What Is Deep Breathing?
Deep breathing is a method of taking long, deep and slow breaths. This involves greater use of the diaphragm, and lessened usage of smaller (accessory) muscles of the chest and lungs which tend to be in action more in states of anxiety and apprehension. Scientifically deep breathing can be described as an efficient integrative body–mind training for dealing with stress and psychosomatic conditions.
Deep breathing is consistently publicized for stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma management. But this is more than just breathing a long, deep or slow breath. Deep breathing is also called diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, belly breathing, or controlled respiration.
“Breathe deeply, until sweet air extinguishes the burn of fear in your lungs and every breath is a beautiful refusal to become anything less than infinite.”
What Happens When You Deep Breathe?
Deep breathing involves full contraction of the diaphragm, expansion of the belly, and deepening of inhalation and exhalation. This happens because the air coming in through the nose completely fills your lungs (unlike the usual), and this makes the lower belly rise. It could seem unnatural or effortful, because you aren’t used to it.
Yet, the truth remains that regular shallow breaths hinder complete oxygenation, make the muscles tense; which promotes stress and anxiety. Deep breathing on the other hand, involves decreasing the respiration frequency (which means you breathe lesser times in a given minute), as a result of which there is greater time to allow exchange of gases between the blood vessels and the air in the lungs.
Resultantly there is more oxygen delivered inside the body, and greater amount of carbon dioxide removed out of the body. This enhances oxygenation and makes you feel invigorated and rejuvenated.
“From a yogic perspective, life is a count of breaths. If you were given a certain number of breaths and you spent them off all at once (rapid shallow breathing), you would exhaust them in no time. Deep breathing, based on this logic, enhances longevity.”
Deep Breathing: Is it such a big deal?
Psychological Benefits
- Enhances positive emotions
- Reduces anxious obsessions
- Combats negative thinking
- Lowers the impact of stress
- Prevents burnout exhaustion
- Relieves emotional exhaustion
- Prevents depersonalization
- Improves sleep quality
- Lowers perception of pain
Physical Benefits
- Better cellular oxygenation
- Better pulmonary function
- Builds respiratory fitness
- Reduces blood pressure
- Improves cardiac function
- Enhances muscle strength
- Improves intestinal motility
- Eases preterm labor anxiety
- Lessens chronic low back pain
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) in the body controls functions like breathing, heartbeat, digestion and everything automated, that you are unaware of. The ANS comprises two parts – the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system activates the fight or flight response during a threat or perceived danger, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system restores the body to a state of calm.
Today, nearly everything in life (even a vacation) triggers the release of the stress hormone leading to sympathetic overdrive and hence, stress. Simple deep breathing can activate the parasympathetic system to combat this stress.
“When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace”
Try to practice this once or twice a day, preferably at the same time. This helps build the sense of ritual and establishes a habit of mindfulness.
References
- Zaccaro, A., Piarulli, A., Laurino, M., Garbella, E., Menicucci, D., Neri, B., & Gemignani, A. (2018). How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 353.
- Ma, X., Yue, Z. Q., Gong, Z. Q., Zhang, H., Duan, N. Y., Shi, Y. T., Wei, G. X., & Li, Y. F. (2017). The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 874.
- Perciavalle, V., Blandini, M., Fecarotta, P., Buscemi, A., Di Corrado, D., Bertolo, L., Fichera, F., & Coco, M. (2017). The role of deep breathing on stress. Neurological Sciences: official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, 38(3), 451–458
