Just Breathe
Well hello. Here are we nudging toward the last month of the most epic year we’ve ever had. Collectively. We watched the entire world shut down. We watched the overthrow of a Villain. We all experienced hardship we’d never seen before (all at very different levels).
And it occurred to me that I’ve never written about controlled breathing in this space. I mean, I have - many times over, and probably almost every week. But not exclusively.
If you have my free speaking guide, or we have worked together before, you’ve heard me talk about the benefits of controlled breathing.
Controlled Breathing
When your conscious mind decides when you will breathe in and out (as opposed to the autopilot that usually happens with breathing), it sends a signal to your brain that you’re not in danger (fight/flight/freeze mode), and automatically stops your brain from sending the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol into your blood stream.
Adrenaline and cortisol are responsible for so many physical responses that make us petrified of speaking in front of others: elevated heartrate, heaviness in your chest, fuzzy brain/inability to focus, shaking hands or legs, blushing, sweating… the list goes on, and is extensive.
Anxiety, panic attacks, vagus nerve response - these are all responses to your brain thinking you’re in danger.
Again, when you practise controlled breathing, you’re communicating with your brain that you’re NOT in danger, and it stops the production of the stress hormones.
So what does that mean?
That every time you either know you’re going into a stressful situation, or find yourself in one, you have a tool that can help to keep you calm, focused and able to operate.
For some of us, that is huge.
I love this Forbes article: How Breathing Calms Your Brain And Other Science-Based Benefits of Controlled Breathing by David DiSalvo.
And here’s something even cooler: the more you practise controlled breathing, the more your body starts to understand what you’re doing (refines your message), and the quicker your body goes into a calm state when you use it.
What does that mean? Let’s say you commit to practising controlled breathing for 2 minutes every day. You put an alarm on your phone for 8pm, and you stop whatever you’re doing and practise. This could mean bringing up my controlled breathing animated gif, or breathing in for 4, holding for 4, breathing out for 4, holding for 4. It could mean breathing in for 3, and breathing out for 6 without holding. It’s literally any breathing that you are conscious of.
Quick note: it’s the breathing out that stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system (what keeps you chill), and in order to avoid hyperventilation, it’s important to breathe out at least as long as you breathed in, and preferably longer. (Hence the 5/5/10 of the gif.)
A Multitude of Benefits
The benefits of this practise are immense. Staying calm for a job interview? Check. Being able to present at work meetings without anxiety? Check. Having complicated conversations? Check. Giving presentations at school? Check.
If you’re curious to learn more, please make sure you’ve got my free public speaking guide (sign up from my Home page) and email me about ways that we can incorporate controlled breathing into your routines, your speeches and your presentations (I have an incredible tool for building breathing into your speeches) so that you can finally ditch the fear and the physical stress responses that often come up when you’re doing hard things.
And as Glennon Doyle tells you: You can do hard things.
Are you up for it? Challenge yourself - make it real by committing in the comments below!
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