The Power Of Breathing For Your Parasympathetic And Sympathetic Nervous System
If you have been into yoga or meditation, or any relaxing practices, you already know by now the importance of deep breathing and voluntary slowing down of breath frequency. As to what I refer to as belly breathing that only takes 5 to 10 minutes to do, this powerful exercise is a self-management toolbox for your mind, body, and spirit.
Deep breathing has helped many of my clients to have better mental functions especially in some divisions of the nervous system that takes control of the respiratory system without one’s control. How does deep breathing do that? Let us find out about it in this article.
The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system that consists of the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions controls the way our respiratory system works. Our lungs have thousands of nerves from both these divisions controlling. One division may be more active than the other at any given time. And it finds some sort of balance as when one division becomes active, the other becomes less active.
The sympathetic nervous is known for responding when you are under stress aka “fight or flight.” It prepares you for emergencies or dangers and gets activated when you feel scared or anxious, attacked or threatened. It activates numerous complex pathways and components to achieve faster breathing, increased heart rate, blood pressure, dilation of pupils, changes in the blood flow, and a lot more.
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On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system division is known as the “rest and digest.” It is more active when you are resting and has a large role in activating your digestive system when breaking down food. Obviously, the respiratory system is not in demand, your musculoskeletal system is not overworked, so the exchange cycle of oxygen and carbon dioxide is low.
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With deep relaxation practices, deep breathing can lead to a reversal of fight or flight to a quieting response modulated by the parasympathetic nervous system.
The immense Power Of Breathing
There have been many discussions among medical experts, practitioners, physical therapists, and those who are in the field of the effectiveness of breathing. Part of my goal as a practitioner here at Evoke Wellness is to teach my clients ways on how to integrate breathing into their exercises so they can reap breathing’s benefits and effectiveness.
We have already discussed the relationship between the nervous system and breath but there is more to it than meets the eye.
Inhalation vs exhalation - When the lungs expand during inhalation, the pressure on the passage of venous blood coming from the heart to the lungs is reduced. This decreases the heart rate results which effectively generates relaxation to the mind. In various yoga poses, the reason why you are told by the yogi to lengthen the exhalation is to increase parasympathetic tone also known to relax the mind.Left vs right nostril - We breathe alternately through our left and right nostrils. One nostril can dominate anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours and this continues even while we sleep. It is believed in the yoga community that breathing in and out through our nostrils is associated with the autonomic nervous system. The left is the parasympathetic tone, and the right is the sympathetic one.
Chest vs belly breathing - There is a close connection between the breathing rhythm and the sympathetic/parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system. When there’s a demand for oxygen, one needs to breathe rapidly hence using the chest. It is impossible to breathe through the belly because it cannot keep up or perform fast enough to meet this demand for oxygen. Therefore, the sympathetic nervous system has to do with chest breathing and the parasympathetic nervous system with the belly.
How does deep breathing help you?
In so many ways, breathing is a versatile technique you must learn and teach to others. It relieves stress, tension, and helps you be calm throughout the time. Here are other benefits of deep breathing exercises:
Trains your mind to be calm and relaxed
Provides a positive distraction
Can be used to interrupt negative patterns of thought
Can be used to manage other life stressors
Extremely portable which you can practically do anyway
Doing deep breathwork can help you reduce, coordinate, and stabilise the activity of the brain and the autonomic nervous system in preparation for your day. In all our offerings, deep breathing is the core of every exercise we do so our clients can achieve subtle yet powerful levels of tranquility. This means the mind is stablised and responsive to more subtle inner energies.
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