How often do you find yourself taking notice of your breath? Are you taking quick, shallow breaths? Or are you breathing naturally and deeply?
We don’t always pay attention to our breath due to its autonomic function, however, correct breathing is incredibly powerful for health and mental wellbeing. Breath is particularly powerful in helping individuals with anxiety.
When individuals feel anxious, the sympathetic nervous system triggers the body to go into the ‘fight or flight’ state. This reaction causes a host of physiological effects, including an increase in heart rate and shorter, sharper breathing. So, how can breathing help with this anxious response?
Deep breathing helps to counteract the ‘fight or flight’ response from the sympathetic nervous system, triggering the parasympathetic nervous system to kick in. When the parasympathetic nervous system is activated it signals to the brain that there is no ‘threat’, reversing the physiological effects of the anxiety response. When we talk about deep breathing we want to ensure that we are breathing horizontally with minimal movement in our chest as we want to breath in to the deepest part of our lungs.Breathing in to our chest actually feeds into the stress response increasing your level of anxiety so breathing into the lower parts will allow you to slow down that anxious feeling.
If you are interested in learning more and reducing the anxious feelings, then express your interest now for my “READY SET GLOW PROGRAM”. This includes an abundance of breathing exercises, mindset lessons and movement exercises all focused on helping you to better manage stress and anxiety.
To register your interest in the ‘READY SET GLOW PROGRAM’ simply follow the link below, complete your details in the enquiry section and tick the ‘Ready Set Glow’ box!