Find a quiet space to focus on your breathing.Getting our breathing right can help us reach a high vagal tone when at rest – associated with good physical and mental health, including a reduction in stress.Īmy Cuddy (2018) suggests trying the following: High and sustained “vagal withdrawal has been associated with high self-reported levels of stress, anxiety, and depression” (Cuddy, 2018, p. When we are experiencing acute stress, the sympathetic system takes control and the vagus nerve is inhibited. Lengthening the out-breath with long, slow exhalations lulls us into an altered state of consciousness that can look much like slow-wave sleep on a brain scan (Williams, 2020). Slowing the breathing down to about six breaths per minute through the nose reduces the heart rate, widens blood vessels, lowers stress, and promotes calm. Not only that, but the nose allows us to draw more oxygen from our environment than mouth breathing (up to 20% more), improves sleep, reduces tooth decay, and encourages learning (Williams, 2020). Nasal breathing “kills bacteria and viruses and relaxes the blood vessels in the respiratory tract, allowing more oxygen to pass into the blood” (Williams, 2020). Though natural, “breathing is surprisingly easy to get wrong” (Williams, 2020) we often inhale through our mouth when we should use our nose. While they are both effective ways of gaining vital oxygen into the body, they are not equal. On the other hand, breathing well has the power to reduce physiological activation, slow our thinking, and induce a state of calm (Cuddy, 2018).Ī healthy human has two options for breathing: the mouth or the nose. Overbreathing can cause or exacerbate a host of health problems, including asthma, chronic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and insomnia (Khazan, 2019). Feelings of disconnectedness from our body and the environment.Difficulty concentrating and making good decisions.Nausea and ‘butterflies’ in the stomach.Overbreathing can cause various symptoms that can leave us feeling more stressed, including (Khazan, 2019): If we are not being active (perhaps standing, waiting anxiously for an interview), we take in more air than we need and exhale more carbon dioxide than we produce (Khazan, 2019). In anticipation of urgent action and a need for extra oxygen, we start taking in more air. When we feel anxious, our body is getting ready to run away or stand up and fight. Such breathing patterns can also result from “habitual ways of responding to situations,” including stress (Khazan, 2019, p. We typically overbreathe when rushing up the stairs to answer a call, running to catch a bus, or getting startled by a loud noise. So, what happens to our breathing when we get stressed? Switching to deliberate, slow breathing flips our vagal response, and our parasympathetic system kicks in, allowing us to relax and recover, releasing powerful feel-good endorphins (Howgego, 2020 Nestor, 2020). We ready ourselves to engage in our fight-or-flight response (Howgego, 2020 Nestor, 2020). Breathe heavy and fast, and we kick in our sympathetic nervous system. While treatments for patients with health problems, such as rapid heart rate, diabetes, and erectile dysfunction, often focus on individual organs, research suggests they may, in fact, be experiencing communication problems along the autonomic and vagal network (Nestor, 2020).ĭespite breathing being an autonomic function, we can consciously take control, choosing how and when we breathe. Stress and breathing are intimately connected changing one influences the other.Ĭrucially, they both have a relationship with the autonomic nervous system and, of particular importance, the vagus nerve – “a meandering network within the system that connects to all the major internal organs” (Nestor, 2020, p. 4 Best Stress-Relief Breathing Exercises.

To destress