Breathing, Attention & Consciousness in Sync: The role of Breathing Training, Metacognition & Virtual Reality
Technium Social Sciences Journal March 9, 2022 Eleni Mitsea, A. Drigas, C. Skianis
Breathing and attention are bidirectionally synchronized: when respiration loses stability, attention fluctuates, and when respiration stabilizes, attention steadies. Breath-control training produces immediate and lasting attentional improvements by regulating mechanisms that strengthen mental alertness through relaxation or excitation pathways. Conscious-breath training is a mindful metacognitive practice that couples attention with respiration, using each to control the other. Virtual reality breathing training may fine-tune internal and external attention. The review concludes that breathing and attention together underpin cognition, and recommends incorporating conscious-breath training via advanced technologies into education to support brain rewiring, inclusion, and academic achievement, particularly for students with disabilities.