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[MUSIC]
- An ability to control your
levels of stress in real time
is extremely powerful.
It turns out you can do this
using physiology and neuroscience.
Your breathing can directly
impact your heart rate
and your level of stress or calm.
Here's how it works.
When you inhale your diaphragm moves down.
This creates more space
in your thoracic cavity
and your heart actually
gets a little bit bigger.
As a consequence the rate
of blood flow through
that larger heart volume slows down.
A signal is sent from a group of neurons
on your heart called the sinoatrial node.
That signal goes up to the brain
and your brain sends a
signal to speed the heart up.
In other words, inhaling
speed your heart rate up.
The opposite is true as well.
When you exhale, your diaphragm moves up.
Your heart gets a little bit smaller
because there's a little bit less space
in your thoracic cavity.
As a consequence blood flows more quickly
through that smaller volume.
The sinoatrial node registers that
and sends a signal to your brain,
and the brain sends a signal
to slow the heart down.
So in other words, inhaling speeds
your heart rate up exhaling
slows your heart rate down.
So if you want to speed up your heart rate
and be more alert, inhale more
or make those inhales more
vigorous, more intense.
If you wanna calm down,
you can do that quickly
by making your exhales slightly
longer than your inhales
or making them more vigorous.
This doesn't require any breath work
this is something that
you can do in real time.
And that's what's called
respiratory sinus arrhythmia.
That's the technical phrase.
It's also the basis of what's called
heart rate variability or HRV
but all you need to
remember is, inhaling deeper
and longer will speed your heart rate up.
Exhaling longer and more intensely
will slow your heart rate down
and will allow you to
calm down in real time.