Breathe & Squeeze 

• In the Classroom - Lesson 12
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Lesson:    

Now that you have control over your breathing, and are developing an awareness of how it affects your nervous system, you are ready to take it to the next level. 
 

• The nervous system is the communication highway for your body/mind. But during the day, as you are doing things, most of your energy is out-ward directed. People refer to this function of the nervous system as the "fight-or-flight” response, but it’s actually more complicated than that. Whenever you are working on something, fixing something, thinking of something, you are doing anything (beside basic breathing, digestion, heart beating….), you are directing your energy outward. Even when you are eating, thinking, and even a large part of your sleeping, is directing energy out into the world, even if it is into the world of your mind or to digest food. This is a little complicated, but realize that most of the time we are using energy to interact with our environment, thinking about it, protect ourselves from it, do things in it. Sometimes we forget to direct energy to our body as it’s own environment. Your body has it’s own “To-Do” list and needs energy to do what it needs to do to keep growing and repairing. Sometimes? Most of the time. Always. But have you every even thought of directing your energy back to your body, to let it heal and take care of itself (you)? And, if you had thought of it, would you ever even think it was possible? Well it it. Your nervous system has a switch that can redirect your energy from out-directed (fight-flight-freeze-fidget-fret) to in-directed (relax–rest–repair–replenish). You have the ability to flick that switch! The switch is called the Vagus (or Vagal) Nerve. One easy way to flip it is to use the Slow Blow method, and another is to activate the Diaphragm. Both techniques flip your nervous system's main switch, sending your energy away from stress mode to the learning and feeling good mode.
   

• With this technique you are activating your diaphragm, to breathe deeply, expanding the bottom of the lungs. You should feel the expansion all the way down into the belly.
   

• Often, people are told to “Take a deep breath,” to relax. But a better suggestion is to squeeze out all the air, because then the body naturally breathes deeply and fully on it’s own. Focusing on the in-breath can cause anxiety. We are extending our inhalation (which raises our heart rate) and we are engaging in analytical thought, judging “am I breathing deep enough? Am I breathing correctly?” Instead, without worrying or thinking about it, simply squeeze out every last drop of air and trigger the diaphragm to do it’s job, pull the bottoms of the lungs downward, creating a vacuum that sucks in more air, effortlessly.