Many of the things we do requires us to think and focus, such as walking, playing sports, doing homework, the list goes on! Then how is it that with breathing, we seem to be able to do so subconsciously, even doing so while we’ re sleeping?

Why do we feel that we HAVE to breathe, and will eventually start breathing again no matter rhow hard we try not to?

Thanks to our brains, we don’ t have to remind ourselves to breathe constantly! The brainstem acts as the monitor for this function, sending nerve signals to the lungs and heart to keep working, taking in oxygen and transporting them through the blood to different parts of the body even when we don’ t think about it.

Think about breathing like the autopilot on an airplane – the plane can fly itself in the sky even without a pilot controlling it the entire time!

Then how come we can control our breathing sometimes?

Let’ s start from the beginning. Breathing is important as we need it for our body to function and work. Oxygen, which is in he air, is what we want to take in when breathing. Oxygen acts as a fuel for our body.

Well, we can control it sometimes when needing more air for a short amount of time, like when swimming or running as fast as you can. Once that’ s done, the brain signals the body to breathe normally again automatically.

When we breathe in, oxygen in taken in and moved to different cells in our bodies to undergo something called aerobic respiration, which produces energy for the body to use. When we breathe out, we release carbon dioxide, which is the waste that our bodies don’ t need.