Breathe Yourself Calm Want to get more nourishment from your breath? By Kalia Kelmenson Chances are, as you read this you are not breathing in a way that fuels your body. In all likelihood, your breathing pattern is less than ideal, causing your already overtaxed nervous system to become even more stressed. Richie Bostock is the author of Exhale: 40 Breathwork Exercises to Help You Find Your Calm, Supercharge Your Health, and Perform at Your Best. He explains that most people do not get the most from the 27,000 or so breaths they take in a day. Bostock watches a lot of people breathe. “Eighty percent of the general population breathe in a way that is anatomically suboptimal, leading to unnecessary physical, mental, and emotional distress,” he says. “The most common dysfunctional breathing pattern I see is a chest or clavicular breathing pattern, which is very common in people who are chronically stressed.” This type of breathing, where the shoulders lift and the chest expands, causes overuse of the secondary breathing muscles in the chest, upper back, and neck, which ultimately leads to pain and …