Breathing practices are much used to help regulate the nervous system and to manage stress.
However,
Sometimes breathing exercises themselves can push people who are already chronically stressed into additional stress.
This is because taking a deep breath can be interpreted by the body's nervous system as getting ready to fight,
To flee,
Or to freeze,
And that pushes the body into the sympathetic nervous system.
Breathing can,
However,
Be used to create or to maintain a parasympathetic nervous system state.
That is rest and digest,
Where the body recognises that it's in a place of safety and it can let go.
The practice I'm going to introduce in the next recording is designed to help regulate the nervous system through breathing,
Not by focusing on the in-breath or taking a deep breath,
But instead by gradually lengthening the out-breath,
Which encourages a longer in-breath following it.
It's based on counting,
So it also takes you out of whatever stories are in your head about the situation in which you find yourself and focusing on being in the here and now.
It's a practice suitable for everybody.
Over time,
It's possible to work up to breathing for a count of 12,
But this may not be achievable for everybody straight away.
Certainly,
I wasn't able to do that immediately.
Also,
If you find yourself in a situation of acute stress,
Then it's not reasonable to expect to get to the higher counts,
But simply by lengthening your breath,
Even by a count or two,
Can help manage and modify stress loads.
See you in the next recording.
