positions everyday breathing—nose, low, light, and slow—as a powerful, free tool anyone can use to enhance resilience, performance, and quality of life.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasSwitch from mouth breathing to nasal breathing as your default.
Nose breathing filters, humidifies, and pressurizes air, increases oxygen uptake and delivery, supports better focus and mood, and reduces fight-or-flight activation compared with faster, upper‑chest mouth breathing.
Breathe “nose, low, light, and slow” to calm the nervous system.
Quiet nasal breaths that gently expand the lower ribs engage the diaphragm, improve spinal stability, and activate the parasympathetic response, signaling safety to the brain and lowering overall stress and anxiety.
Use short breath holds to quickly down‑regulate stress.
Taking a normal nasal inhale and exhale, then gently holding the nose for about five seconds, repeated several times, stimulates the vagus nerve, slows heart rate, and can reduce racing thoughts without needing elaborate meditation.
Decongest your nose with repeated post‑exhale breath holds.
After a normal nasal exhale, pinching the nose and lightly moving the head while holding for ~30 seconds (repeated 5–6 times, if safe for you) can open nasal passages by changing blood flow and leveraging nitric oxide in the airways.
Train diaphragm‑based “low” breathing by feeling the lower ribs move.
Placing hands on the lower ribs and gently directing them outward on the inhale and inward on the exhale teaches true deep breathing driven by the diaphragm, rather than ineffective shoulder‑lifting or belly‑pushing patterns.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesThe perfect person breathes as if they do not breathe.
— Patrick McKeown
Your breath is the through line of your whole life, from the very first breath that you took when you were born, to the very last breath that you'll take on the day that you die.
— Mel Robbins
Breathing should be in and out through the nose. In comparison to the mouth, the nose does all the work when it comes to breathing.
— Patrick McKeown
The brain, by regulating breathing, regulates its own excitability.
— Patrick McKeown
Don't breathe fast, don't breathe shallow, because you're telling the brain that you're under threat.
— Patrick McKeown
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