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Take a Breath
Breathing to regain control of anxiety
Most of us rarely, if ever, experience extreme stress from life-threatening events. And yet, we spend much of our lives in a state of half-anxiety, neither fully relaxed nor fully stimulated.
There is a way to regain control of that anxiety using a resource we already have: our breath. Research confirms that controlling our breathing is a powerful tool for quieting our racing minds and entering a state of calm.
After all, stress and breathing are intimately connected — changing one influences the other.
Crucially, 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. 148).
Despite breathing being an autonomic function, we can consciously take control, choosing how and when we breathe. Breathe heavy and fast, and we kick in our sympathetic nervous system. We ready ourselves to engage in our fight-or-flight response.
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.
To find out more, check out the full article here.
