Episode 61 - Essential 8 Series (Part 3)

Breath can be used as a powerful proactive and reactive regulation tool. Your respiratory system (aka breath) is one of the most powerful physiological levers you can pull to shift the state of your nervous system. Did you know that every time you inhale your heart rate speeds up, and every time you exhale it slows down? Let's say you extend your exhale out longer than your inhale — well now your heat rate slowed down longer than it sped up. This sends an immediate message to and through your nervous system to activate your relaxation response.

You can also use breath to activate your system when you're in a state of Shut Down or want to practice increasing your stress threshold.

Ideally you want your natural breath throughout the day to steady, diaphragmatic breaths, in and out your nose. This is how we're evolutionarily supposed to breath. But it's estimated that at least 50% of the adult population has some kind of breathing inefficiency. Maybe that's mouth breathing during the day and/or night, short shallow breathing, imbalanced breathing, and so on. Let's change that!

📓 Download your Breath Workbook! - CLICK HERE

So here’s the 3 takeaways:

1. Breath is a pillar of health, your mental and physical health is only optimal when your breathing is optimal.
2. Before you can use breath as a powerful regulatory tool you have to understand your basic breath physiology, when you do it becomes one of the most powerful proactive and reactive regulation tools.
3. Different breath practices are optimal for different nervous system states, my book Healing Through the Vagus Nerve offers a section where it outlines supportive practices for the different nervous system states, including breath work practices.

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