Your body is designed to heal and survive – it’s that simple. You have many systems in place, within your body, that are constantly active, to keep you alive.
Just take a moment to think about them all, your respiratory system (breathing) your cardiovascular system (your heart), your circulatory system (your blood) and so on.
Right now I want to tell you about your nervous system – specifically two parts of it – the one designed to keep you alive when you’re threatened and the one designed to calm you down and help you body heal.
Your nervous system includes the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). This system’s purpose is to move your body into action when it needs to, in order to survive a threat.
Think of our ancestors who were out hunting and gathering. They could round a corner and come face-to-face with a bear. The second they see the bear, their brain would register a threat (this thing will kill me). Your stress response is immediately triggered.
Stress Response – AKA Flight or Flight
The brain immediately says to the Sympathetic Nervous System – “You need to either fight this bear or flight and get away in order to survive”. This is called your Stress Response or your Fight or Flight Response.
Your super clever SNS immediately floods your body with cortisol and hormones, increases your heart rate and blood pressure (High BP), slows your digestive system (upset stomach), slows your reproductive cycle (infertility), slow your immune system (getting sick often?) and much more.
But you do get that adrenalin rush that can keep you alive in the face of threat – you know what it feels like, you’re all tense and wired.
Alright, so back in the day this would help us survive the bear. Our problem is that here in 2014, the chances of coming face-to-face with a bear are slim.
The threats we have now are psychological – that email message from your boss about a report. That letter home from school that you need to bake something for tomorrow. A bill you can’t pay. A conflict with your spouse.
All of these can be interpreted as a threat to our brain (just like seeing a bear) and it tells our SNS to get busy. This means your stress response can be going off multiple times per day without you even knowing it.
Warning Signs your Stress Response is Going Off
I want you to think about the last time you were stressed. What were the first three things you noticed about your body.
I’ve heard the following; my heart rate speeds up, my shoulders are tense, my stomach is in knots, I have a hard time catching my breath, I start to fidget, my face goes red and I get sweaty, I can’t think clear.
Write down the first three things you notice and start to pay attention to them from now on. These are your Three Warning Signs.
It’s very important that you start to recognize your first three warning signs so that you can tell when your Stress Response is going off. Once you have the ability to recognize it, you will have the ability to manage it – with the strategy I’m about to explain to you
Your Relaxation Response
Because our bodies are brilliant, we also have another part of our nervous system called the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). It is designed to calm us down and help us heal – also knows as the Relaxation Response.
We can literally activate the (PNS) by doing specific relaxation practices like the one I’m about to teach you.
Deep breathing is one of the quickest and most convenient relaxation techniques you can do. I’m about to tell you the difference between deep and shallow breathing and then I will walk you through a breathing exercise called the 3-6 breathing.
Deep Breathing Vs. Shallow Breathing
This is a deep breathing exercise. Before you begin I want to talk about the difference between a deep breath and a shallow breath. I want you to lay down and breathe. I want you to look down and see if your stomach is rising or if your chest is rising. The proper way to breathe is to have a full deep breath so that your stomach rises. Think of a baby and how they look when they breathe.
We are born knowing how to breathe properly, but then we grown up, get all stressed out and start to shallow breath so often we begin to think that is the normal way. It is not. I want you to practice breathing so you notice your stomach is rising. It make take some getting used to at first, but you need to be able to recognize the difference, how it feels in your stomach, so that you can do it on a regular basis and it moments of stress.
Another tip to a good deep breathing practice is to make sure you fully exhale before you take your first deep breath. If you are stressed, scared or angry you may have been shallow breathing for sometime and have likely inhaled more air than you need. If you try to take a deep breath without fully exhaling you may begin to gasp and there is nothing relaxing about that!
Now that you know the difference between a deep breath and a shallow breath, it is time to practice the 3-6 breathing method.
The 3-6 Breathing Exercise – Managing your nervous system
Step 1: For the next 30 seconds I want you to just breathe as you currently are. If you have a timer on your phone, set it so you don’t have to pay attention to a clock. Once the 30 seconds is over, I want you to reflect on the following: Was your breath shallow or deep, was it smooth or jagged?
Step 2: Now I want you to focus on counting your breath. I want you to inhale for three counts and exhale for six counts. The science behind this is that you physiologically relax on the exhale, so you want your exhale to be longer than your inhale. I want you to inhale a deep breath through your nose for three counts, DO NOT PAUSE, and then exhale for six counts.
Repeat. Do this for 30 seconds and then reflect the following: Was your breath deep or shallow, smooth or jagged? How does your body feel? If you find yourself getting dizzy, reduce the exhale to 5 or 4. Overtime, as you practice, you will have the ability for a much longer exhale.
Step 3: Sipping. Imagine you have a straw in your mouth and you are breathing through that straw. This is much more controlled and your exhale takes much longer.
I want you to spend the next minute doing the 3-6 breathing count, but on your exhale I want you to exhale through your mouth as if you have a straw in it (or actually grab and cut a straw and use that to exhale). You will inhale through your nose for the count of three and exhale through your straw mouth for 6. Once you are done, reflect on this experience, how do you feel?
The 3-6 breathing is a primary skill for managing your nervous system and the stress response. You now know the first three things that indicate your stress response has gone off (your three warning signs). The next step is to implement the 3-6 breathing as soon as you recognize this nervous/stressed feeling.
Your Practice
I want you to practice the 3-6 breathing, three times a day for five minutes, when you are very relaxed so that it becomes something your body recognizes as “time to relax”. I also want you to use it as soon as you notice your three warning signs.
oxox
Charlene
ps. I promise no other post will be this long – this is the most important information I can give you and wanted to be very clear:)
Trackbacks/Pingbacks