Dr. Swati: 30 Day Breath Awareness Pilot · Physiology First University

Dr. Swati: 30 Day Breath Awareness Pilot

Team,

As mentioned earlier this week we're going to help

bring the Physiology First Approach to 500 medical students. Let's have some fun designing the best possible approach to implementation in this unique and high impact setting.

Here's where I would suggest starting.

Step One: Announce a Foundations of Breath lecture. Online, in-person, or hybrid depending on logistics of bringing everyone together.

Step Two:

@Swati Thakur

opens the lecture with her "why" and earns the trust and ear of the room. She shares 3 core principles from our Foundations of Breath module.

For a group this size I would share the simplest principles from the module:

Breathe through the nose, breathe lightly.

📸 Me presenting exactly these principles to a large group of students. Co2 tolerance testing, breathing biomechanics, personalized breath training work in small groups - simple, easy to implement principles in large groups.

She could then offer the following digital resources from Physiology First.

A digital copy of my book, Breathe to Perform and our Breathe to Perform app w/ audio tracks as an accompaniment to the lecture.

https://breathe-perform-physiologyfirst.replit.app/about

She could close by letting everyone know they are invited to be part of a 30 day Breath Awareness Pilot Program - informal and designed to help them reduce stress, heighten awareness, and build a more conscious relationship to their breath.

30 Day Breath Awareness Pilot Program🫁 Can 3 Simple Breathing Principles Shift Resting Physiology in Medical Students?

“This informal pilot explores whether 30 days of breath awareness is associated with measurable changes in resting heart rate, respiration rate, stress, focus, and energy.”

Use a 3-day baseline, then a 24-day practice period, then a 3-day final reassessment.

Days 1–3: Baseline

Just measure:

• Morning resting heart rate

• Evening resting heart rate

• Resting respiration rate

Days 4–27: Breath Awareness Practice

Three rules:

Breathe through the nose 90% of the time
Breathe light

Days 28–30: Final assessment

Same exact measurements as baseline.

Then compare each person’s 3-day baseline average vs 3-day final average.

Every student records:

Morning RHR

Immediately upon waking, before phone, caffeine, food, or movement.

Evening RHR

Same time each evening, seated or lying down, after 5 minutes of stillness.

Respiration Rate

Sit quietly for 2 minutes. Count breaths for 60 seconds. One inhale + one exhale = one breath.

Add 3 simple self-ratings

Each day, add:

Energy: 1–10 Stress: 1–10Focus: 1–10

This connects breath to mental and emotional state, not just physiology.

Best data capture

Use one Google Form.

Daily fields:

Name or anonymous ID
Date
Morning RHR
Evening RHR
Respiration rate
Energy 1–10
Stress 1–10
Focus 1–10
Did you follow the 3 breath principles today? Yes / Mostly / No

At the end, calculate:

Baseline average = Days 1–3

Final average = Days 28–30

Then look at:

average change in morning RHR
average change in evening RHR
average change in respiration rate
average change in stress, focus, and energy

Also compare:

High adherence students vs low adherence students.

In a group of 500

@Swati Thakur

will see a wide variation in adherence and interest. There will definitely be highly interested students who read the Breathe to Perform book, engage with the app, and adhere to the pilot

This will become her next pilot group for more advanced breath protocols such as our 20 minute audio breathing track used on a daily basis and eventually to biometric assessment such as Vo2 max testing.

All students will receive education and resources, many will become more aware of the relationship between their mind, body, and breath and some will grow to be part of a smaller, focused cohort engaged in deeper learning with Dr. Swati's guidance and leadership.

Thoughts

@Swati Thakur

3 comments

Dr. Swati: 30 Day Breath Awareness Pilot