How typically have we heard the recommendation to take a deep breath once we’re harassed? It’s ubiquitous, and the logic is sort of there; We know that regular respiration can assist activate your parasympathetic nervous system (the alternative of fight-or-flight), so taking one deep breath can get that began, proper?
Not precisely. As Huberman explains, “If you are stressed, taking a deep breath is not the best solution. If you just take a deep breath, actually you will increase your heart rate through a process called respiratory sinus arrhythmia.”
What he suggests as an alternative, is taking a double inhale by way of the nostril, and a protracted, prolonged exhale, additionally by way of the nostril.”[This] is by far the best way, and it’s not a hack—this is what you do when you’re in a claustrophobic environment, and you do it every 1-3 minutes during sleep,” he notes.
Huberman explains that while you do that approach (which he calls a “physiological sigh”), you naturally activate the neural circuits within the mind and physique that shift from sympathetic tone—alertness and stress—to parasympathetic. “And for most people,” he provides, “it takes only one so-called physiological sigh [to] completely return to a calm state, and this is, as far as I know, the fastest way to shift yourself from stressed to calm.”