Often times in mental health circles we talk about breathing and it can be one of the most frustrating things to try and wrap your head around. Especially if you’re somebody who is highly activated and stressed on a day-to-day basis. It seems silly even as a suggestion, so why is it recommended time and time again?
The reason why breathing is so important is because when anxiety or overwhelm increases, our brain shuts down. The prefrontal cortex that gives us the ability to make decisions or prioritize tasks all goes away when we’re overly stressed and overwhelmed.
Our sympathetic nervous system is activated. What we really need is to activate our parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is the rest and digest system. Activating it through breathing will help bring our prefrontal cortex back online so we can think.
3 Breathing Exercises:
1. Rectangle Breathing
Rectangle breathing is where you alternate breathing in and out as you follow a rectangle in your brain. Imagine drawing the rectangle, starting from left to right. As you draw line 1 in your imagination, breathe in for a count of 4. As you draw line 2, breathe out for a count of 5. As you draw line 3, breathe in for a count of 4. As you draw line 4 to finish the rectangle, breathe out for a count of 5.
2. In for 4, Hold for 5, Out for 6:
This is another great technique to try. It will take you a bit of getting used to. That hold and the breathing out for longer than you breath in is gonna be tough, but it is really important that it is longer than the breath in because breathing out for longer than you are breathing in, is what truly activates that parasympathetic nervous system.
3. Belly Breathing:
If the first two are too difficult for you and you’re still trying to wrap your head around breathing, you can try belly breathing. Put your hands on your belly and feel your belly rise and fall as you breathe in and out. When you choose between those three, you’re going to want to give up really quickly. That’s your sympathetic nervous system – being that fight-flight-freeze response – that is activated. It’s not wanting to calm down in the face of perceived imminent danger. It wants you to run away! But calming down in spite of the fear response being triggered is your whole job at this point. As soon as you start feeling that fight to not work on breathing exercises, keep going for one more cycle of breath before you choose not to carry on.
For more information on the nervous system and how the brain works, check out this article ‘I feel like I’m losing it. How do I manage my anxiety?’.
