«You need breathe for a second and calm down.” Who has not heard this phrase at some time? If you have also been unlucky enough to have been the one who has been addressed, you will know first-hand that there is nothing that can make one more nervous than hearing this. They say that »when the river sounds, it carries water«, but what truth is there in this ill-received advice?
It is scientifically proven that the breathing influences a lot on the nervous system. Briefly explained, the ANS (autonomic nervous system) is the one that controls the involuntary actions of our body. It is divided into the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system. Evolutionarily having these two systems has been crucial for our survival. When at a given moment we encounter a threat we quickly change the parasympathetic system to the sympathetic system (also known as alarm system). This second comes into action as if it were jumping weights, which entails a series of changes at the body level. The pupils dilate, the heart speeds up, digestion stops, the lungs breathe faster, the muscles tense… All of this prepares us for a response known as “fight or flight.” Whether I decide to face or escape danger, all those body changes will be very helpful for my performance.
Nowadays, this alarm mechanism that was so advantageous for survival, does not always provide a proportionate or adjusted response to respond to the situation as we require. He stresswhich a priori is beneficial to provide our body with the energy necessary to act, can block us if it is released in an uncontrolled manner. At that moment it is important, first of all, to know how to recognize that we are in a situation in which it would be better to calm down before acting and also to have the diligence to stop and make the decision. technique. And perhaps most of the difficulty lies in these prerequisites. Once one is able to stop and apply the technique, it usually has relatively quick effects compared to other techniques (such as meditation) where benefits They require a little more time and practice to be perceived.
The step by step of the technique
But then what is the technique? There is a famous phrase that the English use which is ‘fake it until you make it’. That is. It is about “faking” our breathing associated with the parasympathetic mode of our body: deep and leisurely. After a few moments changing our automatic breathing in moments of stress (which will probably be fast and superficial) to one that we will manipulate to be more relaxed, the rest of the “leads” (the organs) that we talked about will return to their initial position by drag effect. And after a few moments of conscious breathing, the body will automatically return to functioning in parasympathetic mode, without the need for voluntary work.
To get started and understand the precise operation, just put a hand on the chest Itra in the lower part of the stomach. Which of the two hands do you notice rising the most? In moments of hyperarousalwe will probably notice that it is the hand placed on top in which we perceive the most movement. When taking a deep breathing To widen the lower part of our abdomen, the hand placed on the belly will be raised slightly. That is our goal. It is achieved thanks to the contraction of the diaphragm It allows more space to expand the lungs, hence this breathing is known as slow diaphragmatic breathing.
A second important point is to try inhale and exhale in a regular pattern. Therefore, we can inhale for 3 seconds (count slowly!) and, after holding for another 3 seconds, exhale for about 3 more seconds (slowly!). We can think about walking through each side of a triangle with each step and, when finished, walking around it about 10 more times to begin to feel the relaxing effect.
There are many people who recommend it, but how many actually put it into practice? It’s simple, perhaps the only difficult thing is finding a space in our busy schedules to stop and breathe.
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