How are your anxiety levels these days? It’s clear that we are living in anxious times both nationally and globally; you need only glance at your phone or switch on your TV to hear the latest travails. Add to that the personal pressures and stresses of life in these busy times and you may find once you look within, that you are operating with high levels of anxiety. Rather like the adage of the frog being boiled slowly in water, we have become tolerant of and adapted to increasing stress and anxiety, and are losing the capacity to recognise the danger and hop away.
I have spoken in previous columns about how we can manage stress and anxiety with diet and exercise. Most certainly, the more we can move our body and disconnect from technology and social media, the better our mental health and wellbeing. But what if we are more constrained either by lifestyle or health and find it hard to get out into nature, take a class or find time to exercise? I really do believe in the five-minute principle for busy people, where we have bursts of activity spread throughout the day. Today, I’d like to suggest an easy five minute tool for your fitness toolbox.
Before stress and anxiety became a thing, the closest you would get to a stress management practice was breathing into a brown paper bag. I can remember many a childhood novel filled with female protagonists breathing into paper bags to calm their nerves and ease what was often referred to as hysteria. I do remember my 10-year-old self experimenting with this practice, though I never found it particularly effective. The good news however is that in parallel with the rise in anxiety levels, there are many more techniques available to help us manage it; the simplest of which are particular breathing techniques, no paper bags required!
Breathing itself is controlled by our autonomic nervous system, which means it happens automatically. However, as I have mentioned in previous columns, when we spend too long in our sympathetic nervous system, (fight/flight), our breathing patterns become impaired. The shallow rapid breath we need for running away from danger can become the norm, resulting in our breathing only in the upper part of our chest, leaving us living life on the inhale so to speak. A pattern becomes established where we can’t fully exhale, which inhibits us from switching into our parasympathetic system, our rest and digest mode.
The good news is that we can consciously control our breath and with practice we can take control of the shifting modes of our nervous system, which gives us another simple tool to manage our stress and anxiety.
I want to look at two different breath practices that can be practised safely and daily.
Calm mode for daytime stresses: Breathe in through the nose gently, for a count of four and out through the nose for a count of four. Breathe slowly for four to six breaths per minute. This is a breath you can practise throughout the day whenever you think of it. It has the effect of bringing us into a state of present awareness, creating calm and non-reactivity.
Breathing through the nose is essential here, as it brings the breath into the deeper parts of the lungs, which will activate your parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation. Conversely, shallow mouth breathing stimulates the sympathetic nerve endings in the upper and mid-lobes of the lungs only, which keeps us trapped in our stress. This breath is really a practice, so you should try to find ways of incorporating it into your day at frequent intervals.
Many of us have poor breath fitness, but getting started with this practice, if even for just a few rounds each day, can make a big difference as to how we manage our stress, anxiety and mood.
Relax mode for night-time:
This breath practice is best done late at night around bedtime, in the bed is best; though this is also useful during stressful moments as they arise. The purpose of this breath is to switch us more deeply into the parasympathetic nervous system.
Breathe in for a count of four and out for a count of eight, again keep your counting slow and steady, aiming for about ten rounds. If using this as a sleep aid, you will most likely find
you’ll nod off before you reach the last round. This breath pattern will drop your heart rate and your blood pressure. This breathing is linked to improved sleep, gut and mental health. If you struggle with the duration of the exhale, you can reduce the count but remember to keep the exhale longer than the inhale. Try to really feel your ribcage and back expand on the inhale.
Breathing is a powerful and immediate tool that can help manage your stress and anxiety, but if you are coming from a place of chronic stress, then you should know that it is not an overnight fix. It requires practise.
Can you set a daily reminder to practise? Just a simple time-out for ten breaths will not only help reset your nervous system but can provide a gateway to meditation for those of you who find the notion of sitting still and emptying the mind too much of an ask.
Start today, just ten rounds of breathing can build breath fitness and reduce your stress and set you on your path to live a more regulated life.
