4-7-8 Breathing - or: How to calm the nervous system
Disclaimer: I have no psychological training. My content is based exclusively on my own experience. If you are facing acute problems, please talk to a professional!
During my :odyssey I received the feedback that "my central nervous system was permanently stuck in fight-or-flight mode" and that I urgently needed to get that under control - in general and in order to be able to unfold creativity again.
But how do you do that? One path I found is breathing. In this case, very specifically, the 4-7-8 breathing technique. The idea is to breathe in a very specific rhythm. Concretely: inhale for 4 seconds (relatively fast), hold your breath for 7 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds (comparatively very slowly). While exhaling, you press the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, right behind your teeth.
As far as I understand it, this has several effects:
- The CO2 level in the blood rises. By holding the breath and exhaling slowly, less CO2 is expelled. That makes you feel "tired".
- The long exhale and the pressure of the tongue stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, the nerve system responsible for relaxation (as opposed to the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for activation).
- Conscious, slow breathing slows down the heart rate.
- Focusing on the breath and the hissing sound of the exhale distracts from the constant carousel of thoughts.
On top of that, you are of course also making use of the placebo effect: I do something to improve something else, so it improves. Also, 4-7-8 breathing is very well suited for people who cannot really connect to "meditation". There is no need for spiritual devotion and no long, idle sitting around. Instead, you go through a sequence of steps in a rather procedural way. The meditative effect emerges all by itself.
At my peak, I practiced 4-7-8 breathing three times a day for about 10 minutes. Morning, noon, evening. These days, I mostly use the breathing technique only before meditation (around 3 minutes) or when I notice that my nervous system is ramped up too much (for me, primarily noticeable through inner restlessness and "too much energy").
Did you try 4-7-8 breathing because of this blog post? Feel free to give me feedback! You use other breathing techniques that work really well for you? I want to know! Use the feedback button on the right!
