A control switch of your mental and physical health
Yes, I am back with another powerful breathing technique that will help you align your body with your brain, and take control of your mood, energy, and overall health! This will ultimately help you relax into your body, get out of your survival mode, and feel rejuvenated.
In previous articles, we illustrated how the pattern and depth of our breathing directly affect our physiological and psychological well-being. We learned how breath retention energises our body and how slow breathing boosts our heart rate variability. Breathing practices can help us sustain our health and well-being, increase our sense of peace, help us solve our problems better, respond rather than react to situations, get rid of our anxiety, mind wandering, and intrusive thoughts, and simply be better at living life.
“Yes, when you can’t control your mind, control your breath!”
Allow me to introduce you to a breathing technique that comes very naturally and spontaneously to our bodies – “ the inner sigh” or “the physiological sigh”. We do it all the time, about every 5 minutes! Remember how we grasp for air while crying? Maybe you remember how you sigh when you are upset or stressed? Sighing is a natural autonomic response to cool down our central nervous system and recover. We also sigh very often while falling asleep or during sleeping.
The Science of Sighing
You would be surprised to know that even though this breathing technique was discovered in the 1930s, it was a January 2023 study involving 111 participants, conducted by the renowned neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, that reintroduced “the physiological sigh” breathing technique and found it superior to other breathing techniques and even mindful meditation in lowering our anxiety, improving our mood, energy, heart rate, and overall body calmness (Balban et al., 2023).
Physiological sigh: the antidote to our stress and anxiety
It’s worrisome how the constant stressors of our fast-paced modern life keep us on our toes and essentially keep us in survival mode. We all know those situations that leave us with a speeding heart, shallow quick breaths, tightened muscles, and sweaty armpits.
Oh boy, that fight-or-flight mode! In such situations, a breathing practice like physiological sighing is very handy since it’s easy, quick, and can be done in real-time without disengaging from the stressful situation. Yes, a few mindful sighs can reduce our stress, anxiety, and racing thoughts within a few seconds.
Just recently, I started a new phase of my career. I finished my doctorate and moved to a new city in a new laboratory. The daily stressors of the move, the new job, and the new people have kept my body in the fight-or-flight mode for several months. If it wasn’t for breathwork, I would have been stuck with anxiety much longer. Most importantly, I have started practising breathwork as soon as I start experiencing any stressful situation, be it an ongoing critical experiment, an upcoming presentation, or a difficult conversation.
Sigh away the fight-or-flight mode
Do you remember what we learned about Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) – the unconscious part of our brain that regulates our automatic bodily functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and digestion?
Among the two oppositely acting branches of ANS, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) brings calmness to our body while the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) keeps it alert and ready to deal with emergencies. It’s the SNS that spirals our body into anxiety by activating fight and flight responses!
While our ANS constantly strives to maintain a balance between well-being and stress, the non-stop stressors of modern life can easily disrupt this balance, shifting our SNS into overdrive, and leaving our bodies stuck in fight-and-flight mode.
What if I tell you that the physiological sighing activates our parasympathetic nervous system? Yes, just like slow breathing, physiological sighing also helps us regulate our autonomic nervous system and helps our body relax! It also increases the blood pressure in the heart which sends a signal to the brain to reduce the heart rate and improves the heart rate variability, producing an overall calming state for our body.
How to practice sighing
Instructions are simple: As soon as you start feeling anxious, take two sharp inhales of breath, through the nose, followed by an extended exhale through the mouth.
You will start feeling relaxed only after one or two of the sighs but to get the full effect, repeating the exercise for about five minutes has been recommended. Double inhales are very important since they allow the intake of more oxygen and efficiently remove carbon dioxide.
Stressful situations quickly worsen our breathing patterns.
We start breathing rapidly and our inhales get shallower. This leaves the balloon-like air sacs i.e. alveoli in the lungs collapsed. This limits gas exchange and increases the CO2 levels in the blood.
Too much CO2 dissolved in the blood contributes to that agitated feeling. Higher CO2 blood levels cause a range of symptoms including dizziness, drowsiness, headache, confusion, shortness of breath, heart arrhythmia, seizure, and loss of consciousness. The two quick inhales during physiological sighing re-inflate our lung alveoli. This increases the lung surface area and allows much more efficient CO2 removal, hence reducing our anxiety and stress symptoms.
In short, whoosh that air out!
Currently, my go-to breathing practice is indeed physiological sighing. I hope you also enjoy all these life-giving breathing practices. Would love to hear which one is your favorite one;)
Until the next time, stay safe and take good care,
With warm regards,
Dr. Chanchal Chauhan
Article by Dr Chanchal Chauhan
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