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When faced with a stressful situation, our breathing automatically changes. We’re often not aware of this happening because we are so focused on the stressor. It could be your boss had dumped a load more work on you to complete by the next day. Or you’ve just missed your train and you’re staring at the departure board trying to work out how late you’re going to be and all the negative outcomes that come with the consequences. We are not paying attention to our breathing. 

When you go into fight or flight, your body is preparing you to run, then rest and digest. Our fast breathing when we run is to help us get oxygen to our muscles in quick, sharp bursts. When we rest and digest, our breathing becomes much deeper and slower. It is all controlled by the Vagus nerve, which runs down our body from the brain, to all the vital organs including heart and gut. We can fool our body and brain into thinking we are in rest and digest mode by artificially breathing deep and long.

Years ago I took part in a scientific exercise at the Warneford Hospital, Oxford. They hooked me up to an EEG monitor and asked me to hyperventilate. As I breathed fast and shallow, I experienced some interesting side effects, my heart beat faster, I couldn’t control the breathing and I experienced tunnel vision – all symptoms of a Panic attack.

Research in the USA has found that smokers experience more panic attacks than non-smokers. Naomi Breslau, PhD and Donald F Klein, MD of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, studied thousands of smokers. The smokers were three times more likely to experience a panic attack than a non-smoker. There were several factors cited as possibly being responsible for this. Nicotine is a stimulant like caffeine, and the carbon monoxide could cause the body to panic into believing that it’s suffocating. Another reason to quit smoking.

Breathing exercises 

One tool I show my clients to help them remain calm is the Vagus nerve breathing exercise. It triggers the parasympathetic nervous system and helps you calm down as they activate higher heart rate variability.

You do this by breathing deeply and slowly from your diaphragm. If you breathe through your nose, all the better; you can visualise filling up the lower part of your lungs, just above the navel, like a balloon. Place your hands on your stomach; watch your hands as you breathe in. They should rise. If they don’t, you’re breathing from higher up, and this is too shallow. 

Buddhist monks use slow breathing to reduce their heartbeat to slow everything down. It’s better if we breathe out slightly longer than we breathe in. The term 7/11 breathing means you breathe in for the count of 7 and out for the count of 11. However, some people, particularly if they smoke or have asthma, struggle with this, so I recommend the following technique.

Sit down on a comfortable chair. Place your hands on your stomach and breathe in slowly but deeply, so that your hands lift.  

Breathe out slowly and relax your shoulders as you breathe out.  

Now, as you breathe in, count. Breathe in to your fullest capacity. What number did you reach?  

Now on your breath out, count again and add 1. (So if you breathed in for 5, breathe out for 6.) Also, try to relax your muscles as you breathe out.  

Now breathe in to the count of your top number.  

Breathe out and add 2. (So if you breathed in for 5, breathe out for 7.)  

Now breathe in for your top number.   

Breathe out and add 3. (If this is too tricky, stick to the increased number that suits you best.) 

Breathe in to your top count, and this time say to yourself an affirmation which resonates with you, such as “Breathe in Calm”, Peace, Relax, Love, Compassion, etc.  

Now breathe out to your higher count and this time say to yourself “Breathe out tension”, Stress, Anger, Fear, Envy, etc.  

Carry on doing this for at least 5 minutes.

This exercise can help lower the number of beats your heart makes and decreases blood pressure.

Penelope Ling
BA(hons) RIBA DHP CBT(Hyp) SFBT(Hyp) SFBTSUP(Hyp) AccHypSup MNCH(Acc) CNHC(reg) AfSFH(exec) Member of The College of Medicine.
w: www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk

We can find this excerpt in Penny’s book “Driving Me Crazy – Overcome the fear of driving” which you can purchase from Amazon. For more details go to: https://www.oxford-hypnotherapy.co.uk/books