The maximum score on the Breathing Index is 100. A high score indicates a body in balance with ample internal resources, capable of handling difficult challenges. The lowest possible score is 20. A score below 60 indicates that your breathing and health has a lot of room for improvement. Your body is likely unbalanced with fewer inner resources.

There is nothing wrong in having a low score. However, it may be advantageous to lower your level of ambition and try to reduce the difficulty of the challenges that you engage in.

The good news is that improving your breathing habits can help boost your score and improve your health.

How to Interpret Your Results

The questionnaire consists of two parts. Part 1 (questions 1-10) is about your health; physically, mentally and emotionally. Part 2 (questions 11-20) is about your breathing habits.

Since your thoughts, feelings, physical body, and breath are intimately connected, the score gives an idea about your general health:

• 85 and above: Very good
• 71 – 84: Good
• 61 – 70: Okay
• 45 – 60: Not so good
• 31 – 44: Bad
• 30 and below: Really bad

Your Health is Perishable

Health isn’t just the absence of disease – it also entails feeling good. When you’ve satisfied basal needs like food and shelter, good health boils down to three things: wellness, energy, and harmony. In other words, no physical ailments like colds, pains, or psychological issues like stress and anxiety.

In fact, when we are healthy, have a lot of energy, and feel a sense of harmony, we tend not to ask for much else. It doesn’t matter if we live in a castle or a hut in the woods.

Your health and breathing habits can vary depending on the seasons, work-related stress, challenges in your private life, the environment, and whether or not you feel that your life is meaningful.

We can’t live on past achievements. If you worked out at the gym ten years ago, it probably won’t do you much good today.

At the same time, the human body is amazing when given the right conditions. If you start exercising again, your strength and fitness will improve rapidly.

And the same goes for your health and breathing habits.

Low Score? Here’s How to Improve It

A low score on the Breathing Index usually goes hand in hand with poor health. There are obviously many things that affect our health: sleeping habits, exercise habits, thinking habits, behavioral habits, AND our breathing habits.

When we want to improve our health, we naturally want results fast, and this is the reason why medication and surgical procedures are so popular.

And this where the breath is so exciting! Since you breathe so much, 1 000 breaths per hour, and since poor breathing habits always play a part in any downward health spiral, improved breathing habits has the potential to deliver fast results.

You can go for weeks without food and for days without water, but only for a few minutes without air. In one single day, you inhale 10-20 kilograms (22 – 44lb) of air, which can be compared to the mere 1-2 (2 – 4lb) kilograms of food you eat. This says a lot about how important breathing is for your health.

The harsh meaning of all this is that the worse we breathe, the faster we die. The good news is that you can turn your bad health around by improving the way you breathe.

It’s generally true that all people can benefit from improving their breathing habits. But the worse your score is, the bigger are the possible gains you stand to win from optimizing your breathing habits.

High Score? Here’s How to Find Your Weakest Link

Just because you have a high Breathing Index score doesn’t mean your health is necessarily flawless. There are two main reasons for that:

– You’re unaware of your breathing, health, and body, hence your answers gives a higher score than it ought to be.

– You have a few specific issues that doesn’t affect your total score that much, but they probably unveil weaker links that could use a closer look. No team, individual, or society is stronger than its weakest link.

One thing you can be sure about however, is that if you have a problem and don’t do anything about it, you will not be better off ten years from now. It won’t go away by itself.

The questions in the Breathing Index can help you identify your weak links, for example by paying attention to questions where your answer was “Often” or “Very Often.” For example, some people that are very fit could score high on the Breathing Index, without having a particularly good health.

When you become aware of these weak links, the next step is to start working on improving them.

The Key to Improvement Lies In Your Challenges

It’s in your challenges, the situations in life that are hard and scary, that holds the key to your personal growth.

Are you curious about what’s on the other side of conflicts, fears, too much alcohol, and unhealthy foods?

The conscious breath is the most faithful friend you can ever wish for.

Your conscious breath is there for you 24 hours a day. It never lets you down. You can lean against it safely as you embark on the scary, unknown path we call life.

My hope is that I’ve sown a few seeds that have made you curious about discovering the inherent, often dormant power of your breath so you can reach your full potential and become the person you were meant to be.

I wish you all the best on your journey!
/Anders Olsson

Start Your Breathing Retraining Today

To get started with your breathing retraining you can purchase our innovative and easy-to-use products and/or sign up for one of our popular courses.