This article was originally written for use by the Kiowa County Independent.
What if I were to tell you that there’s an activity that we do close to 20,000 times per day? In fact, there is- breathing. We have, on average, 20,000 repetitions per day to “practice” this life-enabling skill. Most of us do an adequate enough job of exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen to sustain life for yet another day. However, the manner in which your body performs this task has everything to do with your ability to move well, perform optimally, and feel generally good throughout the day. All breathing is not created equal. Breathing has the power to influence everything from a person’s ability to touch their toes to the level of anxiety and phobic thoughts they experience.
Let’s try a little experiment. Stand up tall, spread your feet wide, and pull as much air as you can into your lungs as you puff out your chest. Take 9 more breaths in this position, emphasizing taking in as much air as you can. How do you feel? Stimulated? Ready for action?
Now, if you’re able to, lie comfortably on the floor with your feet supported on the wall or a nearby couch (a recliner or comfortable chair will also suffice). Take a small breath in through your nose, then exhale all your air out via a big, relaxed, sigh (think fogging up a large glass mirror on the ceiling). Notice your ribcage drop down as you exhale. Pause for 3 seconds after this exhale. Take another small breath in through your nose and repeat the process 9 more times, emphasizing small inhales, large (yet relaxed) exhales, and a pause after the exhale before the next breath in. Get up. How do you feel? Relaxed? Loose? Ready for a nap?
Congratulations! You’ve just succeeding is using body position and breathing strategies to modulate your body’s “fight or flight” system, referred to as the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). In the first example, our position and breathing tempo have primed our brains to react to something stressful. Heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure all increase. This is an appropriate response to stress; however problems arise when this is the state in which we spend most of our stressful, modern lives. Gone are the days where the only stressor was to hunt down dinner. When that task was accomplished, the rest of the day could be devoted to relaxing around the cave and spending quality time with members of your tribe. Nowadays, we are inundated with a multitude of “mini-stressors” all day long. Our bodies don’t know the difference between the sabretooth tiger and a fight with our spouse, frustration at the driver in front of you, or sustained work on a computer. We stayed primed and “ready for action” in this stimulated, inhaled, hyperinflated state. This chronic state promotes high blood pressure, impaired immune system function, and increased anxiety. It also robs us of the ability to move our bodies freely through space- after all, what’s the use of allowing systemic muscle and joint flexibility when there are tigers to run from?
In the second breathing example, we’ve done the opposite. We used body position and breathing tempo to send a signal to our brains that there’s no stressor to be ready for. We’ve told our system it’s okay to relax, recover, and repair for the next day’s “hunt”. In this state, blood pressure decreases, function of the immune and GI systems improves, and negative thoughts decrease. From a movement perspective, we see a general increase in the body’s ability to flex (bend forward), shift side to side, and rotate at a variety of joints.
One state is not better than the other. Years ago, the ability to shift between these two states gave humans a tremendous ability to both respond to, and recover from, stressful events. However, nowadays most folks are “ready” for that sabretooth tiger all day long. And reinforcing that pattern 20,000 times per day. The need has never been greater for us to have an ability to turn off. To relax, shut down, and recover.
So how do we start? The breathing strategy outlined in the second example (laying down, feet elevated, full exhale with a pause) is worthwhile. Spend the last 5 minutes of your day before bed performing 25 slow, full, relaxed breaths in that position. Monitor how you feel before and after. If you’d really like to experiment, measure your pulse before and after.
This is just one strategy among many. Yoga and meditation continue to gain traction as effective strategies to give the system a chance to “reset”. Almost always, I find myself sprinkling in breathing retraining working with nearly every patient. After all, who’s more chronically stressed than the sick and injured? However, in my experience, we could all use a little more shutting down, recovering, and exhalation in our hectic, day-to-day lives.