These days feeling stressed and anxious is very common.. The physiologic sigh is a conscious, quick and easy way to jumpstart our parasympathetic (rest and relax) nervous system, calming stress.
Everybody is ‘busy’ all the time and has lots to worry about, from global warming, wars, recession, to social media, binging Netflix, and how you look in the mirror. Sometimes with stress and anxiety we don’t sleep well, don’t feel we have the time or energy to exercise and eat junk, and often cope by binging TV or scrolling social media to take our mind off the stress. This becomes a negative cycle.
I’ve written about getting back to the basics before. I constantly have to remind myself to prioritize the basics: get lots of sleep; eat enough protein, fruits and veggies; move lots during the day, lift heavy things and move fast. The more consistent I can be with the basics the less stress and anxiety I experience or at least I can handle it better.
If some of the basics seem too difficult to reach at the moment we will talk about something you can try right now while reading this article.
Breathing plays an important role in our health. We know that if we don’t breathe we die. But how we breathe can impact stress, anxiety, and even our biomechanics (structure, function and motion). Simply by focusing on the breath, inhaling through our nose, with long exhales, we can calm the brain and nervous system. According to research from Stanford Medicine (click HERE for the link) ‘cyclic sighing’ is better than other breathing techniques and even meditation at accomplishing this goal.
For the physiological sigh, take a deep inhale through your nose followed by another rapid inhale (two inhales) to fully inflate your lungs. Then, slowly exhale fully through your mouth. For cyclic sighing breathe like this for 5 breaths or five minutes. Five minutes of cyclic sighing can promote lasting stress relief. Try this before going to bed for a better sleep. Or take a few breaths like this through the day if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Then get back to the basics.
Shaun
To book an appointment with Dr. Shaun click HERE
To learn about Pranayama breathing click HERE