MIND. Activating Your Parasympathetic Nervous System Through Breath.

One prescription just about every single one of my patients gets is one for functional breathing. There a few parts to functional breathing, but the two main pillars are using your diaphragm muscle and performing an extended exhalation breathing pattern.

A caveat on diaphragm/belly breathing: this does not mean taking big inhales and activating all of your neck muscles in breathing to get a big gulp of o2 in. Focus your energy to your lower ribcage and using your diaphragm muscle, which connects to it like a large trampoline or parachute, to expand your lower ribcage. This action uses so much more of our lung capacity, massages our intestines for improved digestion and can increase mental attention. A cool 2017 study shows some additional benefits of diaphragmatic breathing here. This is a big and beautiful muscle we don’t use much, so if this type of breathing feels difficult or unnatural, be patient as you train this new muscle and gain strength with practice as you would with any other physical training regimen.

Extended exhalation breathing activates our parasympathetic nervous system, or the “rest and digest” branch. You can imagine most humans are not in this half of our autonomic nervous system much, but more so in “fight or flight” (sympathetic). Breathing 4 seconds in / 6 seconds out with diaphragm activation can actually switch us over to the parasympathetic branch. Most studies show that 20-minutes, twice daily, is ideal for making a big impact on stress, anxiety, depression, etc. However if this amount seems overwhelming, I often have patients start with 5-10 minutes twice daily, performing the practice during a non-stressful, though alert time.

Two breath-pacer apps I commonly recommend to patients are Kardia Breath and Breathe +. I use Kardia for my personal daily practice.

Cover photo of this article from tutoringforthespirit.com / Photo of diaphragm courtesy of Medline Plus.