Is the number of breaths we take in our life time pre-determined at birth?

As per ancient Hindu philosophy, yes, this is how it is. But to me it always looked far fetched and obviously not a fact.

However, it recently dawned on me that it might actually be kind of true, specially when considering what stress does to our lives. Here is how –

Stress, being source of countless diseases, causes ill health, leading to somewhat shortening of life. Also, under stress, the natural tendency is to breathe faster.

If we are deeply relaxed, the breathing automatically slows down. This state also leads to good health and eventually adds days to our lives.

May be in both above scenarios, we end up taking about the same number of breaths during our lifespan!

So slow down all of you – it is good for you. You might feel that that  way you will fall behind. But don’t worry even if that happens! By slowing down you will be adding more days to your life and thus will even get time to catch up later on, if falling behind is indeed your main concern :))

Neeraj