Welcome.
My name is Andrew McElroy.
And I will be your guide today.
You're activated.
Let's not spend long on a preamble.
Hearts up,
Jaws tight,
Something in your chest is humming.
We're going to bring that down,
And the fastest reliable route runs through the breath.
Six minutes,
Start wherever you are.
Atha,
Let us commune and practice together.
One clarification because it matters.
You cannot lower cortisol in 90 seconds.
Cortisol moves on a slow curve.
It takes 10s of minutes to rise and considerably longer to clear.
Anyone promising you an instant cortisol drop is selling you something.
What you can change in 90 seconds is the sympathetic surge sitting on top of it,
The adrenaline layer,
The heart rate,
The breath rate,
The muscle tone.
And by settling that layer,
You stop feeding the signal that keeps the slower stress axis switched on.
So,
Fast relief on a fast system,
Real relief on a slow system,
With repetition.
That's honest and how it still works.
Two techniques,
Both well supported.
Physiological sigh,
A double inhale through the nose followed by a long exhale through the mouth.
The second,
A smaller inhale,
Reinflates collapsed avioli in the lungs,
Which improves the offload of carbon dioxide on the exhale.
It's a naturally occurring reflex.
You do it after crying.
Recent controlled work has found brief daily cyclical sighing produces meaningful improvements in mood and reductions in the respiratory rate.
Then paced breathing at roughly six breaths per minute,
Which is where your heart rate variability tends to peak for most people.
And that is what we are going to be working on today.
Sit or stand,
Eyes open is fine.
If you're activated,
Closing them can sometimes make it worse.
This is your call.
If you feel lightheaded at any point,
Stop and breathe normally.
That's not a failure.
That's your information from your body telling you what it needs.
We will start with three physiological size.
Inhale through the nose.
Now a second smaller sniff on top of it.
And a long,
Slow exhale through the mouth.
Let it be audible.
This can be a little odd,
But it definitely provides relief.
Again,
Inhale through the nose.
Second sniff on top.
And long exhale through the mouth.
Once more in hell.
Sniff,
And out.
Now let the mouth close.
We move to paced nasal breathing.
We're going to inhale through the nose for five counts and exhale for five counts.
Inhale through the nose,
5 counts,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhale through the nose,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Inhale,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Exhale,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Continue on your own,
Even in and even out.
I'm going to be quiet for a minute.
Just return to that count of five if you get lost.
Keep the rhythm.
Nothing else is required of you right now.
Let the breath find its own pace.
And let's check in with the body.
First,
Let's check the jaw.
The shoulders and the hands.
Are they gripping anything?
And the chest.
Do you still feel the tension?
Is the hum quieter than it was six minutes ago?
Maybe not gone.
But quieter is the wind.
If you need this again in an hour,
Use it again in an hour.
It doesn't wear out.
Again what we're doing.
Is we're lowering the synthetic system of the nervous system to allow it to notice that,
Hey,
I don't need the cortisol.
And so over time,
It's gonna reduce the amount of cortisol that's going through.
Providing you a little bit of stress relief.
And if you use it before the stress arrives rather than after,
So before the meeting,
Before the call.
You'll find it does considerably more.
It's going to interrupt that pattern before the cortisol and the adrenaline builds up.
Iti,
Until we practice together again.
