Here’s How You Can Reduce Stress Levels
Breathing: we just do it. It’s totally basic and obvious and innate. And yet many of us are probably messing it up at least part of the time. The math goes like this: if most people breathe inefficiently on a given scale of a million (from zero to a million), and most people are human, maybe it’s a good scale to use. In this case, most of my math tells me that most people are screwing up their breathing, at least some of the time. But the good news is that the science of breathing and breathwork is here to help us get it right.
But the real question is can you breathe in your ordinary day-to-day experience in a way that is useful to your body and mind? So, is there in fact a ‘right’ way to breathe? Can fashioning a breathing practice lead to more health, less anxiety and a state of vitality? And more importantly, we will teach you a simple breathing practice that can quickly calm your nervous system and reduce stress.
So, let’s start with the basics. What is actually happening in our body when we breathe? Apart from supplying our cells with the oxygen and excreting the carbon dioxide, each inhalation and exhalation triggers a complex network of nerves.
Breathing in, the sympathetic nervous system activates, speeding our heart rate and releasing the noradrenaline we need for energy. When we exhale, the parasympathetic system activates, slowing us down.
Moreover, because breathing influences our heart rhythm, whenever we inhale, the diaphragm moves downward and opens the thoracic space expanding the heart very slightly and causing blood to move more slowly, which in turn triggers the brain to speed up the heart rhythm. On the other hand, whenever we exhale, the heart pushes back down and then the diaphragm contracts slightly and squeezes the heart back again, moving the blood more quickly, which triggers the brain to slow down the heart. Therefore, by focusing on our exhales, we can consistently reduce our heart rate and enhance vagal tone, which soothes our nervous system.
Because focusing on deliberate breathing drastically increases neurotransmitter GABA activity, a celebrant in a breathwork session who is able to quiet the mind can experience a much-needed chill out in a brain that would ordinarily be overcharged with neurotransmitters from anxiety. In fact, some studies conducted at Chicago’s National Institutes of Health indicate that breathwork can be more effective than mindfulness meditation at stabilising one’s emotions.
For example, in one study, different forms of breathwork were compared, including box breathing (evenly spaced inhales and exhales), lengthening the inhale or the exhale, and mindful meditation. Participants using breathwork reported feeling more positive, less stressed The individuals practising the breathwork felt more positive, less stressed and less anxious than those not focusing on breathing, and those who concentrated on exhaling for longer felt their stress levels drop the most.
Moreover, breathwork has proven helpful for depression and PTSD. In one study, almost all participants reported lowered depression scores after just three weeks of training. Another study reported that breathwork was comparable to standard therapy in decreasing PTSD.
Given its beneficial impact on mental health, nose breathing has arguably additional physiological advantages. Actually breathing through the nose might potentially improve oxygen intake and provide better protection against infections, and mouth breathing overall, especially during the night, contributes to both known and unknown health problems, such as snoring, sleep apnoea and poor dental health.
Breathwork has also been shown to improve quality of sleep and memory retention, with studies showing that mindfulness and breathwork training may improve sleep duration and REM sleep quality, both of which boost cognitive function.
Moreover, inhalation-focused breathing techniques might not just improve attentiveness while facing a book, but also enhance memory and reaction time, making them a potentially potent aid to learning.
Moreover, use of breathwork has shown promise as an analgesic (pain-relieving) intervention. For example, people who are undertaking chemotherapy, or who have recently suffered some kind of physical injury, have reported lower pain scores during and after they’ve undergone training in breathwork. There have even been a few studies suggesting that breathing techniques can diminish pain sensation in response to external stimuli, but the precise neurophysiological mechanisms remain unclear.
In fact, even a few minutes of breathing daily for a month can improve some physical health markers, such as blood pressure. High resistance (reduce flow) IMST, or inspiratory muscle strength training (breathing against resistance) has been shown to reduce systolic blood pressure more than medications and more than most exercise routines.
Without specialised equipment, even basic breathwork techniques can be effective. A first is cyclic sighing — taking a quick, intense inhale through the nose, holding for a beat, and then exhaling slowly through the mouth. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system and brings about a state of relaxation.
Whether it’s stress reduction, improved sleep, cognitive-enhancing performance or pain relief, breathwork gives you a means of achieving existential wholeness. Even as some of the breathwork claims might become grandiose, the zone of believability keeps expanding.
Simple, inexpensive and potentially beneficial to your physical and mental wellbeing, including breathwork into your day is accessible to all. It’s worth a try. You might just be surprised.