And breathe…

One of the most simple and effective ways that we can deactivate the fight flight response that I talked about last time is by breathing. Yes, I know that if you’re reading this you are obviously breathing and have been doing it all your life BUT generally you leave control of HOW you are breathing to your autonomic nervous system. If you are worried or stressed then you are in an alerted state. Your breathing will be high and fast to get as much oxygen into your lungs so that your cardio vascular system can get it to your muscles to keep them fuelled for action.

So…if we deepen and slow the breathing then we can reverse our body’s physical threat response and tell our mind to stand down because there is no physical threat. There are lots of different breathing techniques if you search online, all designed to bring you back to a calmer state, where you can deal with what is going on more effectively. Balanced breathing is my chosen technique because it is simple (so easy to remember!) and effective

■ Deepen the breath by breathing from your belly, which should rise as you breathe in and then deflate as your breathe out

■ Lengthen the breath by counting to 6 on the in and the out breath. If you can’t initially reach 6 then do 4 or 5 and just make the out breath the same length.

■ Practice making both the in and the out breath slow and smooth