28/12/2019
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When you breathe with short, sharp, shallow breaths, and it is the upper part of your chest that moves, the SNS is well and truly activated. It is adrenaline that is powerfully driving this style of breathing. So, even if you are simply sitting around a boardroom table or driving your car to buy groceries, your body is getting the message that your life is literally in danger. Really contemplate that.
When you breathe deeply and move your diaphragm, you inhale and your lower abdomen expands, then you exhale and your tummy shrinks back in towards your spine. When you breathe in this way you communicate to every cell in your body that you are safe. The reason for this? If your life was truly in danger, you would never breathe this way. You need the short, sharp, shallow breaths, the ripple effect of adrenaline production as well as SNS activation, to help you escape from a genuine threat to your life.
In as many moments as you can remember throughout your day, aim to take long, slow breaths. While this might seem small, it is tiny choices like these that will help your body to take some of the weight off your invisible load, one breath at a time.
Excerpt from “The Invisible Load”
