Cyclic/Physiological Sighing Stress Breathwork With Intro

This track is a brief introduction to Cyclic Sighing or the Physiological Sigh. This meditation teaches you about cyclic sighing, its benefits, and how to use it. Cyclic sighing is a practice that has been clinically proven to be one of the most powerful tools for stress and anxiety relief. It works by quickly offloading carbon dioxide from the lungs and engaging the diaphragm, which brings out rapid stress relief.

I have also uploaded another Cyclic Sighing track that does not contain the intro portion so that you do not have to listen to the intro every time you try Cyclic Sighing. Head to my Insight Timer profile to find that track titled "Cyclic/Physiological Sighing for Stress Relief." You can also follow me on Insight Timer for more meditations and courses.

Thank you!

Transcript

Hello this is Emma from Holistic Health with Emma. Today I will teach you cyclic sighing also known as the physiological sigh. The cyclic sigh or physiological sigh is a form of breathing that has been clinically proven to be very effective for reducing stress and anxiety. It can actually stop the stress response in its tracks. It is a natural breathing pattern that helps calm us down. You may see it in dogs or babies when they are winding down. It involves two big breaths in through the nose and an extended sigh out through the mouth on repeat. It works by helping us offload a lot of carbon dioxide at once while also moving the diaphragm. The long sigh also helps slow the heart rate down and improves heart rate variability. You can reap the benefits of cyclic sighing even in just one to three breaths and you will reap even larger benefits from doing it for even just a few minutes up to five minutes. There are several good times to practice cyclic sighing. One is during times of stress. Another is when you want to change to a slower pace such as when you get home from work or when you complete a workout. A third good time to practice this is in the morning when you wake up or when you get to work to help you start your day off on the right foot. We are about to get started. I will demonstrate first. You do it by breathing in through the nose and then in again through the nose and then sighing it out through the mouth as if you are trying to fog up a mirror. So you'll breathe in through the nose twice and out through the mouth once as a sigh. I will demonstrate now. As you can tell the first inhale is longer than the second. Listen again and maybe try it with me this time. With even just three breaths you may start to feel a difference. Now we will practice cyclic sighing together for three minutes. If you feel like you've had enough before the three minutes have elapsed simply stop and return to your natural breathing pattern. Okay that was three minutes so you can return to your natural breath. Take a moment and see how you feel now. You can repeat this breathing exercise any time you need to either on your own or by returning to this recording for guidance. This experience is now complete. Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you so much for this brief teaching and short exercise. I have a lot of tools and techniques that are meant to help regulate my nervous system when I’m feeling dysregulated however, in the moment they seem out of reach or unhelpful. I am optimistic that this one might prove to be more helpful and I’m very grateful that I came across it today. The demonstration was very helpful as I have read about this technique before and in trying it myself I did not breathe in as quickly or strongly as you did in the demo so perhaps that will make a difference for me.

Thank you for sharing this. Sending you good wishes and many blessings. Thank you so much!