Are You a Reverse Breather? Finally Master the Diaphragmatic Breath
Have you been practicing yoga, meditation, and/or pranayama for a while but feel like your anxiety is unabated? Or maybe your stress has gone down but you’re still dealing with near-constant tension in the neck and shoulders? There may be a simple reason for that, one that comes with an equally simple, though not necessarily easy, solution.
Reverse Breathing: A Symptom of Stress Culture
Believe it or not, most of us are reverse breathers at least some of the time. That’s because the reverse breathing pattern goes hand-in-hand with an overactive sympathetic nervous system (SNS) response. Our SNS is one half of our autonomic nervous system and is responsible for giving us the energy to go, do, and move. It’s also responsible for our fight/flight response, which is useful in certain situations but in current times gets triggered WAY too often. For some of us, it stays on alert 24/7, increasing our reactivity, interrupting sleep, stalling digestion, putting our energy levels on a roller coaster.
What’s reverse breathing, you ask? Simply put, if you take a breath in and your stomach draws in, you’re reverse breathing. Usually, this goes along with a lifted chest and/or shoulders on the inhale. With the exhale, you’ll notice get the opposite: the chest/shoulders sink down and the stomach expands out. Take a few breaths and see if this rings true for you.
If it does, don’t freak out! Firstly, because there’s nothing to be embarrassed about- remember that most of us breathe this way at least some of the time. Secondly, the added stress or anxiety is likely to make your reverse breathing pattern worse and as I just said, that’s probably where your reverse breathing pattern came from in the first place.
You see, the mechanisms the SNS uses to prep us for action mainly involve prepping us for physical action. That means tension in the skeletal muscles to prepare to for moving arms and legs. To support all that movement, we need strength in the core (abdominal tension), and more blood flow and oxygen (faster heart rate and respiration). We also probably want to look pretty strong and tall, hence the puffed out chest and lifted shoulders.
That’s all pretty great stuff if you’re fighting off an enemy or running from a tiger, but how helpful do you think that is if you’re sitting in traffic, working on a project at your desk, on a stressful phone call, or trying to pay attention to whatever your spouse is saying at the dinner table? Yeah, not so much. Here’s why.
Breath and the nervous system: How much control do we have?
Our breathing is inextricably linked to the firings of our nervous system, both voluntarily and involuntarily. While the signal to breathe begins in the lower brainstem as part of an autonomic (aka automatic) process, the main muscles of breathing (the diaphragm and intercostals), are made of skeletal muscle, and are therefore innervated in the same way as an arm or leg in that we have voluntary control over their action. For comparison, our intestines are made of smooth muscle, which is fully under the jurisdiction of our autonomic processes- we don’t directly control our intestinal movement in the same way we can an arm or a leg. (P.S.- If you have evidence to the contrary, please write to me to tell me all about it and reach out to someone the scientific research community!)
It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean we don’t have any control over our autonomic processes. We can influence the ANS by adjusting the information that’s being input into it. How does the ANS make its decisions on everything from what our body temperature should be, to how fast our heart should beat, to how many hormones need to be pumped into the blood stream at any given time? Like any good manager, it uses information! That information includes many, many pieces of data, including: our current emotional state, the amount of tension it is detecting in our skeletal muscle system, eye movement, and, drumroll please. . . our breathing pattern.
So when we intentionally shift our breath, we are telling our ANS something about the way we feel and what we need in that moment. This is what makes breathing practices so incredibly effective in managing mood, hormone balance, and mental processes: we are able to use our body to enact voluntary influence over what is normally an involuntary, unconscious process that begins in the brain.
The Solution? Diaphragmatic Breathing
If we look at reverse breathing as fuel for the SNS fire, then diaphragmatic breathing would be the water. Deep, slow breaths, taken with a freely moving diaphragm and relaxed chest and shoulders, calm the fight/flight response and activate the SNS’ other half: the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), also known as the ‘rest and digest’ response. It sends a signal to the brain that all is well, and it is okay for the body and mind to slow down, relax, and open up. The cells of our body feel safe to tend to their maintenance, rebuilding, and rejuvenation activities. We can move energy away from the survival/reactivity mode of the lizard brain and toward our higher-level executive functions: response, collaboration, creativity, and imagination.
The Practice
(Please reference the cautions listed at the end of this article before proceeding with a home practice.)
To practice, all you need is yourself and a place to comfortably sit or lie down. A block may come in handy, as well. At first, I recommend that you practice lying down with the knees bent and feet flat on the floor, as that allows for maximum relaxation of the muscles supporting the torso. If that isn’t the most comfortable for you, you can sit with your back supported by the back of a chair or a wall.
Begin by breathing naturally and observing your breathing pattern in the moment (chest or belly movement, fast or slow, deep or shallow, etc.). Shift into an equal breathing pattern, slowing it down if you can.
Place your hands (or a block) on your abdomen, just below your ribcage. As you inhale, visualize your diaphragm moving down into your abdomen, adding pressure that expands the abdomen out and up. As you exhale, allow your diaphragm to draw up into the ribcage and your navel to soften down toward the spine. If done correctly, you should be able to see and feel your hands or the block floating upwards as you breathe in, then falling back down as you breathe out. Repeat the action until this pattern feels natural, then continue for another 10-20 breaths.
Once you feel comfortable with diaphragmatic breathing lying down, try it while sitting against a wall, then seated away from the wall. The next step would be to incorporate this breath into your gentle yoga practice. Eventually, you’ll notice that you are belly breathing more often than not as you go throughout your day.
Working through Challenges
If you are used to reverse breathing this practice might feel challenging at first.* If you’re having a hard time with it, my suggestion is to work at it less! Remember, cognitive stress just adds fuel to the fire, making it harder for belly breathing to take over. Instead, set a short time limit to practice (like 60 seconds short), and stop when that time limit is up. Then approach it again the next day and see what happens. And again the day after that. And the day after that. . .
The point is, changing any of our patterns takes time. On some days it might even feel impossible. But just because it feels impossible, doesn’t mean that it is. Keep at it, and I promise you this practice will become one of your most-loved tools for cultivating a happier, calmer, and more productive state of being.
Cautions
It’s really important to note that diaphragmatic breathing, just like any breathing practice, is incredibly powerful and in some cases can create unexpected shifts. Breathing is primal and directly linked to our sense of safety and survival. Stress, fear, anger, grief, or old traumas can create chronic tension in our bellies, and if there is resistance to releasing that PLEASE listen to your body.
If you’re patient and compassionate with yourself you will probably find that you feel more relaxed and open with each practice. If you don’t, or if you know you are dealing with one or more of the issues listed above, consider getting some support from a yoga therapist, a well-qualified yoga teacher who has experience in working with trauma and/or breathing issues, or a psychotherapist with training in somatic modalities.
*If you experience any discomfort during this practice, including but not limited to persistent light-headedness, dizziness, or nausea, please stop and contact your yoga therapist or consult a health care professional before starting again.