Breathing: ‘The physiological sigh’
A tool to settle your nervous system
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK. So in a series of short articles I’m sharing a set of tools that can help to resolve symptoms arising from anxiety, stress, shock, and trauma by helping to settle your nervous system.
I shared an initial set of tools in an article I published in mental health awareness week last year.
Stress, anxiety and trauma can all affect how we breathe. For example, when we’re stressed or anxious, our breathing can become shallow and rapid, which can exacerbate feelings of tension.
Conscious breathing and breathwork can bring a feeling of relaxation and calmness and help to process and release experiences of trauma. Breathing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, helping soothe both the body and the mind.
Whilst breathing is the most natural thing in the world and something that we all do without thinking, there are also many deliberate breathing techniques. I’m going to pick just one.
According to research, the ‘physiological sigh’ (also sometimes called ‘cyclic sighing’) is the fastest way to reduce the stress response in our body. It helps regulate our nervous system and emotional well-being, improving mood.
The physiological sigh consists of a double inhale followed by a single, long exhale. Here’s how you do it:
- Take one deep in-breath through your nose.
- Without exhaling, take in another in-breath, filling your lungs even more.
- Give a long exhale through your mouth.
- Do it 1–3 times, or as needed.
- Take a moment to feel how you’re doing inside, notice any sensations.
When we are stressed, the aveoli (tiny air sacs at the end of the bronchioles) in our lungs tend to collapse. This technique opens them up again, the double in-breath filling these sacs with as much oxygen as possible, and gives more effect to the calming effects of your exhale, cleansing your bloodstream of anxiety-inducing carbon dioxide.
