Could a simple breath practice change your life, or are breath practices overrated? Take a closer look at the interplay between technology and your nervous system, explore the relationship between breath and your nervous system, and practice a simple breathing technique.

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In this episode, I discuss:

• 00:43 - Intro
• 01:02 - A listener question!
• 02:38 - Meet your nervous system.
• 06:18 - Meet your nervous system... in the modern world.
• 11:05 - The benefits of breathing (intentionally).
• 12:30 - Intro to four-two-Six breath.
• 13:46 - Practicing four-two-six breath, or whatever timing works for you!

Episode transcript:

"...Diving back into some musings about breathwork for the whole month of July. And I had thought to start this second episode on breathwork about lungs. That made sense to me, talk about lung capacity and oxygenation.

And then I got a lovely question after last week's episode, which I love! Keep those questions coming. A question about the nervous system. And so I think I'd like to start there today.

So I said last time that there are a few different interactions with our technology, our devices, and our breath, and that when we use our technology, we tend to move more from that sympathetic or fight-flight nervous system response into more of the rest and digest.

And the question was, is there really a difference in the shallow breathing or holding of the breath because I'm holding my phone, for example, and the shallow breathing or the holding of the breath because of whatever I am seeing or reading on the phone?

So what I want to do today is actually take a little bit of a deep dive into the makeup of the nervous system itself.

We'll get just a little bit sciency.

And then I'd like to revisit that idea of how we interact with our devices and with media, talk about what the potential benefits are of a breath practice on our nervous system, and then share a breath practice with you.

So for some of you, this is going to be a little bit of a review.

And I also, I am gonna keep it pretty broad and simple.

So if you are like a nervous system expert, don't come at me for simplifying things.

So really broadly, you can think about your nervous system being divided into two components.

You have your central nervous system and your peripheral nervous system.

And your central nervous system is made up of your brain and your spinal cord.

And your peripheral nervous system is everything else.

So all those nerves that leave your spine and travel everywhere else throughout your entire body and all your bodily systems.

And your peripheral nervous system also has different components.

And what I want to focus on today is the autonomic nervous system, the part that is responsible for all your involuntary processes in your body, so things like digestion, breathing, and then diving down one layer deep within that autonomic nervous system.

We have a few different states or responses.

And the ones I want to focus on today are the sympathetic nervous system response and the parasympathetic nervous system response.

Your sympathetic nervous system response is the one that allows your body to respond quickly and efficiently in times of stress or danger.

So this is what we often hear referred to as the fight or flight response, or maybe fight, flight, freeze, or fight, flight, fawn.

And this is incredibly important for us to be able to avoid danger, avoid bodily harm.

So if you are out walking and suddenly there is a vehicle driving erratically, you need to be able to move yourself quickly and efficiently to a safe place.

And that is your sympathetic nervous system response, sending blood to your muscles, upping your heart rate, upping your respiration, giving you that ability to move, to take care of yourself, respond in an efficient way.

And then the parasympathetic nervous system represents the time when your body is more at ease and relaxed and is able to continue its sort of ongoing life-sustaining functions, like increased digestion and improved sleep.

And we know that the nervous system is complex and that the interplay between these states is really nuanced, but we can't say that for most of us, most of the time, we tend to be either more in a sympathetic nervous system response or in more of a parasympathetic nervous system response.

And it is important for us to have the flexibility to be able to shift between these and for the body to access them for ongoing health.

And when we find ourselves spending too much time in more of that sympathetic state, in more of the fight or flight, health problems can result.

One that I have been particularly interested in learning more about is, in this day, there are more stress hormones present in the body, and some of the ongoing effects of this prolonged exposure to stress hormones is increased systemic inflammation, so inflammation throughout the body, which then can lead to many other interesting health outcomes.

So historically, we were probably spending a good bit of time running from predators and chasing prey, and then we were also spending a good bit of time resting and digesting in the cave with the clan.

And as we have moved forward into our modern society, we have created a lot of things, a lot of situations, that have our nervous systems perceiving that we are in a more prolonged experience of stress.

So spending a lot of hours in a car, for example, or having a really high-stress job.

And then of course, we have these little devices that have not been with us for long at all.

The phone has been around for 150 years or so.

But if we think about this tiny little computer that so many of us now have with us all the time with access to all of the information and all of the people and all of the social media and all of the things all over the world has really only been with us for a few short decades now.

First smartphones were early 90s, but they weren't actually tapped into the internet.

Until the early aughts, so there's a lot that we really don't know about how we interact with these devices, what the impact is on our eyes, our other senses, our nervous systems, our body, our emotional well-being.

So I spoke last time about the idea that when we are engaging with our devices, it often impacts our posture, and that affects our breath.

And then I mentioned that when we are engaging with our devices, we are often breathing shallowly or holding our breath.

And then I mentioned that based on what we are consuming, we might also be pushing the body further into that fight or flight state, and that might affect the breath.

And the question was, okay, are those really all different?

Or are those all just kind of the same thing?

So I'm going to say, again, a big, we don't really know a lot of this yet because it is so new.

I will say the postural piece is that's really its own thing.

Whether or not you're holding a device, if you are sort of slouching in and down, you are creating less space for your body to take a deep breath.

The shallow breathing and holding of the breath when you're holding your device regardless of posture seems to be something that a lot of us do, and we don't fully understand the mechanism yet.

There seems to be something about just that interaction with the thing, with the technology itself that has a lot of us sort of pausing, pausing the breath.

And then there is also this doom scrolling component.

So yes, there is certainly an interplay between the three, but I think it's also important to consider that those are all at work.

And so as we spend more and more time engaging with these devices or engaging with negative news or in the car or at the stressful job, we spend more and more time in this sympathetic nervous system response, and we see these health effects begin and cascade throughout the body.

And so one of the many reasons that an intentional breath practice is so powerful is that it gives us the ability to tap into the healing of the nervous system in two really important ways.

The more time we can spend in intentional practices that work well for us to calm the nervous system, whether that be meditation or breath or gentle movement or time outside, the more we learn to elicit, learn to use, learn to live in that parasympathetic nervous system response.

And then there's also some evidence that for many of us, when we breathe, when we inhale, we slide a little bit more toward that sympathetic response, fight or flight, and when we exhale, we slide a little bit more toward that rest and digest.

So by choosing a particular kind of breath, today we'll talk about four-two-six breath, but there are many options.

We can even then in those small moments be spending a little more time and learning to cultivate that rest and digest.

I like four-two-six breath because I find that it's accessible for most people, even if a breathing practice is newer for you.

The idea is that we inhale for four seconds, we pause for two seconds, and we exhale for six seconds.

If you're a shallow breather, you might start with less.

If you're a really deep breather, you might start with more.

The idea is to make the exhale longer than the inhale.

I like the two-second pause because again, it's accessible.

Holding that breath can be difficult for some people.

It can cause a little bit of anxiety for some people.

For some people, it just doesn't work.

So I say start with a shorter hold of the breath.

And then if you find that you're a person who gets results from or enjoys, doesn't have any resistance to the hold of the breath, maybe you lengthen that up.

Another common arrangement that you'll see is a four-seven-eight breath.

Inhale for four, hold for seven, exhale for eight.

So you're making that exhale twice as long as that inhale.

So I'd like to do this with you today.

As always, choose a shape, choose a position that is going to work for you.

We are going to be breathing deeply.

So if you can be upright, it might be easier to get a full breath.

But as always, I'm going to invite you to choose lying down, seated, walking slowly through a familiar area, as is right for you, your body, your nervous system in this moment.

And as you start to settle in to whatever shape or movement you are choosing today, let's do a brief grounding and mindful check-in before we move into our four to six breath.

So go ahead and take a moment to just feel your feet, your legs, your hips, your back.

Notice the spaces where your body is connected to the surface you are resting on.

Take a moment to check in gently with the rest of your body, noticing any areas of discomfort or tension.

Maitri Musings and Sarahlynn.

And then begin to bring a gentle awareness to the sense of your natural breath.

Take a moment to be with your breath just as it is.

Notice, feel, get curious about your inhale, and then your exhale.

Exhale.

And then take a gentle count to your inhale, and your exhale.

No expectation or judgment here.

Notice the length of your natural breath.

And then with your next inhale, moving toward a count of one, two, three, four.

A pause for two.

And an exhale of six.

And we'll continue this breath for a few moments.

So if at any point you need to adjust, the breath needs to be slightly shorter to feel comfortable.

Or it feels good to start to lengthen the inhale, lengthen the pause, or lengthen the exhale.

Always keeping the exhale longer than the inhale.

Continuing with this breath.

Continuing, slow inhale, little pause, slower exhale.

And we'll be here a little while today.

Move through one more full cycle of your slow inhale.

Your slow inhale, brief pause, and slow or exhale.

And then begin to allow your body to settle back to a natural breathing rhythm.

Take a moment to notice how you feel.

If the eyes are closed, slowly blink or flutter, eyes back toward fully open.

Take a moment to reorient yourself to your space.

And if you like to reflect or journal, maybe take a moment to pause here, maybe think about how you could make more space for breath throughout your day, choosing postures that allow you to breathe deeply, taking pauses in your routine for intentional breath practices.

If you have other questions, please, please, please reach out.

And until next time, have a deep breathing kind of week..."