Summer Cool Down: Deep Breathing to Calm the Nervous System

 

July is here and summer is heating up. Summer is associated with fun times…the beach, the sun, barbecues, travel, but all that running around can also be stressful. If you find your nerves a bit shot from travel, heat, pool parties and not enough down time, you might be feeling a bit off. We all want to stay focused, calm, and in balance, and here are a few tricks to get back to that “center”.

When we are anxious, we begin to breathe in a shallow way. Shallow breathing is actually a mild form of hyperventilation, which deprives the body of oxygen. A cycle is initiated within the body, whereby anxiety encourages rapid breathing, and then the rapid breathing encourages anxiety. It becomes a vicious cycle. Anxiety, fear, and stress can all trigger the “fight or flight” response in our nervous system. We might sense a rapid pulse, butterflies in the stomach, and tense muscles.

Tight shoulders, head or neck pain, and upper body tension increase as our breathing becomes more rapid. There is often a rise in our body temperature and we feel hot and uncomfortable. Our lung power is reduced and our diaphragmatic breathing stops, forcing the delivery of oxygen to our body via the smooth muscles of the stomach. These smooth muscles are not good at multi-tasking, and as breathing takes prioity over digestion, our digestve track suffers.

Shallow breathing disrupts the balance between carbon dioxide (CO2) and calcium (Ca++) and our blood becomes more alkaline. The low calcium and the higher carbon dioxide levels cause nerves and muscles to function poorly. This imbalance results in fatigue, dizziness, exhaustion, tingling, cramps, muscle weakness, altered motor control, and a reduced pain threshold. Our general sensitivity is increased and our tolerance for pain is decreased.

It is a vicious cycle. Anxiety creates shallow breathing and shallow breathing stimulates anxiety. Our best defense is a good offense, finding our center through deep breathing. Our breath is our most powerful tool to become focused, calm, and balanced.

 

Here Are 4 Deep Breathing Exercises for Stress & Anxiety.

Cool Down. Calm Down.

  1. Pursed Lip Breathing. Sit upright on the edge of a chair. Relax your shoulders and rest your hands in your lap. Inhale through your nose. Exhale through pursed lips as though you are blowing out through a straw. Keep exhaling until you can’t exhale any more. At the bottom of the exhale, inhale through your nose. Continue for 3-5 minutes.
  2. Diaphragmatic Breathing with a Block. Lie on your back on a yoga mat with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place the block under your sacrum at the medium level so that your sacrum feels supported. Allow your arms to rest at your sides and your ribs to relax to the floor. Feel your breath moving into your ribs three dimensionally. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Make a sighing sound. Exhale completely. Breathe here for 3 minutes.
  3. Side Stretch and Breathing on a Bolster. Place a round bolster on a yoga mat. Lie on your side with your knees bent over the bolster so that your bottom ribs are on the bolster. Rest your head on a yoga block. Stretch your top arm overhead and breathe into your top ribs. Expand your ribs to the ceiling with every breath. Hold for 3 minutes. Repeat on the other side. Relax into the position and breathe deeply into your ribs.
  4. Child’s Pose with Deep Breathing. Kneel down, bring your feet together, and press your hips to your heels so that your buttocks rest on your heels. Relax your shoulders. Direct your breath into your back ribs. In this position, it is easier to access the back portion of your lungs. Visualize the air moving into the back of your lungs. Breathe here for 1-2 minutes.

 

Breathing is a powerful tool for reconnecting with your center. It’s a tool that’s always on hand when a stressful moment arises. Rather than letting the anxiety cycle to take over and allowing yourself to get all “hot and bothered”, just take a moment and do 3 minutes of Pursed Lip Breathing. Just doing that can stop a cycle of hyperventilation and restore optimal breathing patterns.

If you enjoyed this sequence for cooling and stress relief, you will get even more out of our upcoming workshops:

Summer Breathwork Cool Down

Thursday, July 20th, 6pm – 7.30pm with Elaine & Anita

&

Thursday, August 17th, 6pm – 7.30pm with Anita & Kat

Take a moment for yourself, and learn easy breathing techniques to cool down, both physically and emotionally. This workshop will teach simple self-help tools and techniques to break the cycle of breathing dysfunction and chronic pain, which can cause anxiety and overheating. The takeaways from this class will be an understanding of what Healthy Breathing is, how to develop better breathing patterns, and what steps to take to mitigate stress and anxiety.

Our breathing patterns, stress levels, and our sensitivity to pain are deeply related. Day-to-day stressors, such as work, restless thoughts, and poor posture, all have an impact on our breathing patterns. Anxiety causes us to take shallow breaths and breathe with only our upper chest and shoulders instead of breathing deeply with the diaphragm, our primary breathing muscle. This pattern carries over to the upper body and shoulders, bringing an irritating pain that’s always there.

Each participant will receive a DIY customized exercise program and hands-on instruction in implementing the work. Come join us on a Thursday evening to learn simple and effective exercises for cooling breathing and healthy living.

$50

Space is Limited

NO DROP INS

Sign Up Here for Thursday, July 20th

Sign Up Here for Thursday, August 17th

Take care and be well,

Anita Goodkind

Alignment Therapist