How Breath Can Shift Your Nervous System Response
There is a good chance you might have heard about the terms “parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system”. You can also call it the “rest and digest response” and “flight or flight response”.
These two states are part of your autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary movements and physiologic processes including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and sexual arousal.
This would mean that you are not in control of which state you are in with the exception of respiration. Your breath is an aspect of the autonomic nervous system that you are able to consciously direct. This means that you can guide yourself into the relaxation response of the parasympathetic division or into the activation response of the sympathetic division by using certain breath patterns.
You want to be able to dip in and out the relaxation and activation response smoothly and effortlessly. If you picture the two states as a scale, the relaxation response would be on one side ranging from most extreme: coma to alert and the activation/arousal state on the other side ranging from most extreme: panic to high alert. The most ideal and healthiest state for the mind and body to be in is a balanced state of feeling alert yet calm which is the middle.
Now how does the breath play into this?
You can use our breath patterns to consciously direct you into a more relaxed or more activated state.
A simple way to bring you into a calmer state is to elongate your exhales. For example inhaling for 2 counts and exhaling for 3 counts.
The opposite would help you to get into a more alert state by elongating the inhale. For example inhaling for a count of 3 and exhaling for a count of 2.
This is very helpful during hypnotherapy sessions as the intentional breath can be used to calm down the body and mind to be able to achieve the desired trance state.
There are many great breath work options in the yogic tradition called pranayama that can help to achieve a calm or activated state.
As you are more likely to want to cultivate more of a calm and relaxed state in your life. Breathwork is very effective in reducing anxiety, stress and feelings of overwhelm. I will give you some great breath work options to achieve this calming effect:
Alternate nostril breathing
Box breath
Bee breath
Three part breath
Ocean breath
Doing any of these regular and consistently will help you to intentionally shift your nervous system into a calmer state.