Breathe For Weight Loss and Health
Balancing the A.N.S
The autonomic system (ANS) comprises of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system triggers your ‘Fight or flight’ response and leads to the increased production of the stress hormone cortisol. This results in an increase in blood pressure, blood sugar and muscular energy.
This also leads to the suppression of the immune and digestion system.
On the flip side, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for ‘resting and digesting’ ..’feeding and breeding’. When triggered, the hear rate slows down, blood pressure and cortisol production drops.
This results in increased activity in the digestive, immune system and also increased sexual arousal/function.
Modern day living shifts us to be primarily in sympathetic dominance. If you are struggling with weight issues, mental and/or emotional stress, you want to get out of sympathetic and into parasympathetic.
The easiest lever is available to you every single second..every single moment if you choose to pay attention to your breath.
Are you breathing fast and erratically or slow and rhythmically?
For a start, pay attention to your breathing…how you breathe is a barometer of how you feel mentally and emotionally.
So what can you do?
Nasal only breathing is the first and simplest way to balance your ANS. By breathing through your nose, you not only have better diaphragm recruitment but you also trigger the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve that connects everything from your tongue, lungs, heart all the way down to your spleen, liver, small/large intestines, stomach.
Triggering the vagus nerve will send a signal to your brain and body saying that “hey..I am ok!”..calming you down.
Takeaways..
Shut your mouth and breathe through your nose at all times (cooking, cleaning, walking, training), consider mouth taping with a strip of surgical tape across your mouth.
Join me for this quick 7 minute practice.
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