Pay attention to your breathing for the next ten seconds. Right now. How are you doing it? Is your chest rising? Your shoulders? Or your belly? Most people who check find they’re breathing in short, shallow pulls into the upper chest, the kind of breathing pattern the body specifically links to threat response. And they’re doing it all day, at their desk, waiting in line, watching something on a screen before bed. Not because anything is wrong, but because shallow chest breathing has quietly become their default. Breathing is the only autonomic function you can consciously control, the one process your nervous system runs automatically that you can also choose to override. That makes it unusual. It also means the way you breathe is not neutral. Your body reads it as a continuous signal and adjusts its entire stress architecture around it.…