The ripple effects of breathing
The way we breathe can set off a cascade of physical changes in the body that promote either stress or relaxation.
“If we’re breathing really shallowly and fast, it causes our nervous system to up-regulate and we feel tense and anxious,” says Epel. “If we’re breathing slowly, it actually turns on the anti-stress response.”
Technically, breathing influences the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) branches of our nervous system, and certain techniques can promote more parasympathetic calm and relaxation. Some may also cause us to release hormones like prolactin and possibly oxytocin, the feel-good hormone of love and bonding.
“[Breathing techniques] are allowing you to consciously take control of your breathing so you can take control of your nervous system so you can take control of your anxiety,” says Nestor. “When we breathe in a certain way, we are sending messages to those emotional centers of our brain to calm down.”
Other techniques, like tummo — a yogic breathing practice that involves forceful or gentle breathing, abdominal contractions during breath holding, and visualization — actually amp up the sympathetic nervous system, spiking our body’s stress to activate a deeper relaxation afterward, similar to how tensing a muscle and then letting it go works.
This is similar to the kind of breathing that “Iceman” Wim Hof teaches his followers, a method that Epel is currently researching. Hof is famous for his seemingly superhuman feats, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts and changing his immune response to E. coli, which he attributes to a finely tuned control over his own physiology thanks to breathing practices and more.
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Fast breathing can be triggering for people with anxiety — causing the tingling limbs and lightheadedness that often accompany panic attacks — but that’s part of the point. When you breathe fast and start to feel symptoms you normally associate with anxiety, it may help you re-interpret those symptoms in a less threatening way. They become less worrisome because they have a clear cause, the same way that an elevated heart rate during exercise doesn’t bother us. And if you can connect anxiety to faulty breathing habits, it means you can change the way you breathe and potentially see some improvement.
If you want to practice breathing for better mental and physical health, there are endless techniques to try. Although these shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for therapy or a cure for severe anxiety, they can be a free and simple tool for both short-term relief and long-term benefit. “Breathing techniques could be used as first-line and supplemental treatments for stress [and] anxiety,” write Ravinder Jerath and colleagues in a 2015 study.
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Many of the techniques that have been formally researched are derived from pranayama, yogic breathing that dates back to ancient India:
Ujayyi: Deep breathing with a narrowed throat, creating an ocean-like sound, often recommended while doing yoga asanas.
Bhastrika, or “bellows breath”: inhaling and exhaling forcefully.
Nadi Sodhan and Anulom Vilom: Types of alternate nostril breathing, where air is inhaled in one nostril and exhaled through the other, sometimes with breath holding.
There are also a variety of “box breathing” practices, derived from the pranayama Sama Vritti, where you inhale for four seconds, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four, and repeat. Other timed techniques include 4-7-8 breathing, often recommended to help you fall asleep.
In the same way that mindfulness practice isn’t just meditation, breathing as a practice isn’t just waking up every morning and doing 10 minutes of box breathing.
It’s also important to be aware of the way you breathe in everyday life (or while you’re checking your email).
In Breath, Nestor’s tips boil down to a short list of general principles, including make sure to breathe through your nose and not your mouth, slow your breathing down (to five or six seconds in and five or six seconds out), and extend your exhales for even greater relaxation.
Now so much talk about breathing might have you feeling anxious — that’s how I felt, at least, while reading about all the ways that our breathing habits are faulty. In one study, the researchers noted that anxious people were skeptical in the beginning of the experiment and had some difficulty practicing. But this group still went on to feel better at the end of 12 weeks of practice.
research illustrates just how much influence our body has on our mind. Modern life brings many things to be worried about, but, as Nestor writes, not being able to breathe remains one of our deepest and most primal anxieties. If somehow the way we’re breathing is signaling to our brains that something is wrong, it’s no wonder we feel anxious — and it’s no wonder all these breathing techniques can bring such profound healing.
A better way 