Take a deep breath.
Metaphorically, it means pause for a moment, take a break, calm down, collect yourself and take a second to reconsider your next action (or reaction).
But it's good -- or even better -- to take it literally.
Deep breathing is good for your physical and mental health. It decreases stress, decreases the heart rate and reduces the amount of carbon dioxide and stress-related chemicals in the bloodstream, according to Benjamin A. Sigel, assistant professor in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' department of psychiatry and a clinician at the UAMS Child Study Center.
Moreover, deep breathing relaxes the mind and body and can help you sleep better and increase your energy level. Other side benefits can include pain relief and even weight loss.
As is the case with most animals, the human body is hard-wired, since the days when people lived in jungles and on veldts, with a quick response to a snarling predator, a matter of life or death.
This is the "fight-freeze-flight" response. It creates anxiety and insecurity; the heart rate skyrockets, breathing becomes fast and shallow and the body releases stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream so we're instantly ready for action.
In modern urban society, however, the body still reacts just this way, not so much to snarling predators but to more contemporary sources of everyday stress -- money worries, standing in long lines, traffic jams, dangerous drivers, rude customers, job conflicts, the latest news, politically extreme posts on social media.
Constant physical "startles" can lead to high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke, and can suppress the immune system. Physical stress also contributes to mental health problems, including long-term anxiety and depression.
"That cortisol stress hormone that [affects] so many things, including weight gain," Sigel says. "It's pretty much hell on the body. Through deep breathing, we're tricking the body, to say that it's a safe situation. Slow down and calm down."
THE BREATH OF LIFE
The normal adult breathing rate is 12-20 breaths per minute. We inhale oxygen, one of the essentials of life, and exhale carbon dioxide.
"When you go to the doctor's office and he asks you to take a deep breath, how do you do it?" Sigel asks.
"Through the lungs, and your chest goes up," he says. "It's a great way to hear your lung [function] and your heart. But it's not normally how we breathe.
"That's how we breathe when we exercise or when we're having arousal" -- the medical term for the "fight-freeze-flight" response -- "or our heart rate is up. That's the body's natural reaction, to try to get the body as much oxygen as possible. The problem is, that's an ineffective way to deep-breathe."
In deep breathing, also known as diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing or belly breathing, "we normally breathe through our belly or our diaphragm -- breathe in, belly gets big; breathe out, belly gets small," Sigel says.
"Shallower breathing, with the lungs, actually increases [the production of] adrenaline and cortisol, stress hormones, because the body is finding a way to react to the situation: adrenaline needs to go up for exercise, or because I'm frightened or because I'm anxious.
"Breathe through the belly counteracts that."
Harvard Medical School's Family Health Guide (tinyurl.com/nrv5v3p) notes that among the reasons why folks don't breathe with their bellies, "body image has a negative impact on respiration in our culture. A flat stomach is considered attractive, so women (and men) tend to hold in their stomach muscles. This interferes with deep breathing and gradually makes shallow 'chest breathing' seem normal, which increases tension and anxiety."
Physiologically, Sigel says, it's best to exhale more deeply than to inhale -- "breathe in for a shorter time than you breathe out, bringing in less oxygen and releasing more carbon dioxide." Increasing oxygen intake actually increases the amount of adrenaline in the system; eliminating more carbon dioxide helps slow down the heart rate and blood pressure and reduces that flight-or-fight response tied to adrenaline and cortisol.
TREATING STRESS
Sigel's clinic treats adults, children and adolescents, some of them with a history of abuse and/or symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and focuses on deep breathing and relaxation techniques.
An online pamphlet from UAMS' Arkansas Employee Assistance Program (uams.edu/eap), "Increasing Well-Being Through Breathing," recommends a three-breath calming method: "Slowly breathe in through your nose to the count of three, expanding your stomach area out rather than your chest. Breathe out slowly for the count of six through your mouth. Repeat two more times. Practice this at least twice a day."
Sigel also recommends calming technique tips from the Centre for Clinical Interventions:
• Ensure that you are sitting in a comfortable chair or lying on a bed.
• Take a breath in for four seconds (through the nose if possible). Hold it for two seconds. Release it taking six seconds (through the nose if possible), then pause slightly before breathing in again. Starting out, since it may be difficult to slow your breathing down to this rate, try using a three-in, one-hold, four-out breathing rate.
• To make sure that you are using a stomach-breathing style rather than a chest-breathing style, place one hand on your stomach and one hand on your chest. The hand on your stomach should rise when you breathe in.
• Try to practice at least once or twice a day at a time when you can relax, relatively free from distraction. Try to set aside some time each day.
"The psychological impact [of deep breathing] is the result of the physiological impact," Sigel says. "When the body's more calm, that affects the mind -- fewer anxious thoughts, less fear of the environment, anxiety, depression. It also helps with chronic health problems, such as migraines, especially stress migraines, and chronic physical pain.
"People see very quick, immediate responses, because if they do it correctly there's no way it can't help. In the office, you can tell it's working because often people start yawning and feeling sleepy."
In fact, diaphragmatic breathing mimics the way the body breathes during normal sleep. "The more relaxed your body is, the easier it is to initiate sleep," he says. "Because it's awfully hard to sleep when you're stressed out."
YOGA FOR RELAXATION
Breathing techniques are a foundation of yoga, one of the many relaxation methods the guide recommends.
"If you can breathe, you can practice yoga," says Breezy Osborne-Wingfield, owner of and instructor at Little Rock's Barefoot Studio.
Pranayama, the formal practice of controlling the breath, is integral to all forms of yoga, Osborne-Wingfield explains. "There is some kind of breathing technique that you'll learn when you're in any yoga practice." The one thing you don't want to do while doing yoga, she adds, is hold your breath.
"There are so many breathing techniques, across the board," she says. "You just want not to hold your breath, to breathe fully, not forcefully.
"Breathing is something we do every day, and yet we never think about it. So when you begin to observe it and apply it to the yoga practice, there's a calming sense, physically, emotionally. And we start to notice if we hold our breath, where we get tense -- waiting in line at the grocery store, at the doctor's office, when we're driving. This can definitely help you in those areas and show you where your habits are," she says.
Not all forms of yoga breathing are diaphragmatic, however.
"I teach a breathing technique called 'Ujjayi breath'; it means 'breath of fire,'" Osborne-Wingfield says. "It's more breathing through the back of the throat, letting the sound and the breath release so there's minimal air coming through the nose. It's going to help you connect the poses with your breath. You're not moving rapidly; you're moving with the rhythm of your breath.
"It's also what I did when I was pregnant and when I gave birth, which really helped me. It does not require a lot of muscular effort in the abdominal region; you can definitely contract your abdominals and make sure the exhale is pressed all the way out, but you can do this completely resting."
EARLY START
Babies know how to breathe with their diaphragms naturally, but stresses and related breathing issues start to invade early.
"I've seen population studies that measure the adverse childhood experiences -- how many of these events or stressors that kids have. Divorce, moves, death of a loved one, extreme stresses such as abuse -- that cortisol is constantly going," Sigel says.
"The number of events was correlated with a strong connection of later health problems -- cancer, heart disease, all the big ones -- plus other life choices: drinking, substance use."
So in his clinic, he's been working with children as young as 2. At that age they may not be able to control their belly properly, he says, so he teaches deep breathing -- using bubbles.
"Bubble breath may not be as effective as belly breathing," he admits, but the kids "breathe in deep, blow out slowly and blow a lot of bubbles. That is deep breathing and that is helping them relax. So if they're going to the doctor for their school shot, having the parents pull out [a jar of] bubbles in the parking lot, that's going to help that child relax and be better able to cope."
That kind of breathing training will also help them later on as a life skill, Sigel says. "It sets the pathway, if they can recognize they're nervous or they're angry or about to make a bad decision -- anger is also tied to the arousal system -- first we teach the child to take a deep breath, and then we teach him coping skills to help him problem-solve."
A kid on the playground gets hit in the nose with a football, say, and his first emotional reaction is likely to be anger.
"Just take that deep breath," Sigel says. "Don't react to that first impulse to run into that kid and start a fight."
ActiveStyle on 08/31/2015