Breathing is an essential function that we barely notice in everyday life. Yet, as we have seen throughout these pages, it does not work in isolation. It is closely linked to breastfeeding, sucking, swallowing, tongue position, lip seal, jaw development, sleep and many of the habits we develop from childhood.

Most of these functions are automatic, so we tend to notice them only when a problem arises. However, understanding how they work and how they relate to one another helps us recognise problems that may affect our health far more than we realise.

This book aims to help us see the everyday actions we perform thousands of times a day in a new light. Breathing through the nose, maintaining the correct tongue posture, swallowing correctly and sleeping with a stable airway may seem like small things, but over the years they can make a considerable difference to our wellbeing.

But this book is not just about learning to breathe better or retraining specific functions. Its real purpose is to help us restore balance to a system in which all these functions work together. When breathing, swallowing, posture and sleep work in harmony, we do more than improve a single function: we restore the balance that underpins our health.