How a Short, Simple Breathing Exercise Can Shift Your Mood
Pace how you breathe to change how you feel in 2 minutes
Here’s what’s stressing me out lately: Tight work deadlines. How to use up the half hog in my freezer that seemed like a good idea to buy. When I can get vaccinated. Whether I can get Instacart to bring me some dish detergent before the next snowstorm. I’m sure you have your own list.
So I’ve been trying all kinds of stress-reduction techniques, from walking outside to yoga to getting enough sleep. But when I talked to certified human potential coach Anne Trager, she explained another simple technique for feeling calmer — exhaling for longer than you inhale.
Here’s the science behind how it works
Your longer, slow exhalations are a form of respiratory feedback, according to Frontiers in Neuroscience. “Slow breathing techniques with long exhalation will signal a state of relaxation by [the vagus nerve], resulting in more [vagus nerve] activity and further relaxation,” the journal reported.
Longer exhalations engage your vagus nerve, which is part of a system that connects your brainstem with your heart, lungs, and other organs. The vagus nerve, in turn, works on your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the system that…
