"We Should Learn to Breathe in School," Claims Nazareth Castellanos

"We are all sculptors of our own brains, if we set our minds to it." This was stated by Santiago Ramón y Cajal after observing those 'butterflies' that for him were neurons and unveiling their connections. The neuroscience pioneer and Nobel laureate anticipated what is now a certainty: brain plasticity. The ability to self-mould the brain, for which breathing is fundamental.

This is a certainty for Nazareth Castellanos (Madrid, 1977), 'biosopher' and author of 'The Bridge Where Butterflies Live' (Siruela), an essay that describes the process of brain construction from the influence of thought to the transformative role of breathing, analysing its deficiencies and potential to shape the brain, body, health, and character.

Castellanos builds bridges between science, anatomy, humanism, and philosophy. Breathing is a pathway between the external and internal world, "between what we are and what we believe we are." She asserts that the quality of our breathing "is crucial in neuronal formation and for mental, physical, and social health."

But the problem is that "we do not know how to breathe." "We should be taught to breathe in schools," claims Castellanos, who has spent five decades researching the connection between breathing and health at institutions like the Max Planck Institute and King's College.

"We do not know how to breathe when we are nervous, when controlling your breath is the first step to maintaining personal and global health," Castellanos notes. This is confirmed by her research and personal experience. "I knew how to operate a quantum superconductivity machine, but I was ignorant of my own breathing," she says. "The education system is lacking if we do not learn to breathe well from childhood, so I would sacrifice other academic content to include knowledge that allows one to 'manage' their own body," she proposes.

"Breathing is the only visceral system controllable by will. We do not control the brain, heart, stomach, or any other organ, but we know the effects on all of them of breathing well, the first medicine to improve mental health at zero cost; and it is clear that better mental health means less healthcare expenses," highlights the author, who also addresses epigenetics and the beneficial hereditary effect of quality breathing. "Being well or unwell impacts others. If you take care of yourself, you care for your surroundings. Self-care is a social responsibility, because by doing so, I care for others and improve their health," she says.

The golden rule of respiratory gymnastics is to do it through the nose, which stimulates brain connections. "If you breathe through your mouth, the brain loses a conductor," says Castellanos. Another golden rule is "to observe yourself." "If you are not aware of your breathing, you will not have full awareness of your body. You must exercise voluntary control, and if you observe your breathing; with this, your frontal cortex gets used to and activates, so the number of controlling neurons increases," she notes. "It is about first building the respiratory road and then travelling it," says the physicist, neuroscientist, and communicator for whom the human brain "is like a plane, which takes little time to ascend and much to descend."

"Anthropological studies show that we have regressed in breathing, doing it worse and worse," she laments. "80% of humans are mouth breathers. Most of us also breathe through only one nostril, which is usually the left, more associated with hyperactivity," she specifies.

"I have lived all my life on Cajal Street," says this admirer and scholar of Don Santiago with a smile. She believes that almost everything is in the theories of this prodigious scientist, and in his wake, she combines science with the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and his three pillars on which human experience is based: building, dwelling, and thinking.

"I am a pontiff, I build bridges between science and society, between humanism and the sciences, although scientific arrogance scares me," she says to explain the title of her essay. "The bridge is the place through which the neuronal connection between the soul's butterflies occurs, which is how Ramón y Cajal referred to neurons, although most never become butterflies."

With a degree in Theoretical Physics, a doctorate in Medicine, and a master's in Applied Mathematics to Biology and Neurosciences, Castellanos has dedicated the last decade to analysing the impact of breathing on neuronal dynamics.

She began by studying people with severe cognitive, traumatic, or emotional impairments, such as victims of Alzheimer's, serious accidents, or depression. She then expanded her field of study to all types of people. Now she runs a laboratory investigating the neuroscience of meditation and the relationship between the brain and the rest of the body. She combines her research with scientific dissemination through essays like 'The Brain's Mirror' (2021) and 'Body Neuroscience' (2022).