16/06/2025
Did you know… the way you breathe directly affects the state of your ANS??
Firstly, let’s have a brief chat about the ANS, I will delve much deeper into this in the next post, but just as a quick introduction, the ANS or the Autonomic Nervous System is the the part of the nervous system that involves all your unconscious functions like breathing, heart rate, digestion, blood pressure etc. It is made up of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) or your fight or flight / stress response, and your Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) which is your rest, digest, repair and reproduce response and a healthy balance between these two systems is paramount for maintaining optimal mental and physical health and wellbeing.
Dysfunctional breathing often involves shallow, rapid, upper chest, mouth breathing which creates a whole bunch of issues on a metabolic level (will also discuss these in another post), and sends a direct signal to the brain that you are not safe, which triggers the production and release of cortisol and adrenaline from the Adrenal glands to put you into your SNS or fight / flight/ stress response.
Functional breathing, in and out through the nose and deep down into your diaphragm stimulates the vagus nerve, which signals to the brain that you are safe and enables you to enter your PNS or your rest and repair response.
There are many functional breathing exercises you can do throughout the day to self regulate your ANS and down regulate the SNS or stress response to calm your nervous system. I find even just bringing awareness to your breath, checking in with where and how breathing and shifting into a habit of consistently breathing through the nose and down into the diaphragm is a great first step in self regulation, especially in times of stress and anxiety.
In my acupuncture clinic I often see a direct correlation between dysfunctional breathing and anxiety, depression, PTSD, insomnia, and chronic illness. Addressing and treating these conditions is always a multifaceted process, and incorporating functional breathing training is an absolute game changer! 🌸
