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Jan 2024
20m 18s

Calm Your Nervous System with Deep Breat...

Kirsten Larsen
About this episode

Nerves, what can you say about them? They perform so many important functions in your body and are related to every movement you make and even your thought patterns. 

However, nerves can really mess you up at times when they get out of control. Things such as anxiety, stress and depression can impact your nerves severely which in turn will negatively affect your entire body. When this happens you need to find a way to calm your nerves down and one of the best ways to do that is with deep breathing exercises.

Negative Breathing Patterns

Breathing patterns definitely play a role in how your nervous system reacts to the current state your body is in. 

According to Calm Clinic, people that are suffering from stress and anxiety exhibit the following poor breathing issues:

  • Shallow breathing – this results when you take short breaths that are often taken using your chest muscles instead of your diaphragm.
  • Monitored breathing – this is when you are very aware and focused on your breathing and often times it leads to further anxiety.
  • Over Breathing – this is taking in too much air. It actually causes people to believe they are not getting enough oxygen when quite the opposite is actually happening.

All of these types of breathing can lead to increased stress, anxiety, panic and further disruption of your proper nervous system functioning.

Why Deep Breathing?

Now that you know some breathing patterns that can make you more anxious and affect your nervous system in an adverse way, you need to know how to counteract that. The answer lies with deep breathing.

Deep breathing, or what is sometimes also known as ‘abdominal breathing’, is when you use your large diaphragm muscle near your stomach to take a breath. It tends to pull much more air into your lungs in a longer and smoother way that has a calming effect on your body and your nerves.

According to the American Institute of Stress, deep breathing impacts the body in the following positive ways:

  • Your metabolism slows down
  • Your heart rate decreases
  • Your blood pressure is lowered
  • Your breathing slows
  • Your muscles relax
  • Your nitric oxide levels increase – this increases blood and oxygen flow in your body

You can see from the list above that deep breathing has many benefits for your body including the calming of your nerves

Links Mentioned in This Episode:
RESILIENT BREATH EBOOK DOWNLOAD HERE

Deep Breathing Techniques That Will Calm Your Nerves—Included are some deep breathing exercises from some well-known websites that are authorities on stress and calming your nerves.

https://coachkirsten.com/breathe/

Thanks for listening! Leave a comment if you've been enjoying it. Check out more resources at CoachKirsten.com

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