A brand new study from Stanford University’s David Spiegel and Andrew Huberman, published in Cell Reports Medicine, suggests that just five minutes of a particular controlled breathing can help ease symptoms of anxiety by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
Not only that, the study showed the “cyclic sighers” reported greater increases in positive affect — energy, joy, peacefulness — than control groups.
The benefits didn’t stop there.
The “cyclic sighers” significantly lowered their resting breathing rate throughout the day, compared to control groups.
For more on the study, I’d suggest reading Hadley Leggett’s review, because it gets into a lot more that’s really great, but there’s one last thing…
… What is “cyclic sighing?”
Leggett:
The instructions are simple: Breathe in through your nose. When you’ve comfortably filled your lungs, take a second, deeper sip of air to expand your lungs as much as possible. Then, very slowly, exhale through your mouth until all the air is gone.
After one or two of these deep sighs, you may already feel calmer, but to get the full effect, Spiegel recommends repeating these deep sighs for about five minutes.
So, there you have it.
The interesting thing is that one of the control groups practiced mindfulness meditation (which I’m also a big fan of), and “cyclic sighing” offered quicker, stronger benefits on the measured criteria.
Oh, one more thing.
The more consistent you are in practicing “cyclic sighing,” the stronger the benefits with each passing day.
[Photo: Pexels, free stock photography]
