Nervous System Regulation Tip: Working with the Breath

This post discusses how working with your breath can help regulate your nervous system and bring more calm and balance into your life.

My first tip for nervous system regulation is working with the breath. In my previous post, I explained how the nervous system (NS) works to keep us safe. The brain and body work together to send you into different states in response to your environment – whether you are in a safe environment or a dangerous one. Your NS can send you to the sympathetic (fight/flight) state, the parasympathetic (rest/digest/recover) state, or the dorsal vagal (shut down) state depending on whether you are safe or not. Nervous system regulation means that you can move between these states smoothly when circumstances call for them.

NS dysregulation means that you can’t always do this, and get “stuck” in states that are not in line with your circumstances (for example, you are safe at home but your body won’t agree to sleep because it is stuck in a fight/flight state).

Working with the breath is a useful tool because of the unique role it plays in your NS. I will come back to this in a moment. 

Nervous System Regulation & the Autonomic Nervous System

When your NS sends you into these different states, it does so automatically. It is an unconscious process. This part of your NS is always working automatically to keep you alive and safe. For example, your heart is beating all the time and your NS is keeping it running without your conscious involvement. This automatic part of your NS is called the Autonomic Nervous System. It regulates bodily functions including your blood pressure, respiratory rate, and digestion. When your NS sends you into the sympathetic state, these bodily functions are automatically “adjusted” to help you fight or run from the danger. Your rate of breathing will speed up as well. This process is automatic and it is a two-way street: just as your brain can send the signal to speed up your heart rate in response to perceived threat (brain down to heart), a rapid heart beat can send the signal up to the brain to suggest that you might be in danger (body up to brain). 

You cannot consciously will your heart rate to slow down in order to reassure your brain that you are safe. Think of a time that you were nervous or afraid – right before an exam or giving a speech, for example. Your heart beating out of your chest is not something you can ease just by telling yourself: “calm down.”

Working with the Breath: Why It Can Help

Here’s where the breath comes in. Your breath is part of the autonomic nervous system. You are breathing all the time and this is an automatic process. But your breath is the only aspect of the autonomic nervous system that you can actually consciously control. If you are nervous before an exam or that big speech, you can focus on your breath and consciously slow it down. There are many ways of doing so. 

In this way, working with the breath is your pathway into influencing the two-way communication system of your NS that senses whether you are safe or in danger. You can learn to slow down your breathing and this will send the signal up to your brain that you are safe. 

The key to many of the nervous system regulation tips that I have for you is finding ways to send signals of safety up to your nervous system. I like to imagine this as calming a child or a pet: they may be wild-eyed with fear or anxiety, but you can be the one to reassure them that they are safe and can relax. Calming and slowing your breath is one powerful way of doing this for yourself.

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