Four key chemicals influence our brains and bodies: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. In his forthcoming book The DOSE Effect, neuroscientist TJ Power writes that harnessing them can revolutionise our mental and physical health and relationships. You can read an edited extract focused on dopamine and serotonin here.
Power also writes about the importance of the vagus nerve, which enables communication between your gut and your brain, and is constantly assessing the state of your body. Here, we share Power’s tips and hints on how to breathe right for calmer, clearer and more focused thinking.
The vagus nerve is constantly reading and assessing how calm or alert your body is and feeding this information back to your brain, and can slow down your heart rate, particularly through the way in which you breathe.
There are two key breathing strategies that will help you to connect with your body and calm it down: resonance breathing and sigh breathing.
Resonance breathing refers to slowing our breathing down to just six full breaths per minute. This style of breathing has been shown to have an incredibly positive effect on calming your nervous system, increasing your vagal tone and boosting your mood. In order to reduce the pace of your breathing to just six breaths per minute, you must break your breaths into 10-second chunks. To do this, breathe in through your nose for four seconds and out through your mouth for six seconds. You then repeat this for a few minutes. Remember, to calm our brain and body, our mission is to extend our exhale, so we must make sure there are longer breaths out.
Sigh breathing is a natural process that your body goes through when it is shifting you into a state of sleep. Take a deep breath in through your nose, then once you feel “full”, take an additional short, sharp breath in, again through your nose. This is then followed by a long “sigh” out through your mouth. So, double inhale, followed by a big exhale.
The inhalation, followed by a short second inhalation, provides a greater expansion of your lungs, causing your body to release more carbon dioxide on the exhale and therefore providing the calming impact we desire.
To incorporate these strategies into my life, and truly calm my mind, I created a short, achievable morning practice. Remember, your aim here is to become in tune with your body and your heart: learning to feel it, listen to it and ultimately calm it.
Follow these steps, seated:
1. Take three full inhales and exhales.
2. On the third exhale, close your eyes.
3. Take three more inhales and exhales.
4. Begin your breathing practice of choice (whichever one you feel calms you more, resonance breathing or sigh breathing).
5. Breathe in this way for two to three minutes.
6. Now connect with your body. Scan your body from head to toe and see if you can feel any sensations.
7. Start in your head. Can you feel any sensations in your eyes, nose, or mouth?
8. Then your upper body. Can you feel any sensations in your throat, shoulders, chest or stomach? In your lower body, can you feel any sensations in your thighs, bum or feet?
9. Once you have done your breathing and scanned your body, open your eyes.
Doing this each morning will take you less than five minutes and it will change your life. Your brain will become calmer, clearer and more focused.
