This article is not about breathing techniques. It is about the many ways breathing can be tooled: a better understanding of this essential element we take for granted.

While breathing is our first and foremost survival essential—along with water, food, sleep, etc.—it is one of the most underrated, underused, and for the most part, forgotten ways to battle cravings and improve overall wellness.

My favorite example is when someone is freaking out, panicking, hyperventilating, thinking they are dying and then some “Genius” comes along and tells them to take 10 deep breaths. The thing with this approach is . . . it works! And it works rather well. Ask any emergency professional what the first line of defense is when someone is having a panic attack and they will tell you it is to get them to breathe deep.

The quick science behind this little life-hack is that we have relaxation receptors in the lower lung lobes, and the upper lung lobes are for the fight-or-flight stuff.

But think about it. If something as simple as breathing can bring someone out of a full-blown freak-out, could a freak-out be prevented by good breathing practices? Could anxiety, overthinking, and stress be minimized by improving how we breathe? Did we forget how to breathe in general?

Follow me on this one. Let’s walk through a typical day for a typical person. They wake up. Let’s hope they don’t suffer from sleep apnea (obstructed breathing during sleep). Maybe they make some coffee, which gives you energy by releasing glucose and adrenaline, a subtle fight-or-flight, already causing shallow breaths. They might scroll The News, which is nothing more than fear and chaos from around the world. Then it’s time to get ready for the day: prepare for the day, prepare the kids for the day, lunch, get dressed, gather things, scrape the ice off the car, and out the door, maybe drop someone off or pick something up on the way. Cool. Now Traffic! I don’t know about you, but traffic stresses me out. Maybe throw a smoke or vape or two in there. Then you have the entire day of work, and so on. You get the point.

By the time you get home, wrap up dinner, clean something, fix something, homework, get ready for bed, or whatever . . . you might not even take that big sigh of relaxation until late in the evening.

Oh, and don’t forget the technology. Not only do our lung tissues not really like it when we place that EMF radiating handheld supercomputer on our chest while streaming an entire movie through the air; our Smart phones, routers, tablets, T.V.s, towers, watches, and Bluetooth are enough to cause enough oxidative stress to kick off all sorts of ailments and disease.

It’s no wonder why people say they feel like they are drowning in life.

Just breathe!

It’s not just oxygen, it’s spiritual. Many, very wise guys and gals, believe it is the life-force called Chi. And there’s a little science behind that as well. You know how some people might utilize a certain drug called Ayahuasca for their spiritual “trip”. They do this because it releases DMT into their Third Eye, the pineal gland in the brain. But do you know which organ actually produces the most DMT, naturally? The lungs.

We use it to focus better, calm down, ground ourselves, and pump power. Any sport or activity that requires anything extra from us, a mastered breath is required to enhance performance.

All that is necessary to channel this superpower is a mindfulness to expand the lungs. One only needs to remember to do it, and everything improves.

There’s a reason the ancients put so much emphasis on this basic essential we take for granted today. Tao, qigong, yogi, and martial arts focus heavily on mastering the breath. We need this stuff flowing through us to function at the highest (and lowest) levels.

There have been times when I had to breathe through an entire night of detox and withdrawal to stave off doing what I wanted to do when going through that torture. There have been times when I sat in my car in front of the liquor store and never went in because I took a minute to just breathe and then drove away!

Most of the things we reach for to medicate ourselves with when that big pillow of life is smothering our face could easily be handled with a breath. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.

Many people’s stance on this is, “breathing is so basic, give me some complexity to solve my ailments, I don’t believe this stuff works . . .”  If this is you, move on to some other information from someone who does not understand the human system. Go on, get out!

For those who believe their journey is more than just recovering fragments of a past life, but to transcend addiction altogether and to morph into something entirely new, you are in the right place.

I said in the beginning, breathing is a survival essential, one of a few. These essentials are at the core of why we Crave and how to eliminate cravings entirely: no drugs, no special supplements FOR SALE, no spending years in and out of doctor’s offices to find yourself lapsing anyways when their potions and the placebo wear off. Hit the link to keep learning.

It’s an upside-down battle. If you really want to escape the calamity of The Matrix and battle your demons, your weapons of choice are Silence and Breath. Calmness is your army.