We’ve all been there: we’re having a bad day, a bout of anxiety, or trouble falling asleep and what advice do we get? To “just breathe.” A well-intentioned partner, friend, or loved one offers up that age-old platitude and somehow it only serves to stress us out more. Why is something so simple (and so essential to life) difficult to remember in the middle of an anxiety attack or another sleepless night?
When we’re feeling tense or stressed, it’s as if we forget to breathe—really breathe. That’s because shallow, rapid breathing is controlled by the “fight or flight” sympathetic nervous system, while long, deep breaths stimulate the opposing parasympathetic system—the one that tells us to relax. So while we’re always breathing, we’re not always breathing deeply, and it’s those full breaths that act as natural cues to unclench our tight grip on fear.
We all need a little reminder to breathe deeply throughout the day, but what if there was a simple equation you had in your arsenal that used the ratio of your breaths to actually promote a sense of calm in seconds? According to Dr. Andrew Weil, there is, and it’s called The 4-7-8 Breath.
Read Full Article >>>>>> The Breathing Trick That Can Instantly Calm Anxiety
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