breath

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pexels

Raise your hand if you’ve consciously thought about breathing over the last 24 hours. Unless you have a breathing issue or have recently participated in yoga, Pilates, or mediation, you likely may not have given your breathing a single thought.

We take breathing for granted. Our wonderful autonomic nervous system keeps our heart beating and our lungs filling and releasing without any thought or specific effort from us.

But what if we would make a conscious effort to be better breathers, especially if it can improve our health?

The first time I heard about Heart Rate Variability (HRV), I thought surely I misunderstood because it seemed so counterintuitive.

HRV is the slight variation in the intervals between our heartbeats. And get this: the greater the variation, the better. A high variation indicates a state of calm. Is it just me or does that strike you as backward?

Why do we want to increase HRV? An article from Harvard Health Publishing calls HRV “an interesting marker for resilience and behavioral flexibility.”

It helps us deal with stress. It makes us more resilient and flexible in difficult times. Some studies show it lowers our blood pressure.

An article from the National Institute of Health Library says that, “Over the years, reduced HRV has been found to be associated with the development of many cardiovascular conditions, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, chronic heart failure, and myocardial infarction, as well as poorer cardiovascular outcomes in those who already have disease. In contrast, a heart rate that is variable and responsive to demands is believed to bestow a survival advantage.

A survival advantage!  I want one of those.

We can learn to increase our HRV through practiced slow rhythmic breathing for about ten minutes a day. The second link below can guide you through the practice of taking six breaths a minute. Most healthy adults take between 12-20 breaths per minute, so a practice of slowing down, taking just six per minute will feel different at first.

The chart below shows how this works. On the left-hand side is the inhalation breath. Then there is a slight pause. On the right is the longer exhale, also with a pause before you inhale again.

There are various pacers online. If you choose another one, be sure to use one that includes the two pauses and has the exhalation longer than the inhalation.

I’ve included four links because it’s likely a new topic for many of my readers. The first link is Dr. Gevirtz lecturing while a volunteer is demonstrating biofeedback while practicing this rhythmic breathing. While he isn’t the greatest speaker, he knows his stuff.

Obviously, we cannot breathe like this all day long. What I found is that after practicing the breathing pattern for a couple weeks, I no longer needed to watch the pacer. Now whenever I need to be calm, need to reset my thinking, want to “settle down,” I slip into the breathing pattern. When you are able to do this on your own (without a screen), it is a wonderful method for falling to sleep.

Obviously, if you have existing health issues, consult a doctor before you make any changes to your routine.

“Our life is defined by breath. We take our first the moment we are born and our last the moment we die. Our breath is the means by which we are connected to the universe.”  — Dr. Robert Fulford

So yes, please do take a deep breath.

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Demonstration & Explanation by Dr. Richard Gevirtz

Respiration pacer 

Harvard article explaining HRV 

NIH Library article