Breath Work for the Nervous System
Breathwork is a huge component of how we find our functional strength. If didn’t already convince you the last time I went on and on and about the beauty and mystery of a deep breath, buckle up. Breathing deeply can change your hormones, calm anxiety, and improve digestion.
When humans are in a “fight or flight” or stress state, we revert to shallow, short breaths and shut off all non essential processes, like digestion, to direct all resources to managing the trauma. ( Not to mention the postural effects being stuck in a shallow breathing pattern can unload!) That’s suuuuuper useful if you are a gazelle running from a lion-not quite as helpful if you’re just apprehensive about an unanswered text. Breathing deeply and consciously helps to notify the body that you are not, in fact, in life threatening danger, and to chill tf out.
Mindfulness and managing stress
Bringing attention to the breath encourages a sense of mindfulness, which is in and of itself, calming. When you practice meditation, yogic or pilates breath exercises or breathwork as healing art, you are telling the brain to slooow down, which it appreciates, let me tell ya.
What’s up with the vagus nerve?
This illustrious nerve runs from the base of the brain, through the neck and into the chest and abdomen. I got to actually put my hands around one last spring in the cadaver lab at the Functional Anatomy for Movement and Injuries Workshop at Mt. Sinai- and it was a mind blowing (and gross) career highlight for the body nerd that I am.
Stress has a time and place. It serves to warn and protect us when we are in danger. But sometimes our bodies have a different idea of danger than we do- and the toll stress takes on the body can actually be worse for us than the situation we’re in. The ability to activate the nervous system that calms us back down is a pretty big deal, and I don’t know about you, makes me feel pretty autonomous. That’s a nervous system pun AND an body empowerment joke. V rare. I’ll wait for the applause.
How can you use breathwork to calm the body?
The vagus nerve is activated when you breathe alllll the way down into the low belly (just don’t forget your back body expansion and your back will thank me). Because it can slow our pulse and lower blood pressure, it helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, or the "rest and digest" aka the opposite of the sympathetic/”fight or flight” system. We love.
Inhale through your nostrils for a count of 4.
As you inhale, widen and expand the ribs in all directions- especially to the upper back, and send some breath into the belly button and pelvic floor.
Hold the breath in your body for a count of 4.
Take twice as long to exhale out through the mouth.
Repeat.
You should start to feel a shift within the first few breaths, and it gets more pronounced the longer you stick with it.