June 22, 2021 • 7 mins
With so much going on in our lives, it’s no wonder so many of us are distracted and even agitated. We revisit this episode to get great advice on how to use breathing techniques to calm a whirling mind from Dr. Patricia Gerbarg of the Breath-Body-Mind Foundation; Dr. Gerbarg is also assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College.
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Episode Transcript
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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, Pause and take a breath. Better yet takes
several because today we're going to talk about breathing, how
to use it to distress, clear your mind, and focus
your thoughts. The normal respiration rate for most people is
twelve to twenty breaths per minute. That's breaths per day,
(00:49):
and your breathing is powerful. It can be used to
increase your concentration, lift your mood, and even turn on
your body's natural healing abilities. Today we're gonna about breathing
from Dr Patricia Gerberg of the Breath Body Foundation. Dr
Gerberg is Assistant clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York
Medical College and co author of the book The Healing
(01:11):
Power of Breath. Here's what she had to say. Thanks
so much for joining us today, Dr Gerberg, My pleasure
to be here. You know, we all have so much
going on in our lives right now. How can proper
breathing techniques help us in this moment? Breathing techniques can
certainly restore a sense of calm, and particular ones, if
(01:32):
you know them, can do it rather quickly. Um, it's
not a matter of correcting the way you normally breathe.
Most of the time. The way people breathe is fine,
and that's not something that is easy to change. However,
what we do is we teach specific breathing practices that
you do for a certain number of minutes, or you
(01:55):
can do them whenever you're feeling tense or anxious and
they'll help to calm yourself down. So it's a matter
of learning those practices, not changing the way you breathe
all the time. So if we want to breathe properly,
what should we do? Well, you are breathing properly, That's
what I'm trying to say. Don't worry about the way
(02:15):
you're breathing. If you notice that you're tending to breathe
rapidly or shallowly, that means that you're experiencing stress and
anxiety and that you need to do something to reduce it.
And one of the ways to do that is to
use specific breathing patterns to quiet down your anxiety. Can
(02:39):
you give us some examples of those breathing patterns or
is it just something as simple as slowing down? Well,
you know, reducing your breathing rate can be helpful in general,
but yes, there are. We teach many different types of breathing,
but the one that we consider fundamental we call coherent
breathing or resonant breathing, and for most adults on average,
(03:04):
that would mean slowing the breath down to about five
breasts per minute, with an equal length when you breathe
in to the length when you breathe out. The secret
is that the breathing is to be very very gentle,
done through the nose, in and out through the nose.
Most people need some instruction to learn how to breathe
(03:26):
without exerting any effort. So you know, we have different courses.
We have a book, The Healing Power of the Breath
to teach it. There are videos that are available on
our website Breath body mind dot com all of different
ways that people can learn how to do this special
breathing practice. And the reason that we use oh here
(03:50):
and breathing is because it's the fastest and simplest way
to balance our stress response system. Everybody stress response system
is malfunctioning at this point, and that's normal. When we
have this many different stressors and so much uncertainty in
our life. It sets off our internal alarms and we
(04:13):
go into defense mode. And what people experience is tension
over worry, difficulty, sleeping, over reactivity. These are all part
of being in our defense mode. The trick is how
to get out of the defense mode and back into
(04:35):
our calm mode when we feel safe, when we feel
confident and we're not so frightened about what's going to
happen next. We found that using coherent breathing actually switches
off the defense mode and turns on this special state
in which you feel calm and relaxed, but at the
(04:58):
same time your mind is a are and functioning clearly.
In fact, your mind is clearer than usual because it
quiets down all the static, that worrying noise that's going
on in the background. Wow, that's incredible advice. So if
we're paying attention to our breathing, are there other signals
we should be watching out for? Well, I think, uh,
(05:19):
this rapid breathing um is a good signal. It's you know,
something that we can notice and that tells us maybe
right now, you need to take a few minutes and
do a calming breath practice to calm yourself down, because
a lot of the time we're so caught up in
what's happening outside us that we don't even notice what
(05:42):
is going on inside of us. Like breathing this way
and again, it's not that this breathing is harmful, but
this breathing is a sign of the stress that's going on.
I think a lot of us will be using those
breathing techniques. So here's something and good for today. It's
wonderful to hear that there's a way to clear out
(06:03):
the clutter in our minds. We just have to pay
attention to our breathing. It's free, it's easy, and it works.
Dr Gerbark recommends an easy breathing technique anyone can do.
It's called coherent breathing. Just slow your breathing down to
five breaths per minute, make the inhale and the exhale
the same length, do it gently, and breathe through your nose.
(06:26):
And know that anytime you're anxious or stressed, All you
have to do is breathe slowly, and soon you'll feel
calmer and more focused. Thank you for listening, and please
(06:46):
share Today's 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. Here's Something Good
is a production of the Seneca Women podcast network and
I Heart Radio Have a Great Day. For more podcasts
(07:13):
from I Heart Radio, check out the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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, Pause and take a breath. Better yet takes
several because today we're going to talk about breathing, how
to use it to distress, clear your mind, and focus
your thoughts. The normal respiration rate for most people is
twelve to twenty breaths per minute. That's breaths per day,
(00:49):
and your breathing is powerful. It can be used to
increase your concentration, lift your mood, and even turn on
your body's natural healing abilities. Today we're gonna about breathing
from Dr Patricia Gerberg of the Breath Body Foundation. Dr
Gerberg is Assistant clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York
Medical College and co author of the book The Healing
(01:11):
Power of Breath. Here's what she had to say. Thanks
so much for joining us today, Dr Gerberg, My pleasure
to be here. You know, we all have so much
going on in our lives right now. How can proper
breathing techniques help us in this moment? Breathing techniques can
certainly restore a sense of calm, and particular ones, if
(01:32):
you know them, can do it rather quickly. Um, it's
not a matter of correcting the way you normally breathe.
Most of the time. The way people breathe is fine,
and that's not something that is easy to change. However,
what we do is we teach specific breathing practices that
you do for a certain number of minutes, or you
(01:55):
can do them whenever you're feeling tense or anxious and
they'll help to calm yourself down. So it's a matter
of learning those practices, not changing the way you breathe
all the time. So if we want to breathe properly,
what should we do? Well, you are breathing properly, That's
what I'm trying to say. Don't worry about the way
(02:15):
you're breathing. If you notice that you're tending to breathe
rapidly or shallowly, that means that you're experiencing stress and
anxiety and that you need to do something to reduce it.
And one of the ways to do that is to
use specific breathing patterns to quiet down your anxiety. Can
(02:39):
you give us some examples of those breathing patterns or
is it just something as simple as slowing down? Well,
you know, reducing your breathing rate can be helpful in general,
but yes, there are. We teach many different types of breathing,
but the one that we consider fundamental we call coherent
breathing or resonant breathing, and for most adults on average,
(03:04):
that would mean slowing the breath down to about five
breasts per minute, with an equal length when you breathe
in to the length when you breathe out. The secret
is that the breathing is to be very very gentle,
done through the nose, in and out through the nose.
Most people need some instruction to learn how to breathe
(03:26):
without exerting any effort. So you know, we have different courses.
We have a book, The Healing Power of the Breath
to teach it. There are videos that are available on
our website Breath body mind dot com all of different
ways that people can learn how to do this special
breathing practice. And the reason that we use oh here
(03:50):
and breathing is because it's the fastest and simplest way
to balance our stress response system. Everybody stress response system
is malfunctioning at this point, and that's normal. When we
have this many different stressors and so much uncertainty in
our life. It sets off our internal alarms and we
(04:13):
go into defense mode. And what people experience is tension
over worry, difficulty, sleeping, over reactivity. These are all part
of being in our defense mode. The trick is how
to get out of the defense mode and back into
(04:35):
our calm mode when we feel safe, when we feel
confident and we're not so frightened about what's going to
happen next. We found that using coherent breathing actually switches
off the defense mode and turns on this special state
in which you feel calm and relaxed, but at the
(04:58):
same time your mind is a are and functioning clearly.
In fact, your mind is clearer than usual because it
quiets down all the static, that worrying noise that's going
on in the background. Wow, that's incredible advice. So if
we're paying attention to our breathing, are there other signals
we should be watching out for? Well, I think, uh,
(05:19):
this rapid breathing um is a good signal. It's you know,
something that we can notice and that tells us maybe
right now, you need to take a few minutes and
do a calming breath practice to calm yourself down, because
a lot of the time we're so caught up in
what's happening outside us that we don't even notice what
(05:42):
is going on inside of us. Like breathing this way
and again, it's not that this breathing is harmful, but
this breathing is a sign of the stress that's going on.
I think a lot of us will be using those
breathing techniques. So here's something and good for today. It's
wonderful to hear that there's a way to clear out
(06:03):
the clutter in our minds. We just have to pay
attention to our breathing. It's free, it's easy, and it works.
Dr Gerbark recommends an easy breathing technique anyone can do.
It's called coherent breathing. Just slow your breathing down to
five breaths per minute, make the inhale and the exhale
the same length, do it gently, and breathe through your nose.
(06:26):
And know that anytime you're anxious or stressed, All you
have to do is breathe slowly, and soon you'll feel
calmer and more focused. Thank you for listening, and please
(06:46):
share Today's 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. Here's Something Good
is a production of the Seneca Women podcast network and
I Heart Radio Have a Great Day. For more podcasts
(07:13):
from I Heart Radio, check out the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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