02/11/2023
Hold your breath
Our breath is something we take for granted daily . An average person takes about 22,000 breaths every day. It’s interesting to note that how fast we breathe can tell a lot about our physical and mental health. Our breath count is often measured when we go see a doctor. Any illness such as an infection, trauma, anxiety, stress can increase your respiration. However even in the absence of physical illness, most of us are living our lives hyperventilating. This frequent shallow way of breathing ends up activating our sympathetic nervous system. This in turn releases more stress hormones perpetuating this vicious cycle.
So the key to breaking this cycle is to pay more attention to your breathing. Slow deep breathing with prolonged exhalation activates our parasympathetic nervous systems. This is your friend. The main player that activates parasympathetic nervous system is our Tenth cranial nerve, the Vagus Nerve. Take slow deep breath using your diaphragm only. Practice so you are not using your neck muscles. Notice how your sleeping dog is breathing, see the abdomen movement with each breath. As your breathing slows down, your body spends more time is “rest and digest state” rather than “fight or flight”. This decreases anxiety, lowering stress hormones and ultimately lowering inflammation in our bodies. Low inflammation means less chance of heart disease, stroke and even cancer. Many cultures believe you are sent here with a finite number of breaths, we can either take them quickly or slowly….
