Why do psychologists always talk about breathing?
If you’ve ever spoken to a psychologist or a counsellor, you’ve probably been encouraged to try out breathing techniques as a way to manage a range of mental health concerns.
It’s something that I raise with most of my clients at some point during our therapy journey.
But a common comment I hear in from many of the people I see, usually in the first session or two, is that they don’t find ‘breathing’ helpful and they aren’t keen for it to be suggested again.
And it’s totally understandable why they feel this way! Whether you’ve suffered with extreme anxiety or not, most of us have had the experience of someone telling us to ‘just breathe’ or ‘take a breath’ when we’ve shared our worries or stresses. Maybe we’ve even attempted to regulate our breathing during an anxiety or panic attack before. Being told to ‘just breathe’ can be very invalidating, and often increases our frustration and worries rather than taking them away. Attempting to change our breathing during a panic attack can also feel impossible, particularly when we’re hyperventilating, feel like we’ve lost control, or even feel like we might be dying.
So why do psychologists keep suggesting it?
Breathing techniques come in all shapes and sizes. And they have a range of purposes and aims that can help us in recovery from mental health concerns
Sometimes it’s as simple as DISTRACTION – regardless of where we are, who we’re with, and how we’re feeling we’ve always got our breath. Being able to draw our attention to our breathing (and just being mindful of it, without having to change it) can be a great way to circuit-break our cycle of negative or anxious thinking, or it might help us shift our focus from something else that’s triggering. It might help you ground or get a bit of focus whilst you wait for something else to pass.
Sometimes breathing techniques help us connect with the PRESENT MOMENT. When we draw our attention to our breathing we naturally have to be more mindful! Our mental health can often take a turn when we use too much of our ‘headspace’ on the past or on the future, so training our attention muscles to remain in (or shift back to!) the present moment is a really helpful way to improve our mental health.
But a big reason why I often work on breathing with clients is that our breath is a great way to IMPACT OUR NERVOUS SYSTEM! I often find that clients don’t understand the science behind why breathing techniques can be so effective!
Within our body we have two systems – one called the sympathetic nervous system, and one called the parasympathetic nervous system.
Our sympathetic nervous system is like the accelerator in a car – it helps everything ‘start up’. It helps us stay safe by quickly and automatically responding to threats or danger. It helps us with ‘Fight/Flight/Freeze’ responses.
Our parasympathetic nervous system is like the brake in a car – it helps everything ‘slow down’. It helps us to recover after a threat, and return back to normal. After all, it’s unsustainable to remain in a state of hypervigilance for too long. It’s responsible for what we call the ‘Rest and Digest’ response (i.e. the opposite to the Fight/Flight/Freeze response).
For those of us with mental health concerns, particularly anxiety, we’re often ‘stuck’ in our sympathetic nervous system – we feel on edge, flighty, hypervigilant, often unable to focus on certain things, and find it difficult to switch off or even sleep. We need to keeping switching back into our parasympathetic nervous system and teaching our bodies that we’re safe.
Switching between our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system is often outside of our control – it’s determined by the automatic part of our brain.
Thankfully, however, our breath is one bodily function that can switch us between sympathetic (accelerator) and parasympathetic (brake) nervous system. When we bring conscious awareness to our breath – to slow it down, extend our exhales, and/or deepen each breath, we give ourselves an opportunity to turn on our nervous system ‘brake’.
As proof of this, I sometimes get clients to think about how their breathing looks when they want to be running (short, sharp, shoulders lifting, chest heaving) compared to when they want to be sleeping (very slow, only our lower belly moves, very deep and even). Shifting our breathing is a sign to our bodies to ‘rest’, to ‘slow down’, that we are safe and able to relax.
Sometimes we find it hard to notice or challenge our thoughts, particularly if we know they’re illogical already. So breathing can be a handy way to manage moments of anxiety. And that’s why you might find your psychologist suggesting it (again!).
If you’ve tried breathing techniques and they haven’t been useful, if you’re frustrated when your psychologist suggests it, or if you’re keen to hear more about them or give them another go – always let your psychologist know your thoughts and feelings!
Most importantly, keep giving them a go. It’s a bit like any other skill or practice – we often need to attempt it on several occasions to get the hang of it. I often think back to when I started jogging – it took me and a friend an entire year of running every week (sometimes twice a week) to build up to running 5kms. We ran a few hundred metres at first, and slowly built up each week. It was uncomfortable and tiring the whole way, but our muscles and lungs progressively got stronger and more accustomed. It’s the same with our “brain muscles” – our ability to focus on and use or breathing will be difficult at first, but with practice will get much easier!
