Stop! How Are You Breathing?

Have you ever felt too anxious to sit down and read or too tired to get up and do work?  This is a common conundrum that almost all of us have experienced and - guess what - I’m going to tell you how breath work can help!  

Breathing/breathwork is touted as a keystone to yoga’s many practices and benefits. There are a countless number of breathing exercises, techniques, methods, and opinions on what it means to breathe properly, appropriately, or just plain well.  There is also plenty of data - both empirical and scientific - to back up the benefits of breathwork and/or (at the very least) becoming more mindful of one’s breath as means for self regulation and wellness (I highly recommend “Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art” by James Nestor if you are interested in getting more science-y on the topic).

How you breathe during different activities changes according to the stimulus of that experience.  For instance, after exerting a lot of energy - say, by running, playing an active game, or dancing about - your breath is bigger, longer, and heavier to help move blood and oxygen to the working limbs of your body.  This is opposed to when you’re sleeping or quietly reading a book and your breath is slow, rhythmic, and a little more evenly paced.  Neither of these “ways” we breathe is better or worse than the other - they are both natural functions of our bodies and the way we move through life. In fact, we can use our breathing patterns as a way to better understand how we are feeling about, receiving, or responding to our experiences. 

You don’t normally notice your breath because it is controlled by the part of your brain and electrical wiring (your nervous system)  that makes things happen automatically in your body .  This is your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) at work and without it, we wouldn’t be able to do anything but stand around trying to remember to breathe, make our hearts beat, and think our food through its digestion process.  In other words, our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) allows us to make necessary physiological functions happen on a subconscious level so that we can put our intentions toward awesome human things like laughing at jokes, enjoying beautiful sunsets, and creating solutions to problems.  Yay ANS!  And - Your breath is special. What is so extra about your breath is that, while we are hard-wired to breathe automatically so that we don’t have to pay attention to whether we’re inhaling or exhaling, we can also turn our attention to the way that we are breathing AND THEN DELIBERATELY CHANGE IT. 

Is your mind blown yet?  Haha - probably not since breathing is often totally taken for granted. 

But think about this: Our ability to breathe both automatically AND intentionally allows us to flip back and forth from breath autonomy (allowing for attention to be on other awesome human things) and breath tinkering (allowing us to work on ourselves in a way that helps us function better in our automatic modes) and this ability to move between automatic functioning and intentional functioning is unique in the body to breathing *Cue mind blown emoji here.*  Note that you cannot slow down or speed up digestion, nor halt or release hormones in your body. You cannot directly control your heartbeat, and your reflexes work whether you like it or not - but BREATHING!  Ah - Breathing…breathing is both!  Our breath can be a way for us consciously tap into our nervous system for self regulatory purposes - to calm or energize ourselves into either relaxation or into action.     

What this means for you is that when you find yourself breathing shallowly or quickly - which is often a response to experiencing stress, anxiety, or overwhelm - you can consciously change the way you are breathing to help shift your state of being back into a more relaxed or grounded state…if you wanted to. Of course, if you were being chased by a bear or needed to get a project finished by a deadline, then maybe stress and anxiety in your body will serve you well in terms of surviving and/or executing duties. Context, ya know? The same could go in the opposite direction if you were feeling down or heavy or unable to get work done - you can use your breath to give you energy and stimulate your sympathetic nervous system as well. Pretty cool, huh?

Since it’s the season of freaking out because you have so much to do I will leave you with this: A HOLIDAY HACK!  Here is a three-step tutorial for using your breath to switch from an anxious, irritated, or overwhelmed mode (hello, holiday parties, presents, travel, and resolutions) and into a more grounded, stable, and responsive one:  

STEP 1:  Stop what you’re doing and be still.  

STEP 2:  Notice where you are, what is around you, and what parts of you are touching the floor. If you need to, place your hands on a table, wall, chair, or somewhere on your body.

STEP 3:  Take 3-5 slow and deep breaths, nothing fancy.  When/if it’s possible, take your inhales in by your nose.  You might choose to exhale out through pursed lips, or out by your nose long and slow. 

The most important part here is that you’re paying attention to and being present with your breath for a few moments.  Try this for up to 10 breath cycles (that’s a complete inhale and exhale) or until you feel calm in your brain or in your body or both!  

Of course there are so many other effective and more intricate ways to use your breath to tap into your nervous system.  But this is a great start.  Here is also a short “Yoga Snack” video with some movement and breath practices to help downshift your nervous system to a more manageable and peaceful state.  Enjoy!