Why Deep Breaths Might Be Making You Feel Worse (Ft Patrick McKeown)

What if mental clarity, emotional regulation, and better sleep weren’t about adding another practice—but undoing a hidden one?

In this conversation, Patrick McKeown reveals how chronic over-breathing quietly drives anxiety, rumination, poor sleep, and brain fog. Drawing from decades of research and lived experience, he explains why breathing less (not more) can improve oxygen delivery, blood flow to the brain, and nervous system balance.

This episode challenges modern breathwork myths and offers practical, science-backed ways to retrain your breathing for everyday life.

Show Partners:

• Get your MENTAL FITNESS BLUEPRINT here! 
• A special thanks to our mental fitness + sweat partner Sip Saunas
• Personal Socrates: Better Question, Better Life

Connect with Marc: https://konect.to/marcchampagne

Timestamps:

00:00 — The question that opens every interview: “Who are you?”

01:20 — Living out of the head vs. living life

03:10 — How stress, sleep, and breathing patterns intersect

05:00 — Discovering breath as a path to presence

07:40 — Why The Power of Now actually worked

10:15 — Walking away from the corporate world

12:30 — The origins of the Buteyko Method

14:40 — Why breathing more air can reduce oxygen delivery

17:10 — Nasal breathing and brain function

19:50 — Rumination, CO₂, and cerebral blood flow

22:30 — Why slow breathing isn’t always good breathing

25:10 — Everyday breathing vs. breathwork sessions

28:00 — Practical exercise: calming the nervous system

32:10 — Clearing a blocked nose naturally

36:40 — Breathing for performance and public speaking

41:30 — How to retrain your breath throughout the day

46:00 — Measuring progress: the BOLT score & breath mastery

50:10 — Final reflections on calm, clarity, and control

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Special props 👇

Music: Clouds - Joakim Karud

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