De-stress and Sleep Better Through the Power of Breathing

It’s easy to take for granted, but your breathing is one of the most powerful tools you have for de-stressing, calming anxiety and even falling asleep at night. Dr Patricia Gerbarg, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, offers some great insights and easy tips for better breathing during these difficult times.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day. We just
need to look for and share it. Here's something good

(00:27):
for today. Whether you're nervous, overwhelmed, or about to do
something difficult, the advice is often the same, just take
a deep breath. Turns out that saying has a basis
in science, and proper breathing can be the path to
better mental and physical health. Think about yoga or any
other relaxation technique, breathing is almost always a key component.

(00:51):
Why because when you take a deep breath, you get
more oxygen into your body. This can smooth and slow
both your blood pressure and heartbeat, two features you might
notice rising when you're anxious. Now, with all the anxiety
brought on by COVID, we could all use a refresher
course on how to breathe better. Today, we speak with
Dr Patricia Gerberg, a clinical Assistant professor of psychiatry and

(01:12):
Behavioral Sciences at New York Medical College. Here's what she
had to say, thanks so much for joining us today,
thank you for having me. So, why is breathing such
a powerful tool in keeping us mentally and physically healthy well.
Breathing is the only automatic function of the body that
we can voluntarily control, and because of that, when we

(01:35):
voluntarily change our pattern of breathing, we're able to access
the internal communication network of our body and send messages
to our brain that can change the way we're thinking
and feeling. So breathing is really a simple and basic
thing that we all do. But could you explain for

(01:55):
our listeners what proper breathing is and how the right
breathing techniques can help bus managed stress and anxiety. Well,
the proper breathing is probably however you're breathing naturally at
the moment, and that changes depending on your activities and
how much oxygen you need. What we teach our breathing
practices that you do for specific periods of time, not

(02:18):
to change the way you breathe all day long. That's
not necessary, but it's very helpful for certain periods of
time to breathe in specific ways that will balance our
stress response system. As a kind of practice or as
a kind of antidote, say, for example, you're feeling particularly
stressed or anxious. What's likely happening is your stress response

(02:40):
system is overactivated and you're not able to calm yourself down.
If you breathe in a particular way that we call
coherent breathing, for example, it will simply by breathing, enable
you to calm yourself down within a matter of minutes
because the breathing has such powerful effects if you know

(03:01):
which particular way to change your breath. Is there a
breathing practice that you might recommend for stress right now
in these COVID times? Yes, um, it's our foundational breathing practice.
It's called coherent breathing or resonant breathing, and it's so simple.
It involves learning how to breathe very very gently at

(03:23):
a rate around five breaths per minute with equal inhalation
and exhalation. And that's the fundamental practice we teach. It's
very calming and soothing. It's great for anxiety or stress
or if you're having trouble sleeping to get to sleep
at night. Well, that sounds great. I'm definitely gonna try that, um.
And and since I'm a beginner, is that where a

(03:44):
beginner should start. Absolutely that is the place to begin.
And is there anything that you've seen, Um, I know
this is a very unusual time, but are there things
that you've seen that are different about this moment that
have affected the way we breathe? Um? Or is it
even more important to be conscious of our breathing give
and what's going on? Well? Certainly, um, most people are

(04:04):
under more stressed than usual, and they may be experiencing
more adverse events than they normally do, to the point
where the stress response system is in high gear and
it's very hard to turn it down so that we
can feel calm because it's just one thing after another
that seems to be going wrong. So it's a particularly

(04:27):
good time to learn how to do a really calming
breath practice to calm and balance our system, because what
this does is it both quiets down the overactive part
of our emotion system and at the same time it
helps to improve and clear and clarify our thinking processes,

(04:50):
because we really need to think clearly to solve the
problems we're facing. And is this something that you recommend
as a daily practice or can someone again a beginner
get into Uh, you know, a few times a week. Well,
ideally for the amount of stress we're having because it's
every single day. Ideally, we recommend twenty minutes every day
if possible. And then in addition, during the day, whenever

(05:14):
the person feels that they're getting stressed or upset, they
can do a few minutes here, a few minutes there
to keep bringing themselves into a balanced state. Well, that
sounds fantastic, I think, Uh, I think a lot of
people who are listening right now would love to learn more.
How can they learn more about your work? Well, there,
it's very accessible. The first and easiest way is to

(05:37):
just go to our website which is Breath, hyphen Body,
hyphen mind dot com and right on the home page
there are videos webinars actually, but they just click on
those and you'll be able to see demonstration of the
breathing practices. Uh. They can also if they wish, UH

(05:58):
find our book, The Healing Power of the Breath, which
has an audio track, and the book was written in
order for people to be able to teach themselves coherent
breathing and a number of other helpful practices. And then,
of course, if you want to go further, you can
take one of our workshops and learn how to do
it directly with teaching from us. Well, thanks so much

(06:19):
for being on the show. I think you're going to
help a lot of people with what you do. Clearly
you do that every day, so thanks for joining us.
Thank you for the opportunity to reach out to more people.
It's so good to learn that voluntarily changing our breathing
can send messages to our brain that can change how
we're thinking and feeling. So here's something good for today.

(06:40):
At this stressful time, we all have the power to
calm ourselves and relieve anxiety. It's as simple as breathing,
So let's consider trying what is called coherent breathing. All
you need to do is breathe gently, taking five breaths
per minute with equal inhalation and excelation. That is, count
to five while breathing in, and count to five while

(07:01):
breathing out. This technique can calm you down within a
matter of minutes, and it may even help you fall asleep.
To learn more about this and other breathing techniques, go
to breath hyphen Body hyphen mind dot com. Have a
great day, Thank you for listening, and please share today's

(07:30):
something good with others in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli,
co author of Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women.
To learn more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women
dot com or download the Seneca Women app free in
the app store. Care Something Good is a production of
the Seneca Women podcast network and I Heart Radio Have
a Great Day. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

(07:57):
check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.