Learning how to breathe fully is a great self-healing technique. Deep breathing releases toxins by internally massaging the body’s lymphatic system, which helps your body naturally release toxins. Deep breathing can also help you regulate emotions. For this reason, you may like to teach deep breathing to your children because it can help them cope with high-stress situations like studying for exams.
It works because many automatic body functions such as blood pressure, body temperature, and heart rate are regulated by the body’s parasympathetic system. It is made up of two parts, the sympathetic system, which stimulates body activity. This part triggers things like your ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode – which is one reason you often can’t think straight when you’re very stressed.
The other part is the parasympathetic system, which handles a lot of automatic functions like digestion and relaxation. It’s called the “rest and digest” mode. When you hold your breath slightly (as part of deep breathing) the CO2 levels in your blood increase, which lowers your heart rate. So your deep breathing nudges your body into the parasympathetic or “rest and digest” mode and calms it down in stressful situations.
Stress eating – “I need chocolate to get me through this deadline”- is often caused by a surge in the hormone cortisol, which can increase appetite. But stress can also cause the digestive muscles to contract leading to bad digestion, bloating, constipation or diarrhea.
Researchers discovered that regular deep breathing exercises can activate the genes associated with moderating the body’s energy and insulin levels while decreasing those associated with inflammation and stress.