TC North //August 20, 2015//
Controlling your breathing gives you mindful power, more control of your mind and body – and more control over your life!
Breathing patterns that stimulate
When you inhale rapidly and deeply, you stimulate your sympathetic nervous system, which excites and energizes your mind and body in a healthy way. Anxious people usually breathe rapidly but shallowly into their chest. Rapidly breathing deeply into your abdomen, using strong, quick inhalations deep into your lungs, can help you feel stronger or more energized. It’s a natural stimulant that works faster than caffeine, has no bad side effects and can be extremely useful in the morning when you haven’t had enough sleep or midafternoon when you have an energy low. It’s also what people do right before lifting heavy weights.
Breathing patterns that relax
When you breathe with long, slow exhalations, you stimulate the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system, which slows down your physiology, attenuates your stress-response and relaxes your mind and body. It’s what the late great free diver Natalia Molchanova did to reduce her need for oxygen so she could hold her breath long enough to free dive to over 100 meters.
For years, I’ve taught mindful leaders who want to be more confident, present and relaxed to practice breathing using exhalations that are twice as long as inhalations and to identify their relaxation number using this 1:2 ratio.
Find your relaxation number
Your relaxation number is a set of the two numbers associated for the length of your inhalation and exhalation to create an optimal relaxation response. Here’s how to identify your relaxation number. Notice how you feel in your mind and body after each set of exhalations as you identify your relaxation number:
Your relaxation number will depend on how quickly you count and your general health. The healthier you are, the less often and deeper you tend to breathe, thus the higher your relaxation number.
Two ways to use your relaxation number to de-stress.
At a recent Mindful Power retreat, a guest who used this mindful breath meditation right before bedtime said, “The relaxation number breath meditation allowed me to sleep through the whole night for the first time in months!”
You now know how to manually control your breathing to energize or relax your whole being. When are the best times in your life to put your breathing on manual control?