Have you ever wondered why therapists recommend breathing exercises? Some people enjoy breathing exercises right away, while for others, “take a deep breath” has become a cliche that they’d rather not hear. What most people have in common, though, is that they have not been informed of the science behind why breathing techniques work.
Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system regulates involuntary processes in our bodies such as our heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, perspiration, respiration (breath), and much more. Breath is different than the other processes mentioned, in that it can be both involuntary and voluntary. If we’re not thinking about our breathing, we will still breathe automatically. However, we can also alter and control our breath by focusing our attention on it. Breath is our key to intentionally influencing the rest of the autonomic nervous system. By using our attention to slow down our breath, we also automatically lower our heart rate and blood pressure.
Fight, Flight or Freeze
The oldest part of our brain, the amygdala, is designed to help us survive threats in the wild. If a lion were after us, our amygdala would kick into action and prompt us to either attack the lion (fight), run (flight), or hide/play dead (freeze). In order to fight or flee, we automatically breath faster to get more oxygen quickly to our muscles. In order to hide or play dead, we automatically hold our breath longer than we normally would. These are very effective strategies when faced with life threatening, short term danger. However, many of the stressors in modern life are not imminently life threatening, and many are not short term. And when the amygdala is in charge, the parts of the brain that help us to use logic and good judgment are taken offline. If you are having a problem at work or need to have a hard conversation, chances are that you would benefit from being able to access those other parts of your brain. By using our breath to access our autonomic nervous system, we can signal to our bodies that we are safe enough for the amygdala to take a back seat.
Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is important for understanding the above processes. It is the longest cranial nerve, stretching from the brainstem all the way down to the intestines and colon, and communicating with most organs in the body. There is a lot of promising research on different functions of the vagus nerve which I won’t go in to here. For our purposes, it’s helpful to know that the vagus nerve wraps around parts of our digestive system, so when we breathe deeply in to our low belly (as opposed to higher in our chest) and feel our abdomen expand, the vagus nerve is moving along with it. The vagus nerve then sends signals to other organs and activates a relaxation response across the body.
Want to give it a try? Try breathing in to your belly for a count of 4, holding for a count of 4, and then exhaling as if you’re blowing through a straw for a count of 8. And again: 4, 4, 8. See what you notice.
If it’s still not your thing, that’s totally fine. But if you see the benefits, I have good news: breath is a tool that is with you for the rest of your life, wherever you go, and whatever you face.