The Importance of Breathwork
Breathing (correctly) stimulates our Parasympathetic Nervous System (the body’s Rest & Digest response mode). It undoes the work of Sympathetic Nervous System after a stressful situation (general anxiety, work stress, personal stress, trauma, etc.) It helps increase the body’s anti-inflammatory activity (decreasing respiration, blood pressure and heart rate, increasing digestion, etc.) and decreases its pro-inflammatory activity (rapid heart rate, decrease in digestion, high blood pressure, etc.). It’s one of the fastest, easiest (easier than meditation in my opinion), and cheapest ways we can reduce our stress levels and calm our body down.
Step One:
Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Take a deep breath in and notice what hand rises first. If it’s your chest hand, your body is stressed. Take a few more deep breaths and try to get your belly hand to rise first.
Step Two:
Try one of these breathing techniques out:
4s (In) - 7s (Hold) - 8s (Out)
or
4s (In) - 4s (Hold) - 4s (Out) - 4s (Hold)
Repeat Either 4x
Give it a try and let me know how it goes…but, like, you’re welcome in advance ;)
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137615/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5455070/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0164822
