Rewiring Stress: How Your Breath Can Calm Your Nervous System

A sensation of panic, unable to get enough oxygen, heart racing; overwhelmed with tasks, deadlines, responsibilities.  Perhaps feeling emotionally unsettled, mentally paralyzed to the point of inertia, unable to sleep, relax or enjoy life.  Sound familiar?

Those are just some of the felt and observable symptoms of stress.

Some stress is actually a good thing; we must have it in some measure in order to stretch & grow, to be agile and able to adapt to new situations.  The trouble is, prolonged mid-to-high grade stress can escalate into anxiety, depression and other severe emotional or physical health problems.

At it’s essence,  stress is a safety mechanism.  Your brain takes in information from your senses, categorizes it and elicits a stress response when deemed necessary.  In other words, your brain keeps you safe by alerting you to potential danger in the environment. Unfortunately, many of us have an over-active danger receptor such that we remain, at least in part, on high-alert most of the time.  If so, your nervous system, and specifically the sympathetic arm of your nervous system, is in constant over-drive.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS), is in charge of your ‘fight / flight’ response – these are the ‘keep you safe’ reactions that (for example) prevent you from being struck by a car as you cross a busy street.  Very useful in small doses, but elevated and prolonged activity of the SNS actually changes the brain and neural pathways which is why it can be so challenging to manage stress.  Like driving a car through deep snow, neural messages get caught in the ruts – the path of least resistance.  Literally, the brain becomes wired to follow the wiring pattern most often followed.

However there is good news!  Just as your brain learned to follow the ‘ruts’, you can re-wire it to choose an alternate path and therefor diminish the negative impact of sustained stressful circumstances.

One of the most readily available tools to help do so is to use your breath, which is directly and immediately linked to your nervous system. Sound too simple?  I thought so too, until I started using it.

You see, because of their link, you can actually influence (dare I say ‘change’) your nervous system state simply by changing your breath.

Try it now.  For the next couple of minutes bring your complete attention to your breath.  Simply notice yourself breathing in and out, relaxed and easy….  Notice that your breath keeps on happening without any effort from you.  After a few minutes, notice how you feel.  You were likely already feeling somewhat relaxed and just by observing your breath, I’ll bet you brought an even deeper sense of calm to your nervous system.

This was the most basic of all breath practices, and like almost anything, the benefits increase with more advanced practices.  And like any skill, we practice, practice, practice before the big game so that when we’re faced with big challenges, the wiring is already in place; the brain and the nervous system know what to do – they follow the pattern of breath you’ve taught yourself.