And breathe…

Take a breath

We all experience times when we feel less able to cope and it can be hard to know what to do to help. It’s true that sometimes it is helpful to see a professional – whether that’s your GP, a counsellor or another form of support. But there are also lots of things we can do to support our own wellbeing – wherever we are on the Mental Health Continuum.

Physical and mental health

Let’s start by getting your body on your side. We tend to think of mental health and physical health as being totally separate. However, just a quick look reveals how false this is. If we are physically injured or unwell it definitely affects our mood. And if we are worried then we have a physical response – such as a tension headache, butterflies in the tummy or a racing heart.

Between two states

So it’s fair to say that the mind and body are not separate. Broadly speaking there are two different states that our bodies and minds move between. These could be seen as the ‘Be Vigilant’ mode and the ‘Chill Out’ mode. They work together and complement each other.

‘Be Vigilant’ gets us focused on what’s happening and keeps us ready for action, while ‘Chill Out’ facilitates rest, digestion and reflection.

When we get anxious

But when we get anxious, ‘Be Vigilant’ gets over-stimulated. At this point, it cuts us off from our reflective and clear thinking brain and initiates fight-or-flight. Hyper attention. Hyper vigilance. To the exclusion of logic and the bigger picture.

Both these states cause physical responses in our body. As ‘Be Vigilant’ gets going, our pupils dilate, our heart rate goes up, our breathing gets quicker and shallower, and digestion shuts down. These all happen without our conscious intention – maybe without us even noticing.

In contrast, when we are moving towards Chill Out the opposite happens. our pupils contract, our heart rate goes down, our breathing gets slower and deeper and our digestion process kicks in. Again, this all happens without us realising.

And of these responses, the only one we have any direct control over is our breathing. This means that this is where we can hack the system. We can insert our own intention into what is happening in our body and move us back towards ‘Chill Out’, where we can think clearly and make good decisions.

How does breathing help?

So how can we do this? There’s a very simple breathing technique that we can practise which will actively lead the body – and mind – away from ‘Be Vigilant’ (and its extreme end, ‘fight-or-flight’) and towards ‘Chill Out’.

The first thing we need to do is to consciously deepen our breathing to our stomach muscles. Imagine you have a balloon in your stomach and every breath is inflating it. It can feel a bit odd to begin with so it’s worth practising. It can be easier to do lying down with a hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Try to make the belly expand as you breathe rather than the chest, and consciously ‘think the breath down’.

The other thing to do is to make your outbreath longer than your inbreath. Maybe breathing in for a count of five and out for eight – you can play around and see what feels right. Breathe like this for a couple of minutes and your body will respond by triggering the ‘Chill Out’ response.

Where the body goes the brain follows and we will start to feel calmer. This may not remove the cause of whatever has stressed us, but it will mean we can think more clearly about it and feel more able to cope.