‘Just tape your mouth shut!’ Can I unlearn the breathing habits of a lifetime?

‘The longest I have managed to keep the tape on so far is an hour. In that hour, I lay sleepless, tired, irritated, alert, the primal alarm system in my body ringing.’ Photograph: Image Source/Alamy

Last summer on a farm in Victoria I accompanied a friend to a breathing workshop. “I know how to breathe! I’ve been doing it since I was born,” I protested as I trudged past cowpats and hay bales, breathing like a pro. “This guy has nothing to teach me!”

I was a breathing sceptic. Who needed to be taught how to breathe? Isn’t breathing as natural as … breathing? It sounded like baloney.