Parasympathetic Breathing
One of the Daily Practices I recommend to almost all of my clients is what I call Parasympathetic Breathing. (For a description of the function of the body’s parasympathetic response, see Balance in the Stress / Recovery System ).
A normal rate of breathing for an adult is about twelve to fourteen breaths per minute. When we get anxious, we do one of two things: We either hold our breath, or we start breathing faster. We might get to twenty breaths per minute or higher in a state of distress. As we change our breathing, within about thirty seconds, we are going to change our blood oxygen level, which then changes oxygen delivery to the brain, and keep in mind your brain runs on oxygen. Down at the lower end of the range, somewhere between five and seven breaths per minute is what gives us the greatest heart rate variability.
Heart Rate variability (HRV) has been linked with many health and mental health benefits, including engaging the calming response. One of my clients, Karyn, was able to reduce her systolic blood pressure twenty points just by using parasympathetic breathing. Increasing HRV over time restores balance to the stress response system.
In my office, we can use sensors to detect a person’s exact ideal rate of breathing, but short of doing that, “six” is in the middle of the five to seven breaths per minute range. And six breaths per minute is easy to remember. Six breaths per minute is one breath every ten seconds.If you were to breathe in for five seconds and breathe out for five seconds, you are breathing at the rate of one breath every ten seconds, or six breaths per minute. So it’s easy to remember: five seconds in, five Seconds out for five minutes a day. If you like it, you can do it more. You can’t do it too much.
A warning: Sometimes your breathing mechanics may be irregular. In this case, you won’t get the most benefit out of parasympathetic breathing, and in some cases, it can actually increase anxiety.
To determine your mechanics, I’d like you to try an exercise. (Note: If you have respiratory or other medical conditions, please consult your physician before trying this exercise) Put one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest and breathe normally. After a few breaths, notice which hand moves first. Ideally the hand on your chest is moving very little, if at all, and the hand on your belly moves first and most.
If you have a hard time moving your breath down into your belly, here is a simple strategy that can help. Take a book the size of a hardcover dictionary and place it on your belly as you lay flat on your back. As you breathe in you should see the book rise, when you breathe out, the book should fall again. Do your parasympathetic breathing for at least five minutes a day on your back until you can get your breathing into your belly without having to think about the mechanics.
RIP is about more than just anxiety
RIP was initially developed to help with anxiety, but it can be applied to any episodic distressing emotional state or unhelpful behavior. It can be applied to feeling angry, lonely, embarrassed, sad/depressed, uncertain or hurt..any unpleasant emotion as long as that feeling comes and goes rather than is constant. It can also be applied to bad habits: overeating, yelling at my kids, overuse of social media, excessive drinking or drug use, procrastination, too much screen time, and so on.
When these emotions and behaviors occur periodically rather than constantly, it is possible to identify the three phases of RIP: after the episode, during the episode, before the next episode. We recognize during these episodes, the front of our brain, which is responsible for higher-ordered thinking, including logic, reason and problem-solving, is “off line,” which means we are not going to expect to make rational decisions during these episodes. And what is great is the strategies of RIP do not require us to do so. In the Recovery and Prevention phases, when higher-ordered thinking is available to us, we can use the front of our brain to not only to decrease the frequency of the episodes, but to prepare ourselves to end the episodes as quickly as possible when they do occur.
To learn more about the RIP method, check out transcendpersonaldevelopment.com
Mindsight & Personal Growth
This interactive talk will examine two major questions: What is the mind? and How can we create a healthy mind? We’ll examine the interactions among the mind, the brain, and human relationships and explore ways to create a healthy mind, an integrated brain, and mindful, empathic relationships. Here is one surprising finding: the vast majority (about 95%) of mental health practitioners around the globe, and even many scientists and philosophers focusing on the mind, do not have a definition of what the mind is! In this talk, well offer a working definition of the mind and practical implications for how to perceive and strengthen the mind itself—a learnable skill called mindsight. Then well build on this perspective to explore ways that the mind, the brain, and our relationships are influenced by digital information flow and also how they can be moved toward healthy functioning.
Presented by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D.
Stroke of Insight
Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight – YouTube
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
The Neurons that Shaped Civilization
Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.