The Power of Breath
Is the solution to stress as simple as “Just Breathe”?
Not quite - though I’d love to tell you that it is! Our response to stress is a complex mind and body process, and Just Breathe is far too simple a solution. I am here to tell you though, that Breathe can help!
Let’s face it - in today’s day and age, we face and approach stressful situations daily and it’s important that we learn and use practices that help protect our mind and body from the effects of prolonged stress. That’s where the act of breathing, or otherwise known as Pranayama practice in yoga, can be helpful.
Our modern day biologically hard wired stress response is not always effective at dealing with our modern day stressors. Heard of the saying fight or flight? In truth, that is how our stress response system is biologically designed, to assist us in fleeing or fighting our way out of something we perceive as dangerous. Now imagine trying to fight or flee your way out of our modern day World’s stressors, for example, things like financial issues, or negotiating a curfew with your teenager - I mean we’ve probably all run away from these problems before or fought our way through them. I wonder though, on the other side of it all did you find that fighting or fleeing was the most effective strategy, did you end up exhausted and burnt out?
When our fight or flight response kicks in, we often participate in shallow breathing. This occurs as a survival instinct for a number of reasons. For example, one reason is that we need to circulate oxygen quickly as our body has a larger need for oxygen to our muscles when preparing to fight or flee. Another reason is we hold or keep a reserve of breath in our lungs during a flight or fight situation in case we need it, for example, if we are heading under water, or need to run away quickly.
So how can Pranayama help?
Prolonged experience in our fight or flight system is not good for our body and has detrimental effects. Research has linked chronic stress to the onset of heart conditions, obesity and prolonged, chronic and complicated medical issues (see Gabor Mate’s book The Myth of Normal for more details).
Let me be clear - breathing is not the solution to that sticky stressful problem you are having. That takes effort, energy and problem solving skills and sometimes let's be honest - luck and patience - as a lot of our everyday problems are out of our control. What Pranayama does do though is give you the grounded-ness you need to approach with ease life's challenges, combating negative side effects of prolonged stress, like burnout and fatigue and can lower blood pressure (Sharma, Subramaniam, Rajajeyakumar, Bhavanani & Sahai, 2013; Goyal, Lata, Walia & Narula, 2014). Now that's magic.
Check out my latest Instagram post @yogablissbytess for a daily breathing activity you can integrate into your routine today!
PS I care about everyone’s safety, if you have any medical concerns, please discuss the use of breathing exercises with your physician before using them on your own.
Sharma, V. K., Trakroo, M., Subramaniam, V., Rajajeyakumar, M., Bhavanani, A. B., & Sahai, A. (2013). Effect of fast and slow pranayama on perceived stress and cardiovascular parameters in young health-care students. International journal of yoga, 6(2), 104–110. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-6131.113400
Goyal, R., Lata, H., Walia, L., & Narula, M. K. (2014). Effect of pranayama on rate pressure product in mild hypertensives. International journal of applied & basic medical research, 4(2), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-516X.136776