Breathe In Breathe Out
Image by Lenka Ulrichova
A cancer diagnosis brings with it some serious anxiety. I found myself waking up at night in a panic gasping for air, heart racing, tears streaming down my face. While other people (happy people without cancer) were planning lunch next week or an anniversary next month and a holiday next year I was alone with my thoughts in the middle of the night wondering if I would live to see my next birthday.
We breathe every second of every day mostly without even thinking about it. Breath is essential for life and I have learned over the last three years is natures answer to Valium.
There is absolutely an important role for medication to treat anxiety, I wouldn’t have made it through those first few months without it but I didn’t feel like it was a good long term solution for me. I wanted to find a way to calm my panic without having to reach for a bottle of pills.
I couldn’t make plans for next week or next month or next year. Sometimes all I could manage was thinking about my next breath. That’s when I discovered Box Breathing.
Box breathing is a technique used by Navy Seals to reduce stress while in combat. It only takes 16 seconds and it doesn’t cost a thing. It goes like this:
Breathe in for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
Breathe out for four seconds.
Hold for four seconds.
An even simpler technique I love is the exhalation breath:
Breathe in for three seconds and out for six seconds.
The slow exhalation calms the Vagus nerve and can settle anxiety with as little as three repetitions.
The Vagus Nerve is a nerve that connects the brain to the body. It has a number of crucial functions including regulating heart beat and the parasympathetic nervous system; decreasing inflammation and connecting the brain to the gut and diaphragm when experiencing stress or fear (hense the saying “gut feeling”).
Here is my overly simplified version of the science:
When you take a long, slow exhalation of breath the clever Vagus Nerve secretes a transmitter substance called Acetylcholine which slows and calms your heart rate via the parasympathetic nervous system. Long story short it’s natures hack for your fight or flight response.
If you are being chased by a tiger your heart pumps harder and faster so you have the fuel you need to out run it and survive. Fight or flight in our modern lives can be activated by a stressful email which is not exactly life threatening so it makes sense to have some techniques to quickly calm your body and your mind.
Now take a deep breath and be gentle with yourself.