Physiological Sigh

It can be very difficult to calm a turbulent mind with your mind! But we can use the body to calm the mind. Sighing helps us to reset physiologically. This leads to a feeling of relief. The physiological sigh is particularly effective.

Transcript

This is a breathing technique called a physiological sigh and it's a technique to bring down stress levels very quickly.

Using this technique means that you don't have to step away from life and withdraw and take time out to calm down.

You can use this technique right in the moment.

A physiological sigh is two inhales followed by a long exhale.

The first inhale is typically a little bit bigger than the second one but they're both important.

So I know you can't see me but maybe from the sound you'll have a little bit of an idea of what this breathing technique is like.

Two inhales followed by a long exhale and then just breathe normally in and out through the nostrils.

What we're doing with those two inhales is we're trying to fill up as much of our lungs as possible.

So you inhale as much as you can,

Take another bit of an inhale and then exhale out through an open mouth.

You probably only need to do one of those but you can do up to two or maybe even three physiological sighs if you want to.

This particular breathing technique has been shown to bring calm and composure back into the system very quickly.

It's something that we do quite naturally and normally but we just don't notice that we're doing it.

We might also see in particular children when they're quite young and they're crying and they've been very upset and as they're sort of trying to calm themselves down you might actually notice them doing this kind of a breath.

So very effective,

You can do it anytime.

Have a go,

See how it feels.

Reviews

This is great - quick, simple and helpful in an unobtrusive way. Thank you.

💜I recently learned about the awesome relaxing benefits this particular breathing exercise brings to our nervous system. I was delighted to see and listen to this guided meditation. I will be adding it to my favorites playlist. 🌹

What a great technique. I will moat definitely be incorporating this into my life. Thank you 💮

Lovely to learn a new breathing technique to calm the nervous system, thank you! Simple, clear, and effective!

This is the FASTEST and most EFFECTIVE breathing relaxation technique I have ever found. 5 stars plus plus!! I believe that it is important to have a LONG exhale of 6 to 10 seconds, maybe thru pursed lips to really slow the heart rate. This increased thoracic pressure above the diaphragm works by slowing the refilling of the heart. Unless you hyperventilate by breathing faster than 6 breaths per minute, and become lightheaded, I see no harm in doing a longer PS session of a few minutes or a couple of dozen breaths. That is, titrate the duration to how distressed you feel in the moment. Add in a COOL WATER routine to hands, face and back of the neck, and with the PS technique you can be chilled out in under a minute. For safety sake, take away any pressing mental challenges for the next hour. Be kind to yourself!

Interesting calming technique that I will certainly try.