Hi everyone, welcome to my new blog, today I am going to be talking to you about resonance breathing and how it can help alleviate anxiety. But firstly I would just like to say, I’m so happy you’re here. My name is Amanda and I hope you’re all well.
With the current events happening around us, I thought today’s topic of conversation on Resonance Breathing and anxiety, was rather good timing. As I have been using the ‘Breathing App’ over the last month. And the wonderful affects I’ve experienced so far from it have been incredible.
What is resonance breathing you might be asking?
Resonance is the scientific term that describes what happens when our heart rate, blood pressure and brainwave functionality come into a coherent frequency. It occurs spontaneously when we breathe at a rate of five to seven breaths per minute. And when compared to the average fifteen to eighteen breathes per minute for the average person; it becomes clear that resonance breathing helps alleviate anxiety. And create a calm, restful alertness.
The body, the nervous system and our emotions all have an innate ability to restore themselves through balancing the autonomic nervous system. Which controls our heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, respiration and many other automatic functions of the body.
A whole-body approach to rejuvenation
As you can see, resonance breathing has far more beneficial aspects than initially meets the eye. As it can be a whole-body approach to rejuvenating a healthy heart and nervous system by bringing the bodies autonomic nervous system back in to a balanced and peace like state. Lots of research studies have found resonant breathing to reduces stress and inflammation within the body. By helping improve sleep, resiliency in times of stress and strengthens cardiovascular function. The best part is how simple it is to perform. I promise you can easily pick up this technique on the first attempt with the use of the app.
Our modern world is over stimulated on so many levels with ever increasing population and traffic demands, being overly active, overly plugged in to social media, TV and the News. Especially with the current worries and anxieties all over the world with this Covid-19 outbreak. So, it is no wonder we feel out of balance and jittery, like we’re teetering on a cliff edge, scared we’ll jump from the adrenaline coursing through our veins.
So, how is it possible for the resonance breathing technique to help relieve anxiety so well?
The answer lies in our nervous system. Resonance breathing allows us to create an even balance between the two branches of our autonomic nervous system; the sympathetic and the parasympathetic.
The sympathetic nervous system moves us towards activity and facilitates the fight or flight response. It is, however, always working in the background at a basic level to maintain homeostasis.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system serves to counteract the response of the sympathetic nervous system after a stressful event. And does this by reducing heart and respiration rate, whilst increasing digestive and glandular rates and moves us towards rest.
Put simply, the sympathetic branch is our accelerator and the parasympathetic is our braking system. We alternate between the two every second of the day with every breath we take.
The Modern World ……
In our fast paced world or at times of high anxiety, such as now, it is becoming all too common to end up leaning towards the accelerator more than the brake. This leads to feelings of imbalance, overwhelm and burn out. But spending just a few minutes every day consciously doing resonance breathing can calm anxiety flare ups. It works by sending balancing signals to our brain. And reminds the brain that we are ok, so it moves us away from the part of the brain that makes us feel overwhelmed. And we come back to a state of calm.
With resonance breathing, you learn to apply your brake at will and tackle anxiety head on. Rather than being side tackled out of the blue by anxiety, distractedness or excess stress.
My experience with resonance breathing and anxiety.
My lovely yoga teacher, Amy – No More Shoulds, told me about The Breathing App (FREE on IOS and Android) when we were chatting about a flare up with my own anxiety.
The app looks like this if you’re interested in checking it out:
My Anxiety
At that time I was having quite a strong anxiety episode and experiencing feelings of panic, racing heart and tightness in my chest. Like I was carrying a heavy weight there. I was in a period of overwhelm and an incident had triggered me.
But my usual techniques of prioritising and segregating tasks, as well as practicing yoga or cardio exercise was only temporarily helping. Because once I stopped the task, my anxious feelings came straight back.
But after finishing 5 mins using the Breathing App I was relieved to feel an immense calm come over me. I had no feelings of panic or racing heart. I was relaxed and alert with my thinking. But the best part was, it continued through the evening and allowed me to feel calm enough to get a full night’s rest.
As a result
I now use the app every morning to calm and ground myself for the day. As it’s so simple to use. You simply open the app and press play. Unless you want to customise the length of time you breathe for, in which case you can adjust this easily by click the clock icon at the bottom of the screen. And then sliding the bar along to the length of time you wish to practice.
I have found that even just 2 mins in the morning makes me feel more grounded for the day. But when I get the opportunity, I also enjoy 5-10 minutes and feel like it has a greater impact on my overall health. It has worked wonders for managing my anxiety. If I find a stressful event is triggering me during the day, I can open the app and de-escalate the stress there and then.
I like to consider it a stress reset button for your whole nervous system. It’s like a loving hug in a breath. And probably one of the best things you can do for your overall health and happiness today.
The App is totally FREE and co-created by best-selling author Deepak Chopra and yoga teacher Eddie Stern. I highly recommend you check it out on IOS here
If you have a great experience with this app I’d love to hear from you. You can drop me a comment below or go to my Instagram here or Facebook account here.
Love and Light,
Amanda x0x
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