Use your nose or lose it?

‘Use your nose or lose it’ is referring to: if you don’t breathe through your nose you’ll lose the ability to do so.

What you want to know though, is that although the saying “use it or lose it” does apply to your nose, you can also retrain your nose.

This was the vital breathing education I missed out on for 30 years.

Hence why I’m pretty passionate about educating on it now.

Does your nose always feel congested or restricted?

It is so common to hear, “I can’t breathe through my nose. My nose always feels stuffy & congested”.

Or, “I can nose breathe in the day, but as soon as I lie down it starts to whistle, feel blocked or I just can’t get enough air”.

Even, “My nose feels too small, I just can’t get enough air through it. I have to switch to mouth breathing.”

Where does your tongue rest?

No, I’m not joking. When you say that you feel congested, or your nose feels too small, is your tongue laying in the bottom of your mouth, touching the bottom front teeth?

Maybe your tongue has the pad of the tip resting against the roof of your mouth, but is otherwise relaxed or straight back, not touching any more for the roof of your mouth.

Did you know your tongue affects the use of your nose?

Where your tongue rests in your mouth can affect a number of things, but most importantly for your restricted nose breathing issue, it is preventing your airway feeling as spacious as it could do.

By having your tongue laying in the bottom of your mouth, or relaxing back from the tip up, you are impacting the airway for nose breathing.

The longer you’ve been mouth breathing, the worse this will be. If you’ve mouth breathed as a child, your entire face shape and airway will have been negatively impacted.

I’m about to show you a way to check if your nose could feel more comfortable.

Bear in mind this is just the very beginning of 'the breathing education gap'.

Welcome to the Tongue N-spot

Say “N” for me. Ok, now say “No”. Go back to “N” part of “No” and stop there, ignoring the “o” part. This should not be touching the front teeth, but slid slightly back.

Now lift your entire tongue up. If it is weak, you may need to suction it up to the roof of your mouth. The narrower and more triangular your upper jaw (impacted by incorrect tongue posture as a child), the harder this will feel.

Create a seal with your tongue so you can’t breathe through your mouth, even if it is open.

Got it?

Now close your lips and relax your face. Keep the seal.

And yes, if this is new to you, it will feel SUPER weird.

Breathe through your nose a few times.

Now drop the tongue to the bottom of your mouth.

Breathe through your nose and compare.

Does that feel harder to breathe? Does the airway feel smaller?

This is just the start of the breathing retraining journey…

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