Breathe Out Your Stress

When you breathe in, a muscle called the diaphragm moves down to make more room for oxygen in your lungs. As a result, there is more space in your heart for blood to flow, so blood flows slower through the heart. A group of neurons on your heart relay a message to your brain about the slowdown, and your brain sends a signal back to speed up your heart rate.

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Conversely, when you breathe out, your diaphragm moves up. There is less space for your heart in the thoracic cavity, and so blood flows faster through it. The neurons on your heart send a signal to your brain about the increased blood flow rate, and your brain sends a signal back to slow down your heart rate.

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Now that you understand the mechanism behind how breathing impacts your heart rate, you can see how taking a long deep inhale increases your heart rate and makes you more alert.

This is not what you want when you need to calm down.

So make sure to use the method described below to drive recovery, and decrease stress.

Make sure you are sitting down, and you have a quiet place to relax and focus on your breathing. Here are some examples:You can also use this principle for cadenced breathing over a short to moderate amount of time (1-10 minutes).Examples

• Inhale for 3s, hold for 1s, exhale for 6s
• Inhale for 2s, hold for 1s, exhale for 4-5s

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Now that you are equipped with a science-backed tool for regulating stress, give it a try and share this with a colleague who needs to breathe out their stress!