Regulating Our Nervous System Through Breath

Julia Papale, Advanced Clinical Fellow

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending a fabulous breathwork workshop led by Intuitive Healing’s Alana Barlia. I took away many learnings, one of them being the idea that consistent practice can yield the best results. While I have always considered breathwork to serve as an in-the-moment tool for triggering situations (which it still can be), it became clear that breathwork is most effective if practiced. It’s like a muscle that when flexed, becomes stronger. Overarchingly, breathwork helps to regulate the nervous system, which is an autonomic process in our body that can be controlled – through the breath – to assist with emotional regulation, amongst many other benefits like managing stress, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviors and improving focus. While emotions affect breath, breath can also affect emotions, and through intentional breathing exercises, we can reclaim the nervous system to react differently to stimuli around us.

Many of us have heard the term “fight, flight, or freeze,” but what does that really mean? Our nervous system is made up of the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic system, the former being the rest and digest and the latter being the fight, flight, or freeze – the part of the system that becomes over-active when stressed. For anyone who has experienced any type of trauma, whether it be acute, chronic, or complex, the nervous system may be dysregulated as a result of stressful or invalidating environments. In this context, the sympathetic nervous system is sensitive and alert to danger, expecting harm at any given moment. It is not easily calmed down once the threat has passed, as is a natural part of the body’s automatic process. The body’s ability to self-regulate in response to stress is called the window of tolerance. When our bodies have experienced trauma, this window is smaller than usual, as the nervous system is less equipped to regulate itself. For example, the nervous systems might be stuck in “on” mode, in hyperarousal, or in “off” mode, in a more depressive state.

Through breathwork, we can learn how to tap into and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees bringing the body back into a calm stasis. The Vagus Nerve, which is responsible for emotional regulation, is also a part of this system. When we make breathwork a regular practice, rather than a one-off, we prime our nervous system into a state of equilibrium that is better able to handle stress, and we become less reactive, less anxious, or less depressed. With more attention to breath, whether it be through intentional daily exercises, or simply by paying attention to our breathing as we move through our day, knowing that we can always come back to our breath to help regulate ourselves is an extremely powerful tool. If you’re interested in learning more about one of the helpful breathwork practices I learned in this weekend’s workshop, check out my colleague Ilana’s article on box breathing here.