Episode 9: A Breathing Exercise to Calm Your Nervous System
Description: A breathing exercise to calm your nervous system can be as simple as a double inhale and a long, slow exhale, a practice called cyclic sighing. This week, Tina walks you through it step by step and shares the Stanford research behind it. Try it a couple of times today, and see if it makes a difference for you!
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren. I am your host, Dr. Tina Boogren, and thank you for being here. I'm sending you a big old hug knowing that this can be a really challenging time of the year. So take a deep breath. In fact, that's exactly what we're going to talk about, and allow yourself to settle in and just be connected to my voice, connected to the space that you are in. Maybe it feels good to kind of put your feet on the ground. Just kind of roll out your neck a little bit. Check and make sure that your shoulders aren't up by your ears, and just allow yourself to really listen to this episode. So this is episode nine, and here is your brain fact, if you will, for the week.
So what I want us to remember is that sometimes the quickest way to talk to our brains is through our breath. Let me say that again. Sometimes the quickest way to talk to our brain is through our breath. So when we feel ourselves getting wound up, we're going to try this. We're going to try this little kind of cyclic sighing breathing pattern. Don't get too caught up in that. Just know that it's a type of breath that's going to send a signal to your brain that we are okay.
So researchers at Stanford compared several five-minute breathing techniques with mindfulness meditation, and there's lots of ways to do it, but the one that stood out is what's called this cyclic sighing, which is a breathing pattern that emphasizes a long, slow exhale. Many of you maybe have heard this, but that's really essential. What they found is that people who practice it for five minutes a day for one month showed greater improvements in positive mood and reductions in respiratory rate than the regular mindfulness group that didn't do this particular type of breathing.
So here's what I love about it, is that it's simple, we can remember it, and we can use it all the time, but particularly now if we're kind of in one of those stressful seasons, which we might be in. This is a free, simple, easy practice. Those are our favorites, right? That we can keep with us all the time as a way to send that signal to our brain we're okay, we're okay, we're okay. Calm down.
So here's how it works. So this physiological sigh is basically you're going to inhale through your nose, take a second at the top, and then do this smaller inhale at the top. So one inhale, pause, another inhale, and then slowly exhale all the way out. So let me explain that again. So do an inhale through your nose, take a beat, and then do another smaller inhale through your nose, and then do this slow, as slow as you possibly can, exhale till you get that breath all the way out. And ideally, if you can repeat it a couple of times, you might not need five minutes. Just a couple of times. Just even once might do the trick.
So what we're doing here is we are playing a little trick on our brain. So the, the breath is something that kind of reflects how stressed we are. So without even thinking about it, we might be stressed, and that breath, again, is that communication to the brain. So if our breath is shallow and, ugh, that hardly can catch our breath kind of feeling, it's signaling to our brain, which signals to the rest of our body that we are not okay. So what pausing to take that breath does, that physiological sigh, again, it's just sending that signal to our brain right now that we are okay.
So we're going to practice it a few times together. Let me just explain again how it works. So it's inhale through your nose, pause a beat, smaller inhale, and then slowly exhale all the way out. So let's actually try this together. I'm going to do it. It's going to sound really weird on this microphone, probably me doing it, but I'm going to trust that you're doing it with me. So again, an inhale, a beat, a slower, smaller inhale, and then a really slow exhale. Here we go. One, two, three.
Just one time felt really good in my body. I don't know if you had the same experience, but wow. So let's just do it again. So inhale through your nose, pause a beat, another slower inhale, and then a really long, long, woo, exhale. Okay? So here we go, one, two, three.
My goodness, my whole body just like is in an entirely different state. It's just crazy how quickly that works. So that's what I want us to practice this week. If you use a different type of breathing, goodness, use it, right? There's all sorts of ways to breathe. There's all sorts of camps on what's the best way. As I said, the study out of Stanford said that this particular type of breathing, this inhale, inhale, long, slow, slow, long exhale, is a standout of the others, but it's not to say that the others don't work. But just, woo, a couple of times during your day.
Now, for me, we've talked about this before, I always have trouble remembering to do this, especially if I'm in a stressed state. My go-to instinct isn't, oh, to stop and breathe. I wish it was, but I'm not there yet. So I like to set reminders to help build the practice. So for me, I like to set some alarms in my phone, pick a couple of times during the day when you know, boy, this would be a good thing to do. And then just practice it, practice it, practice it so that becomes a routine, and it is your go-to when you find yourself stressed.
So as usual, I always like to give like before you get out of your car and walk into work in the morning, at lunchtime, before a particular meeting, at the end of the workday. That's always, I mentioned this last week, that that's a notoriously challenging time for me, and you can absolutely tie this into so many other strategies. But in particular last week, we talked about that slow looking or the sit and stare. Add a couple breaths to that and you're just piling on these wellness strategies. Don't take a lot of time, don't cost any money, but they, we have them with us at all times, and they can be so, so incredibly helpful. We just sometimes forget to access them. So let's start practicing it this week and see if we can make a routine out of these so that it isn't a decision each time, that it is just something that we do all the time. And particularly when we might be feeling a little bit stressed or a little bit like our nervous system is all out of whack, practicing this can be so helpful.
I hope you have the best week. I am so grateful for you. Oh my gosh, this incredible squad, I just, I need you to know that I think about you all the time, and I'm just constantly just wishing you well and hoping legitimately that you are having a really good week and that you're taking really good care of yourself and each other. And I just am so grateful for you.
I'm also so incredibly grateful to Adrienne, who makes all the magic happen behind the scenes, and yet does such incredible work herself, and to Solution Tree, and Marzano Resources that support me to be able to continue to do this work advocating for each of you. And again, for all of you, I'm just so incredibly grateful for you. I'm always hoping that we can grow our circle, just the more people that we can support. So if you wouldn't mind jumping over and reviewing the podcast or sharing it with other people, we know word of mouth makes a huge difference, and we just want as many incredible bad-ass Everyday Wellness squad members to join us. So I just thank you for helping us spread the word. Make it a great week, you guys. I love you.
If this episode resonated with you, find more emotional wellness episodes here.
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