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Arete Warriors – spirit, mind, body strong
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Try This To Quickly Calm Your Nerves!
Dear Reader,
If you’re a mother, you’ve been here.
Or maybe even here.
Today, I want to give you a scientifically proven technique that will help you calm yourself down, quickly!
This is not the “Imagine you’re on a beautiful island…” kind of advice. This trick will actually change your body’s physiology almost instantly!
Let’s Prepare – the warm up
You’ve heard people say (& maybe you’ve said it yourself trying to calm down an upset child or husband), “Take a breath!” You might also notice if someone says to relax, the person receiving the command often exhales & drops their shoulders.
Under stress, our exchange of oxygen & carbon dioxide (CO2) can get compromised which rouses our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight).
A single breath called a physiological sigh can activate the parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest).
Let’s Work – the exercise
We are going to do a physiological sigh. Here’s how you do it.
Inhale through your nose until you feel like your lungs are pretty full. Hold for a second, then sniff in more air. Now let it all out s l o w l y through your mouth.
That’s it!
One breathe is effective! Several in a row might be MORE effective, but even just doing this once before you have a hard conversation, respond to your out of control teen, or sit in a dentist’s chair, can help relax your body & give you a better chance at success.
If you want more, here is a short (less than 3 minutes) video of Dr Andrew Huberman explaining the physiological sigh in greater detail.
Please teach this to your kids.
My friend Gina uses it on the golf course. I use it on the tennis court before I serve sometimes. We also use it here before bed…
The options are endless. I hope you find it useful. 🤗 Let me know how it goes!
