Andrew Huberman popularized a breathing technique now known as the physiological sigh or cyclic sighing. It's a double inhale followed by a long exhale. And today, I don't want to focus primarily on the physiological sigh itself (as I've already covered this technique multiple times). I want to focus on diaphragm-led vs. throat-led breathing and why it's important to know the difference.

The second inhale at the top of a physiological sigh is not really a technique. It is a test.

If your diaphragm is doing the work, that small second sip slips in easily. You feel a little pressure build under the collarbones, and then you exhale. If your throat has been doing the work the whole time, the second sip has nowhere to go. You will feel a pull, a tightness, maybe a small squeeze in the front of the neck. That's the diagnostic. One breath and you know.

Most people who practise breathwork never learn to feel this distinction, which is a shame, because it changes the texture of everything else you do.

When you initiate a breath from the throat — pulling air in by contracting the muscles around the larynx — you are recruiting the wrong system. The throat is part of the upper-chest breathing pattern your body defaults to under stress. The shoulders rise. The voice goes higher. The sympathetic nervous system stays engaged. You can breathe slowly this way and still be triggering a low-grade stress response with every inhale.

When the diaphragm leads, the opposite happens. The belly expands first, then the ribcage, and the breath travels upward without ever needing the throat to pull on it. The vagus nerve gets engaged on the long exhale. The voice settles lower. A 2023 Stanford study on cyclic sighing found that people whose respiratory rate dropped the most over a month of daily practice also had the biggest gains in positive mood, and a slower respiratory rate is, more than anything else, a sign that the diaphragm has taken over.

So here is the practical version. Tomorrow morning, sit somewhere quiet and take one slow inhale through the nose. Aim the breath low — below the navel. Then continue smoothly up into the ribcage. When you feel fully inhaled, take one more tiny sip at the top.

Now place a finger on the soft part of your throat, just below the jaw, and run the same breath again.

If the second sip slid in without resistance and your fingertip felt nothing change at the throat, your diaphragm is leading. If you felt a small pull or contraction under your fingertip, the throat got involved. Both are useful pieces of information. Neither is failure. The point is that you now have a way to check.

What I have noticed in my own practice is that this checkpoint shifts how I relate to every other technique. When I practice coherence breathing — six seconds in, six seconds out — the sigh tells me within three breaths whether I am actually settling into a parasympathetic state or just performing the shape of one. When I practice Hormesis Breathing, the same checkpoint flags whether I am breathing efficiently or losing energy through the upper chest.

You can think of it like a gauge that sits underneath every breathing practice. The physiological sigh is the simplest place to feel it, because the second inhale forces the issue. Either the diaphragm has space to work with, or it does not. There is no room to fudge it.

This is why the physiological sigh is the building block I keep coming back to, even after years of more elaborate techniques. Not because it is the most powerful tool. Because it is the simplest one.

Until next week,
Kitaro

PS: Those of you who've followed me for a while know that movement and intentional living have always been central to my life. A few of you have also told me you wish you could move the way I do, but worry it's too advanced or too hard. My answer is always the same: start with whatever you can do, no matter how small. It doesn't need to be extreme — just consistent. Even a five-minute walk counts. And that's exactly where today's sponsor comes in. SIMPLE helps you take small, intentional steps toward a healthier life.

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