“Vagus” is the Latin word for “wandering”. The bundle of nerves, called the vagus nerve, starts at the top of your spinal column at the base of the neck, wanders down your neck muscles, as it controls your breathing and heart rate, and then continues further into your abdomen to your spleen and liver where it regulates parts of your digestive system (back in the day when people had peptic ulcer disease, doctors would sever the vagus nerve in an attempt to settle down the stomach). The vagus nerve is connected to oxytocin receptors, helping you communicate and empathize with others. Some call the vagus nerve the “love bundle” of our body because of its connection to the oxytocin hormone, which is called the “love hormone”.
Several years back, I had a fitness trainer who attempted to convince me during a rather traumatic grieving time in my life that I needed to learn to properly deep breathe to “slow down”. I totally resisted her.
I’ve told hospital patients with whom I’ve worked for decades to deep breathe during painful procedures, but I never understood the mechanism of why we told them to do so. I was just doing what I had been taught to say.
Well, things have changed!
I’ve learned a few things along the way, and now I understand the mechanism behind deep breathing. I want to explain that to you now, so you don’t look as foolish as I did when I refused to understand or to learn. Sorry, Dana, you were right!
Japanese research has shown that effective abdominal breathing slows down our brain waves, slipping them into a very relaxed state, moving us away from stress. There are 3 types of breathing – clavicle, chest, and abdominal. The first, clavicular is the type of breathing we see when someone is panicked. The breaths are short and only move the top part of the shoulders and chest area, and those breaths are very rapid and stressed.
Chest breathing is a bit deeper, but not much more effective. This is the common, everyday breathing method most people do. The chest moves, but little quality air is actually exchanged. Oh, you move enough to keep vital functions going, but you tend to breathe too quickly to pull in significant amounts of oxygen.
The third kind of breathing comes from the abdomen and uses the diaphragm, which, as it contracts, fills your lungs. When you breathe from your abdomen, your belly will expand and move out with each inhalation. Your chest rises only slightly, as your abdomen is doing all the work. This is the type of breathing we all should learn to use on a continuous basis. It takes a bit of mindfulness to do so, but it can be done.
And, if you don’t choose to use this all the time, teach yourself to remember to stop several times a day and simply take one minute and do 5 to 7 sets of the breathing exercise I will outline below.
Dr. Andrew Weil recommends that if you are doing an activity that requires alertness; don’t do any more than 7 sets because this breathing will put you in a very relaxed state. I’d hate to have you fall asleep while driving because you were doing abdominal breathing!
This restful state abdominal breathing facilitates helping you to fall asleep. It is an excellent way to begin your night. There is some research, and I wish I could cite you the source, that states doing 5-10 sets of deep abdominal breathing can replace up to 2 hours of good sleep per night. Here is the explanation as I understand it.
By doing a short 2 minute breathing exercise, you have already dropped yourself quickly out of the beta state, high speed thinking part of your day, into the pre-sleep, slowdown mode of the alpha-theta brain states. Normally, if you do no deep breathing, it will take you 60 to 120 minutes to slowly descend through the beta into the theta state before you eventually drop off into the deep delta state of REM sleep. By deep breathing, you just short-cut the process! That deep breathing signals your body that a change has occurred in your physical and mental status and it is time to settle down, forgetting the wear and tear of daily life, and relax for a while.
Abdominal breathing activates the vagus nerve and triggers a relaxation response. The relaxation response, which is opposite of the stress response, is necessary for your body to heal, repair, and renew itself. Once your stress induced cortisol levels drop to acceptable levels, the growth and repair hormone, DHEA, is released to heal your body. Think how well your immune system will function if you can simply take a few minutes each day to stop and do a few rounds of abdominal breathing that actually will lower, or help to keep, your stressed cortisol level at a lower level in order to keep your DHEA level higher.
A high cortisol leveland a high DHEA level cannot co-exist. If one is high, the other is low. The best combination is to have a high DHEA level and a low cortisol level in order for optimum health to exist. Stress levels are regulated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS has two parts that balance each other, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS revs up your overall nervous system when it perceives a need for quick action to deal with a threatening emergency. The PNS calms us back down after the problem no longer exists. The vagus nerve comes from the brain to control the PNS, and activates your relaxation response. It does so by using the neurotransmitter, acetycholine (ACh). Without the release of acetycholine from the vagus nerve (for example, when the release is impaired by botulism toxin), you simply stop breathing and die. Acetycholine is also responsible for learning and memory.
ACh is a major anti-inflammatory in the body, so not only does the vagus nerve relax you; it also stops the inflammation effects of stress from causing further damage to your body. There is some evidence that the vagus nerve possibly improves neurogenesis (nerve regrowth) by increasing the BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor) output which repairs brain and other body tissues.
Taking a good abdominal breath stimulates the vagus nerve, which turns on the PNS and relaxes your body, turning off the stress response, stopping the release of cortisol and adrenaline, etc.
Teaching yourself to breath more slowly and mindfully, about 7-9 breaths a minute, rather than the usual 12-20, will improve your health by increasing the oxygen supply to your body’s cells. The PNS also produces endorphins, which will make you feel better and relieve pain and depression, in addition to lowering stress and blood pressure, and boosting your immunity levels.
Learning the art of intentional breathing I’m talking about here includes taking in a deep belly breath where your abdomen puffs out and your chest only rises a little bit and it does so at the end of the breath, not at the beginning. Breathe in for 5 to 7 seconds, pulling air in the abdomen, hold your breath for 2 seconds, then slowly release the air by either breathing slowly through your nose, or through a tiny hole between your lips, taking another 5 to 7 seconds to do so. Don’t just blow the air out all at once in one great big huff!
Another method of slowing down respirations and stimulating the PNS is plunging your face in a basin or sink full of cold water. This is particularly helpful after an intense exercise session where the SNS has been revved up. This method makes me laugh, as this has been done for years to settle down a hysterical person. In the movies, we see a glass of water being tossed into the face of someone in full blown panic, or we see a cowboy participating in a fist fight with another cowboy dunking the riled up one’s head in a horse trough to quiet him down. The water soaked person gasps, blinks, and then almost immediately settles down. Or have you witnessed a mother blow a puff of air into the face of a child who is in the middle of a tantrum? The child rears back a bit, closes his eyes, and then opens them wide as a dinner plate. Sometimes, the tantrum ends, or sometimes, once the child regains his composure and thinks a minute, the tantrum resumes. We also see in the movies, and I’ve seen this in real life, where someone slaps another person across the face to settle them down during a fit of hysteria. I assume this to be the same mechanism.
There are several places on the face and head where the vagus nerve is nearer the skin surface where it can be activated. I certainly don’t advocate hitting anyone, but nonetheless I find the mechanism interesting physiologically.
In a class I attended I was taught another exercise to relieve stress and now I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the vagus nerve. We weren’t given any reason why this works and I can’t find any information about it either.
The technique is a simple one. Relax your tongue on the floor of your mouth. It really is simple, isn’t it? Try it and see how differently you now feel.
This is another of those learned traits that would be useful in high stress situations. Teach yourself to deal with the situation with a relaxed tongue. You will find it extremely difficult to get angry or upset if you can keep that tongue quiet on the floor of your mouth. Try it during your next rush hour drive, or when you have a car load of kids yelling with excitement! It might be your best technique yet.
In the end when all is said and done, deep breathing is a great technique, but EFT still accomplishes the exact same thing. While I personally use the deep breathing to assist me in falling asleep, I still prefer EFT. I like the ease and the convenience of how quickly and how well it works.
To schedule a free EFT consultation coaching session, email me at: EFTforChristians@gmail.com
Always remember to take complete responsibility for your own health and well-being.
