Coherent Breathing
Hawaii Bliss – Pixabay Image
A web search for Coherent Breathing brings up more than four million hits including a free app in the App Store. Possibly overkill for what can be described as five breaths a minute. But the ultra simple technique packs a blissful, relaxing punch. Heart rate, blood pressure, blood-rate-flow, and brainwaves come into a coherent frequency.
Stephen Elliot coined the phrase “Coherent Breathing,” (Coherent Breathing is a registered trademark of Coherence LLC ) but the breathing method has been used for millennia. It is a part of yoga, qigong, and Zen. Elliot says it virtually guarantees a meditative state. Coherent Breathing means breathing in for five seconds and breathing out for six seconds for five complete breaths a minute. Inhale and exhale through your nose and continue for five minutes, or however long you choose. I say five minutes because it takes three to five minutes to adjust to the increased breaths per second.
Abdominal Breathing
When you breathe through the chest with shallow breaths as most people do the autonomic nervous system is held hostage in a sympathetic state of fight/flight. Coherent Breathing balances the autonomic fight/flight (sympathetic) versus the rest/digest (parasympathetic) systems. Inhaling increases heart rate favoring the fight/flight (sympathetic) system. Exhaling slows heart rate, favoring the rest/digest (parasympathetic) system.
“Breathe through your abdomen.” With abdominal breathing, as you inhale your abdomen expands. As you exhale your abdomen tucks in. With abdominal breathing you stimulate the vagus nerve, releasing the sympathetic state and creating a balanced autonomic nervous system. Your nervous system is no longer locked into the sympathetic state, ready to lash out and fight.
Vagus Nerve Passes Through Diaphragm
The vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve in our body, runs from the base of the brain, down through the entire body. On the way down it passes through the diaphragm, a dome-shaped sheet of muscle separating the thorax and abdomen. As you inhale, the dome flattens, giving more room for the lungs above and allowing more air to enter the lungs. When you exhale, the dome lifts, forcing air out of the lungs. This upward and downward movement of the diaphragm stimulates the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve activates the relaxation response, showering neuropeptides or messenger molecules signaling every part of your body to relax. This all happens from deep abdominal breathing.
Try the suggested pattern of five second inhales and six second exhales. But this pattern represents an average. For most people, this pattern produces ideal results. That means some people will experience best results with a higher count and some with a lower count. Experiment to find your ideal count. Keep the exhales a bit longer than inhales.
Inhale approximately five seconds, exhale six seconds. That is about five breaths a minute.
I recorded three minutes of coherent breathing: voice & bells; just bells. At the end of the mp3 continue on at the same or your own pace.
Sit up with straight spine. Relax your shoulders. Let your weight drop to your abdomen. Relax.
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6 Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6
Inhale 2 3 4 5 Exhale 2 3 4 5 6
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
