The Healing Power of the Breath
Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety, Enhance Concentration, and Balance Your Emotions
Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg are medical doctors, clinical psychiatrists and university professors. They also happen to be two of the world’s leading breath experts—integrating Western science and ancient breath techniques derived from yoga, qigong, Coherent Breathing, and Open-Focus meditation. Big Ideas we explore: Pill or 20 minutes?, Breath = portal to mind-body systems, Coherent Breathing, Resistance Breathing and turning off your worry centers via vagus nerves.
Big Ideas
- Pill or 20 minutes?What’ll it be?!
- Breath = Our portal to the mind-body systemInto mind-body system.
- Coherent BreathingFind resonant rate. 10x HRV.
- Resistance Breathing (aka Victory Over Mind via Breath)Victory over mind via breath.
- Turn off the Worry Centers via the Vagus NervesTurn off via Vagus.
- The Total BreathCoherent + Resistant + Moving.
“Throughout history, great healers have discovered the power of breathing to enhance the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of their people. Once secret and sacred, breath practices are now available to everyone. We invite you on a journey through our book and the Healing Power of the Breath CD to learn simple, natural methods to become calmer, overcome stress, boost energy, focus your mind, enhance physical fitness, sleep peacefully, and feel closer to those you love. We will teach you core breathing techniques, explain how they work, and show you how to use them to meet the many challenges you face.
The human body has the power to heal itself from the cellular level up. We regenerate our body tissues every day. …
Studies are revealing that by changing the patterns of breathing it is possible to restore balance to stress response systems, calm an agitated mind, relieve symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), improve physical health and endurance, elevate performance, and enhance relationships. The scientific bases for such powerful effects of breathing practices will be presented as we show how to use them in many aspects of your daily life.”
~ Richard P. Brown & Patricia L. Gerbarg from The Healing Power of the Breath
Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg are medical doctors, clinical psychiatrists and university professors. They also happen to be two of the world’s leading breath experts—integrating Western science and ancient breath techniques derived from yoga, qigong, Coherent Breathing, and Open-Focus meditation. (Oh, and they’re married. Power couple. :)
I got this book in preparation for Optimal Breathing 101 after I changed my life integrating some simple suggestions from Patrick McKeown’s great book The Oxygen Advantage.
As I said in our Notes on Belisa Vranich’s Breathe, I’m so moved by my own personal experiences with optimizing my breathing that our list of fundies has gone from Eat Move Sleep to BREATHE Eat Move Sleep (+ Focus).
Although I haven’t listened to it yet, this book comes with a CD that has a number of guided meditations. What I most enjoyed about the book, in addition to the simple powerful breathing techniques the author’s share, is the rigor with which they explore the scientific underpinnings of *why* optimizing our breathing is so beneficial to, as the sub-title suggests, reducing stress and anxiety, enhancing concentration, and balancing your emotions.
If you’re looking for a practical guide to optimizing your breathing written by two psychiatrists backing up their ideas with science, I think you’ll dig it. (Get a copy here.)
As always, the book is packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!
Download MP3
Download PDFWhat do Mahatma Gandhi, the martial artist Bruce Lee, Buddhist meditators, Christian Monks, Hawaiian kahunas, and Russian Special Forces have in common? They all used breathing to enhance their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
Get the BookPill or 20 minutes?
“While breath practices have the power to heal, they require your activate participation in order to be effective. Some people find it easier to quickly take a pill than to set aside twenty minutes of time to practice breathing every day. However, if you prefer to activate the natural healing processes within your body, to reconnect with your true self, and to experience more meaningful relationships—treasures not found in a pill bottle—then this book is for you. With a little time and effort you will soon be able to harness the power of the breath to enhance your health and happiness.”
What will it be?
A quick pop of the pill or dedicating 20 minutes a day to optimizing your breathing?
Already optimizing? Awesome.
If not…
*insert (potentially) whiny voice*
“20 minutes? How will I find that?!” (hah)
Well, first off, we’ll be able to count this breath work as your meditation time if you like.
Secondly, if you haven’t carved out the 20 minutes for meditation yet: COME ON!! What are you waiting for? :)
Seriously. If your excuse is you’re just too busy to find the time, then let’s find the time. Unless you’re one of the 4 people on the planet who has so Optimized their every moment that they productively use every second of every day, my hunch is you have a few extra less-than-optimized-minutes lying around.
Where are they?
I will trade this __________________ for Optimizing my life via breath work/meditation.
Fantastic. #highfives. etc.
(Habits 101 for help installing the habit!)
When the mind is agitated, change the pattern of the breath.
Breath = Our portal to the mind-body system
“In the previous chapter we introduced you to the soothing, relaxing, restoring part of the nervous system, known to scientists as the parasympathetic nervous system. This counterbalances the activating, energy-burning part called the sympathetic nervous system. The activating part gets us ready to do things we need to do as well as to respond to threat or danger by releasing adrenaline, speeding up the heart, increasing the respiratory rate, raising the blood pressure, and redistributing blood flow to the muscles of the arms and legs. This get-ready-for-action system burns a lot of energy, releases free radicals (small particles that damage cells), and increases inflammatory processes. The soothing, recharging part, the parasympathetic nervous system, slows down the heart, slows respiration, calms the mind, restores energy reserves, repairs cells, and reduces inflammation. We need both systems, but for a healthy mind and body, we need them to be in balance.”
That’s really powerful.
Quick re-cap of what’s going on behind-the-scenes: Our body has two nervous systems: the parasympathetic and the sympathetic.
The parasympathetic nervous system is soothing, relaxing and restorative. It counterbalances the activating, energy-burning sympathetic nervous system.
We need to make sure those two are balanced.
If we don’t have enough of the soothing stuff going on, the otherwise manageable stress of our lives quickly becomes an overwhelming amount of stress that leads to mental and emotional fatigue, anxiety, depression, burnout and all the other not-so-fun stuff we’re looking to avoid.
Tal Ben-Shahar comes to mind. In The Pursuit of Perfect he tells us: “The problem in today’s corporate world, as well as in many other realms, is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery.”
Ah. It’s not that we work too hard per se. It’s that we don’t RECOVER enough. (I’ve always loved that distinction.)
We need to oscillate (and make waves) or the stress load will become intolerable.
In Toughness Training for Life, Jim Loehr puts it this way: “Making waves is another term for the same concept of balance between the stress and recovery cycles we’ve been discussing. Whether we express it as day and night, peaks and valleys, or ebb and flow, the recurring themes of toughening always involve dynamic movement, expansion of challenge, change, growth, oscillation, and rhythm alternating with rest and recovery.”
All of that is to say: our parasympathetic (recovery wave) and sympathetic (crush it wave) need to be balanced. And… Breathing right is one of the most powerful ways to make that happen.
In fact, it’s the portal to the mind-body system—it’s the most direct way to influence our brains.
“Of all the automatic functions of the body, only one can be easily controlled voluntarily—breathing. By voluntarily changing the rate, depth, and pattern of breathing, we can change the messages being sent from the body’s respiratory system to the brain. In this way, breathing techniques provide a portal to the autonomic communication network through which we can, by changing our breathing patterns, send specific messages to the brain using the language of the body, a language the brain understands and to which it responds. Messages from the respiratory system have rapid, powerful effects on major brain centers involved in thought, emotion, and behavior. For instance, if we feel anxious, just a few minutes of Coherent Breathing can calm our worried mind and foster more rational, rather than impulsive, decision-making.”
Breathe.
Coherently.
And calm your mind…
Moving the breath relaxes and refreshes, like an internal massage and shower.
For healthy people who have mild to moderate stress, twenty minutes of Total Breath practice once a day is usually sufficient. However, during periods of greater stress, it helps to practice twice a day.
Coherent Breathing
“Coherent Breathing is a simple way to increase heart-rate variability and balance the stress-response systems. When scientists tested people at all possible breathing rates, they found that there is an ideal breath rate for each person, somewhere between three and a half and six breaths per minute for adults using equal time for breathing in and breathing out, a sweet spot where HRV is maximized and the electrical rhythms of the heart, lungs, and brain become synchronized. Modern researchers have called this the resonant rate, but this phenomenon has been known for centuries by religious adepts in many cultures. For example, when Zen Buddhist monks enter deep meditation, called zazen, they breathe at six breaths per minute. The Italian cardiologist Luciano Bernardi discovered that traditional chanting of the Latin Hail Mary occurs at six breaths per minute. …
Coherent Breathing is breathing at a rate of five breaths per minute, around the middle of the resonant breathing range. … Breathing at a rate that is close to one’s ideal resonant rate can induce a tenfold improvement in HRV. For people who are over six feet tall, the ideal resonant rate is three to three and half breaths per minute.”
Coherent Breathing. That’s where it’s at.
Fascinating research shows that breathing at our “resonant rate” can induce a 10x improvement in our heart-rate variability—one of the best predictors of our overall well-being.
(TENx. That’s staggering.)
So, basic parameters: 5 breaths per minute. (If you’re over 6 feet tall (like me), then aim for closer to 3.5 breaths per minute.)
That’s it.
Breathe into your belly. Relax your shoulders. 3-5 breaths per minute. 20 minutes per day.
And, drop into that zone throughout the day whenever you’re feeling it.
Shockingly powerful results.
P.S. The book comes with a CD to help guide you through the timing for your Coherent Breathing. You can also get an app that will help you pace your breathing.
Last month Mark Divine was up visiting and walked us through a great box-breathing guided meditation. It was amazing. (Wish we recorded it!) He used a little app. I asked him for his recs.
Here’s what he says: Two options: Unbeatable Mind Box Breathing app built by David DeSouza + Saagara’s Pranayama Universal Breathing app.
(I promised Mark a “Hooyah!” of thanks in this Note. Commander: “Hooyah!”)
… Coherent Breathing is the base of the program. Then we can add some other breathing techniques to arrive at what they call the “Total Breath.” Let’s take a look at a couple more techniques.
By increasing parasympathetic activity and decreasing sympathetic activity, Coherent Breathing balances and stabilizes the stress-response system, helping you to react more appropriately rather than with excess fear, anger, or feelings of helpless immobility. The increased parasympathetic activity calms the mind, slows the heart, lowers blood pressure, reduces inflammation, and strengthens stress resilience.
Resistance Breathing (aka Victory Over Mind via Breath)
“Resistance Breathing refers to various techniques used to create resistance to the flow of air and thereby enhance the effects of Coherent Breathing. Resistance Breathing slightly increases pressure in the lungs, which heightens stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, the soothing, recharging part of the nervous system. Also, when the respiratory muscles have to work harder against resistance, they become stronger over time. Taking slower and deeper breaths also opens more of the lungs alveoli, the tiny air-filled sacs through which oxygen enters the blood and carbon dioxide is expelled. The results are healthier lungs and better oxygenation. This is especially important for people who are prone to respiratory infections, pneumonia, or who have had atelectasis (collapse of lung tissue).”
Resistance Breathing.
It’s kinda like going to the gym for your lungs.
In Breathe, we chatted about the importance of working out the most important under-appreciated muscle in your body: your diaphragm.
Now, it’s time to work out those little air-filled sacs with the coolest name ever: alveolis!!
Put on your lung warmers and let’s hit the Breath Gym!
Step 1. Breathe through your nose. This alone “creates a little more resistance to air-flow than breathing through the mouth.”
(I know I’m repeating myself, but check out the Notes on The Oxygen Advantage and go slap that piece of tape over your mouth at night as you train yourself to exclusively breathe through your nose. I promise: a) it will look ridiculous and b) it will deliver results.)
Step 2. Either breathe out pursed lips or get ready for a little ocean breathing!
If you’ve done a bit of yoga, you might be familiar with this style. In Sanskrit, it’s called ujjayi. In addition to being fun to say (pronounced oo-jai), that word has the most ridiculously great meaning ever.
It literally means: “Victory over the mind through the breath.”
Check out the book + CD or Google ujjayi breath for more!
Turn off the Worry Centers via the Vagus Nerves
“One of the ways that Coherent Breathing and Resistance Breathing work is by turning off the ‘worry centers’ of the brain. These forms of breathing stimulate the vagus nerves, the main pathways of the parasympathetic nervous systems. These pathways ascend to relay stations in the brainstem and extend via the thalamus to the cerebral cortex, where they quiet the excess thinking activity. At the same time, other branches of the pathway enter the centers of emotion regulation in the prefrontal cortex and in the limbic system, including the amygdala and hippocampus, where they help reduce anxiety and emotional overreactivity. The tendency to calm both the intellect and the emotions may account for the rapid effects of these breath practices in reducing negative thoughts and emotions, such as excessive worry and anxiety.”
The vagus nerves.
In Love 2.0, Barbara Fredrickson gives us a tour of the biological underpinnings of creating more micro-moments of positivity resonance in our lives (aka Love).
One of the key facets is having what she calls a “higher vagal tone.”
One of the best ways to boost that vagal tone?
Breathing well.
Here’s Barbara: “That’s because people with higher vagal tone, science has shown, are more flexible across a whole host of domains—physical, mental, and social. They simply adapt better to their ever- shifting circumstances, albeit completely at nonconscious levels. Physically, they regulate their internal bodily processes more efficiently, like their glucose levels and inflammation. Mentally they’re better able to regulate their attention and emotions, even their behavior. Socially, they’re especially skillful in navigating interpersonal interactions and in forging positive connections with others. By definition, then, they experience more micro-moments of love. It’s as though the agility of the conduit between the brains and the hearts—as reflected in their high vagal tone—allows them to be exquisitely agile, attuned, and flexible as they navigate the ups and downs of day-to-day life and social exchanges. High vagal tone, then, can be taken as high loving potential.”
Breathe coherently and love more?
I’ll take it!
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
The Total Breath
“Let’s briefly review what you have learned about the core breathing practices, the Total Breath, and the Complete Practice. The core breathing practices are Coherent Breathing, Resistance Breathing, and Breath Moving. Coherent Breathing uses the Healing Power of the Breath CD track to maintain a rate of five to six breaths per minute. Resistance Breathing creates a soft ocean sound by partial obstruction of the flow of air. During Breath Moving, attention is focused on moving the breath through the body areas that need healing or on creating circuits that move the breath imaginatively between two places in the body—for example, between the top of the head and the base of the spine. The Total Breath is achieved by bringing all three breath forms—Coherent Breathing, Resistance Breathing, and Breath Moving—to produce the Total Breath. Three breath forms are combined into one not only to save time but also to boost the therapeutic effects on stress resilience and the body’s regulatory system.”
Coherent Breathing = 3-5 breaths per minute. Remember our potential 10x improvement in heart-rate variability by simply slowing down our breathing? Relax. Breathe. Deeply. Slowly.
Resistance Breathing = like a little weight training for the alveolis.
Breath Moving = a little qigong action we didn’t get to where you imagine energy moving in your body.
Put it all together and you have the Total Breath.
We’ve barely scratched the surface of the various breathing techniques and research studies demonstrating the efficacy of breathing on our stress levels. If you’re looking to learn more, get the book and/or visit their site at www.breath-body-mind.com.
For now, how about a minute of Coherent Breathing?
It’s as simple as 5 nice, deep, relaxing breaths!
Remember, it takes time to rebalance the stress-response system and it takes time to rewire old patterns of emotional response. You need to put aside the endless distractions and tasks of your busy life so that you can focus attention on what goes on inside you.
About the authors
