Breathing is something we do all day without thinking about it—but what if changing how you breathe could support your brain, your mood, and even your long‑term risk for dementia? In this episode of Healing Step 2 Wellness, Dr. J and Mei sit down with Dr. Paul Min, a Mayo Clinic neuroscientist who spends his days scanning brains and studying aging, memory loss, and early signs of dementia. What makes this conversation unique is that Dr. Min doesn’t just look at the brain from the outside; he also shares how a simple lower belly breathing practice has changed his own life from the inside out. Right after college, working long hours and buried in study, Dr. Min felt constantly tired, unfocused, and drained. A friend invited him to try a structured breathing program, and to his surprise, he noticed his fatigue lift and his ability to focus improve within just a few days. That experience set him on a path of practicing and eventually teaching a style of deep, slow, lower abdominal breathing built around gentle postures, relaxation, and a stepwise curriculum with 15 levels. In this episode, he explains what that looks like for complete beginners, why it’s designed to be easy and accessible, and how it differs from other practices like yoga or more rigid breathing routines that can actually make some people more anxious when they try to “do it right.” You’ll learn what “lower belly breathing” really means and why newborn babies naturally breathe this way while most adults shift to shallow chest breathing as stress and busyness accumulate. Dr. Min describes how this shift affects the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems—your “fight‑or‑flight” versus “rest‑and‑digest”—and how gently bringing the breath back down to the lower abdomen can help reset that balance over time. He walks through the structure of a typical session: a short warm‑up to relax and stretch the body, a series of simple postures that change how the breath moves, a 30‑plus‑minute main breathing practice, and a calm recovery stretch at the end. For non‑athletic listeners or those who dislike intense workouts, his reassurance that he personally wanted something “very easy and comfortable and effective” will be especially encouraging. Accessibility is a major theme. Many participants in his community in Rochester, Minnesota, are older adults and people with back, knee, or mobility challenges, so alternative postures and modifications are built into the program. Rather than pushing through pain or forcing shapes, the practice emphasizes learning your own body—what feels safe, where you’re tight, and how to gently expand your range over time. Dr. Min and the hosts talk about how even beginners who fall asleep during early sessions are actually learning how to relax again, and why that deep relaxation is not a failure but an important first step. From there, the conversation zooms out to the bigger arc of benefits described in three stages: body, emotion, and spirituality. Early levels focus on harmonizing the body with stretching, movement, and improved breathing mechanics. As practice continues, attention shifts to emotional balance and “energy flow”—how you respond to the outside world, stress, and relationships—and eventually, for those who continue further, to questions of identity, purpose, and what Dr. Min calls tapping into “divinity” and your true essential self. Each level has its own complete goal; you don’t need to reach the “top” to experience meaningful improvements in calm, energy, and self‑understanding. One of the most intriguing parts of this episode is where Dr. Min connects breathing to his research on the brain’s physical health. He explains how deep, slow breathing changes pressures in the chest and improves blood return to the brain, and how this, in turn, influences the movement of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)—the clear fluid that bathes the brain and clears out waste products. In a study of people who had been pr
