Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/WN8jgIPJ1qE

 

Breathing with prolonged exhalation beats other breathing techniques as well as mindless meditation for elevating your mood and extinguishing anxiety.  Stanford University neurobiologists and psychologists studied 108 persons with a mean age of 28 years.  Two-thirds were females.

Four techniques were tested by each of 4 groups for 5 minutes each day for 28 days. The Cyclic Sighing group respired with a prolonged exhalation pattern taking twice as long to expel air as inhale it.  The Box Breathing group breathed with inhalation and exhalation phases of equal duration.  The Cyclic Hyperventilation group performed 30 in and out breaths followed by a 15 second pause with empty lungs.  The Mindful Meditation group closed eyes and concentrated on their foreheads keeping other thoughts out of their minds.

 

While all of those pursuing controlled breathing showed better mood improvement than those meditating, the cyclic sighing group had the most mood elevation and anxiety suppression.  The next time you need a pick-me-up, consider closing your eyes and breathing in normally but taking twice as long to exhale.

 

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00474-8?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666379122004748?showall=true#

 

#breathing #cyclicsighing #medication #stress #anxiety