RESPIRA Education

The Science of Better Breathing

Understanding the link between breathing and the autonomic nervous system.

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Team Respira
17 Apr 2023
3 min read

Breath is life. Pumping our hearts, feeding our brains, powering our cells. We all know these facts, but struggle to remember them. At RESPIRA, we’d like to revitalize ou collective awareness of how we are breathing, because it has such a profound effect on our physical and mental well-being.

Ancient practice is now supported by modern science. Consciously modified breathing patterns have a palpable impact on our energy, our emotions and the chemical balance of our brains. This science has influenced the practices, processes and performance of Athletes, Psychologists, Navy Seals, Yogis and many more across a wide and eclectic spectrum.

Amidst a hectic, hyper-connected world, maintaining a relationship with our ownfundamental humanity has never been more important. Enter breathwork. It helps ussleep better, stress less, improve focus and invoke energy. And ultimately, it keeps us in touch with ourselves.

Autonomic Nervous System

Your nervous system is mind-blowingly intricate. In each single moment, your Automatic Nervous System (ANS) is processing information and sending messages to your body with staggering speed and accuracy, controlling vital functions like heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and breathing.

Under the ANS umbrella, there are two key branches. The Sympathetic branchstimulates our ‘fight or flight’ response, energy generation and arousal, while our Parasympathetic system regulates our ‘rest and relax’ response, signaling that we'resafe, and subsequently promoting recovery and relaxation.

To remain in balance, it’s vital these two branches work in harmony, but it’s never beenmore difficult. Modern life has generated stressors that the human brain wasn’tdesigned to deal with. Political instability, financial worries and relationship problemscan over-activate the Sympathetic response unit, with repeated and prolongedinstances triggering weakened immune systems, or mental health issues like chronicanxiety, depression, and PTSD.

That’s where breathwork comes in. Breathing can help you recover equilibrium in theANS; it’s the single exception to the mostly involuntary processes of the AutonomicNervous System. When we take control of our breathing, we can take control of how wefeel, with scientific research proving it’s one of the most effective ways to improvemental and physical health, reducing stress, alleviating anxiety, and helping you managemedical issues including sleep dysfunction, PTSD, OCD, ADD, schizophrenia and manymore.

Studies

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