You’ve probably seen social media posts saying that all you need to do to calm your nervous system is take a slow deep breath.
Most people will tell you that the best way to feel calm is some variation of ‘Sit still and breathe deeply’.
It’s important to recognise that this does NOT work for every kind of nervous system state, or even for every person.
Why?
When you’re stuck in a FREEZE state, your body systems are already operating at a slower than normal rate, so sitting still and breathing in a way that slows your heart rate down isn’t going to help you to reset your nervous system.
It may actually make your symptoms worse.
And when you’re stuck in a FIGHT or FLIGHT state, and you’re feeling panicked and anxious, your breathing is likely to be shorter and quicker.
Deeper inhalations speed up your heartbeat and increase nervous system activation. This is the exact opposite of what you want!
And if you have impaired breathing (asthma, COPD, Long Covid), focusing on your breath might trigger a panic response, so another type of regulation resource may be a better fit.
Breathwork for nervous system regulation
It’s so important to remember that each breathwork practice has a different effect on your nervous system.
Feeling anxious signals that your nervous system is lacking safety and your body tenses up and constricts. This impacts your nervous system, fascia, muscles and tissues.
Tension in the body tightens your respiratory muscles and this affects the way you breathe. Such as: shallow breathing into the chest, a contracted and tight thoracic diaphragm due to feeling fearful, a collapsed posture that impedes diaphragmatic breathing, frequent breath-holding, forcing the out breath, or faster breathing patterns.
So how you breathe really impacts your nervous system and knowing what you can do to regulate your nervous system state empowers you to be able to take control of your body, especially in those moment when you feel anxious.
To safely regulate your nervous system, it is important to understand and discern the correct breathwork practices that your nervous system will require at different times.
Not every technique is suitable for everyone. Some breathing practices make people feel light-headed or more anxious. You don’t want to add more stress by adrenalising your nervous system when it needs more regulation and calming.
Learning to listen to your body is so important.
When you do breathing practices that lengthen your exhale, you are accentuating the relaxation response in your nervous system.
Slower breathwork practices, where you exhale for longer, work better for down regulating (calming) your nervous system.
Breathing through the nose, together with longer exhalations are very calming.
This is a better option to use when you are feeling anxious. But take your time to gradually get there – try to make your in and out breath even in length instead of going straight into longer exhalations.
Dysfunctional breathing such as over breathing can create a stress response instead of a calming response, and if your system is constantly in a stress response this is not healthy for your body and mind.
When you do breathing practices that focus on deepening your inhales, you are accentuating the activation (fight/flight) response in your nervous system.
So deeper inhalations work better for upregulating your nervous system when you feel flat and shutdown.
Breathing practices through the mouth, together with big inhalations are very activating.
This is only suitable when your nervous system has gone very flat and into a dorsal vagal shutdown state. You’ll only need to do a few to begin to feel the results.
Trauma healing is nuanced. It is so important to find the right resource for your current nervous system state.
Without knowing how to do this, you might choose the wrong tool and end up feeling worse.
Breathing is considered to be the bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. We can only change what we are aware of. Awareness is the first step to changing patterns that keep us tense and stuck in trauma.
Somatic work is teaching you to be sensationally aware of the unconscious.
Nervous system recovery, trauma integration and reprogramming your nervous system takes time, but you can heal.
A healthy, functional breathing pattern supports a more regulated nervous system which equals a calmer mind and a more relaxed body.
This blog is just a brief outline of body-centred, Polyvagal Psychotherapy. If you are looking for some more individualised guidance or someone who really understands the mind-body connection to overcome your trauma symptoms, please feel welcome to contact me: www.caroline-king.co.uk