We’re living in stressful, uncertain times. The one thing you can depend on is your breath. It’s always there for you. When you can change your breath, you can change your emotions. Anytime you need to calm down and refocus, you can use mindful breathing to help you feel better.
Mindful breathing will help you relax and destress. It shifts you out of the “fight or flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system that releases adrenaline and cortisol into your body and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, commonly known as “rest and digest.”
Deep and slow breathing stimulates the vagus nerve. This nerve connects the brain stem with the abdomen and is part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Conscious breathing restores balance, renews your energy, and instills a sense of calm, because it slows the heart rate, conserves energy, increases circulation, and promotes hormonal balance.
Mindful, intentional breathing brings us back to the present moment, which is where life is always taking place. The conscious awareness of your breath influences the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual states. A regular practice of mindful breathing helps the practitioner achieve a greater sense of well-being, build resilience, boost life force energy, relieve depression and PTSD, cultivate balance, slow the heart rate, build capillaries to deliver more oxygen to the organs, reduce stress hormones and inflammation, and improve digestion and immune function.
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