Take a deep breath — no really, it will calm your brain

When you’re stressed, people often advise you to take a deep breath — and for good reason, a new study shows. Slowing your breathing calms you, and now scientists may have figured out how you can relax your brain through your breath. It has to do with your brain’s pacemaker for breath.

For anyone looking for ways to deal with stress and negative emotions, that’s big news. Although it’s been generally known that breathing exercises can have a calming affect on emotions, the researchers’ findings could provide a scientific explanation for why hyperventilation makes us anxious, or why breathing slowly can calm us down.

The findings stem from ongoing research on the respiratory or...

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