Have you ever wondered what’s happening in your body when you breathe deeply and why it can feel so relaxing? Of course, our bodies are always breathing and it’s something we do unconsciously. But when you can bring conscious awareness to your breath and deepen your exhale, it can be possible to experience deeper relaxation. This skill can be particularly important if you need to regulate your anger during conflict and ensure you don’t escalate things further – whether at work or at home, it’s an essential skill.
In fact, deep and slow diaphragmatic breath can be one of the most effective and important things we can do to help ourselves regulate stress.
So let’s first discuss the anatomy of our breath.
When you inhale your diaphragm moves down pushing your belly forward and filling your chest and lungs with air. When you exhale, your belly moves back and in and your lungs empty the air. Your diaphragm is connected to your heart through interconnective tissue all over your body or fascia so that when you breathe your heart is gently massaged. This massaging action, in part, facilitates oxygen flowing to your heart.
Understanding how your diaphragm works can be helpful in practicing really deep breathing – the kind that can help your relax and regulate in a moment’s notice. So, the diaphragm is a muscle in the shape of a band circling your body below your heart and attaching to the front of the spine. The actual definition of the word diaphragm is any structure or wall that separates two spaces. Our diaphragm separates our heart and lungs on top from our stomach and intestines below. The primary muscle responsible for 75% of breathing is the diaphragm, which is assisted by the intercostals between the ribs and the abdominal muscles in front of the belly. Secondary muscles responsible for breathing are higher up – they include the scalenes, neck, and chest muscles.
When you practice deep diaphragmatic breath, you’re activating your parasympathetic nervous system – the part of your nervous system that calms you down. When you breathe higher up in your chest, you’re activating your sympathetic nervous system – the part of your body that revs you up. In effect, you’re readying your body to flight or fight. This is how the body should be working – these two systems talking to each other – our sympathetic nervous system readying us for action and our parasympathetic nervous system calming us down.
However, when you experience stress or trauma and your sympathetic nervous system is activated and you begin chest breathing you must also allow time to recover – to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. And you can do this in part by diaphragmatic breath. When you don’t allow time to recover, chest breathing can become both cause and symptom of stress. You’re stressed so you begin chest breathing. You’re chest breathing and you feel stressed. Chest breathing happens when your secondary muscle group becomes primarily responsible for your breath – remember those are your scalenes, neck, and chest muscles. This can cause muscles that aren’t ideally equipped for breathing to become over-tired and stressed – which can lead to chronic pain. (And here again, it becomes a cycle. You’re in chronic pain because you’re chest breathing and you’re chest breathing because you’re in chronic pain.)
Want to learn how to breathe deeply?
One of the best ways to learn deep diaphragmatic breath is by placing one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. As you inhale, simply notice whether the hand on your belly moves – that’s what we’re aiming for. Set your intention for the hand on your belly to rise. If it doesn’t, that’s okay. You’re learning a new skill and it takes time. Notice whether the hand on your heart rises and falls as well. The aim here is that the hand on your heart is only slightly moving while the hand on your belly is more noticeably moving. This means you’re really engaging with your diaphragm and helping your body relax and regulate.
Remember that the key to healthy breathing is not to always belly-breathe but to allow your body time to recover after a stressful event and to return to diaphragmatic breath.
If you’d like to learn more about how deep breathing could help you, call me.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.