At some point, youve probably been told totake a deep breathin a moment of anxiety. As it turns out, theres more to the clich than you might think. We spoke to experts about 4-7-8 breathing, a technique that, in a matter of seconds, can ease your negative response to stress. Inspired by yoga, 4-7-8 breathingisnt just a psychological tool: It can actually change the speed at which your heart beats and promote the effective pumping of blood to various organs and muscles. Heres how (and why) to do it.

Its a breathing pattern based on pranayama, which is the part of yoga that deals with breath control. 4-7-8 is relaxing because it extends the exhale portion of the breathing, said Dr. Victoria Maizes, the executive director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Extending the exhale has a quieting effect on the body by interacting with the parasympathetic nervous system (essentially the flip side of the fight-or-flight stress response).

Its free,its simple, and you can choose to use it any time youre feeling stressed.

Sit upright with your chest open and put the tip of your tongue at the roof of your mouth. Theres a little ridge behind your upper front teeth where your tongue will stay for the entire exercise (the placement of which will cause a whoosh sound when you exhale). Inhale through your nose to the count of four, hold your breath for seven counts, and exhale slowly through your mouth for eight counts (you can purse your lips while exhaling if that feels more comfortable for you).

This is one breath, so do this three more times for a total of four breaths. If its helpful, you can count on your fingers to track how many cycles youve done. You have to exhale slowly or else youll run out of air pretty fast, since your exhale is now twice as long as your inhale, says Maizes. The ratio is whats important not the exact time you spend on each phase so you can speed the whole thing up or slow it down as long as you keep the 4-7-8 count intact.

I think its hard to learn anything new when youre really anxious, but in particular, I think its hard to learn to relax, says Maizes, which is why she suggests making 4-7-8 a practice by doing it twice a day, every day. You can do it more than twice a day do it 20 times a day if you want but you should only do the 4-7-8 breath four times in a row at a time. Once you get really good at it after practicing it for about a month or longer the typical recommendation is to bump it up from four to eight times in a row, but no more. (Its not exactly clear why this restriction exists, but Maizes theorises that its because you can blow off more carbon dioxide while slowly exhaling, and doing too much of that could make you lightheaded or uncomfortable.)

Because youre doing no more than four cycles (or, eventually, eight) at a time, the exercise will only take seconds. It is physiologically impossible to be stressed and relaxed at the same time, Maizes said. Practicing 4-7-8 breathing makes your nervous system smarter, so then if youre anxious, your body goes, Oh yeah, I know how to relax. Ive been practicing this for weeks. Sometimes, Maizes adds,if youre feeling really anxious, you might have difficulty both taking a deep breath and holding your breath. Thats why its helpful to familiarise yourself with the practice throughout the day, particularly in moments when you are not feeling stressed. The more you practice it and get better at it, the more helpful it will be for you when youre feeling a lot of anxiety, says Dr. Sarah Kate McGowan, assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Thats not to say that you shouldnt try 4-7-8 in the moment if youve never done it before it will likely still be helpful but ina highly anxious moment, its easier to draw on something youve done before.

Its free,its simple, and you can choose to use it any time youre feeling stressed. Part of anxiety is loss of control, says McGowan. With something like 4-7-8, you dont need to rely on anyone but yourself. Dont underestimate the self-efficacy aspect of this practice.

But there are physiological components at play, too. This sort of breathing helps regulate the bodys stress response the fight or flight reaction that helps us survive life-threatening situations. In stressful circumstances, your breath increases in order to get extra oxygen to your lungs and your brain helpful, should you actually have to fight or take flight. But in a lot of modern day stressors, there isnt a physical threatcreating that anxiety.So what were doing with breathing exercises is trying to slow down our bodys sympathetic response, McGowan said.

The bodys stress response isnt inherently a bad thing. Even fruit flies have a stress response, said Dr. Esther Sternberg, research director at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. You cannot live without it. The goal is not to get rid of the stress response thats not possible. The question is how you turn that negative stress into good stress and make it work for you.

And the way to do that is by engaging whats called the relaxation response. This response isactivated by the vagus nerve, which connects the spinal cord to the internal organs of the body. One way to quickly engage the vagus nerve in other words, to quickly engage the relaxation response is through deep breathing. Its like putting your foot on the brake and putting the brake on the stress response, Sternberg says.

Breathing deeply changes the speed at which your heart beats.

Breathing deeply changes the speed at which your heart beats. If you look at one minute of heart rate, youll see that your heart doesnt beat exactly evenly. This is whats called heart rate variability, which is the variation in the spaces between the beats. Thats because the vagus nerve is directly connected to the part of the heart that controls heart rate, the rhythm center, says Sternberg. When you inhale the heart rate increases, and when you exhale, it decreases. As you breathe deeply, it changes the speed at which the heart beats, so you get more variability. The greater the heart rate variability, the more effective the pumping of the blood to all your different organs and muscles.

Just as there are brain pathways engaged with negative experiences of stress, Sternberg says positive experiences such as deep breathing, walking in nature, and even prayer engage other brain pathways that are rich in endorphins and feel-good molecules. In addition to making you feel good, they contribute to putting that break on the stress response, Sternberg says. Remember,if youre feeling anxious, your body is telling you something. she says. As soon as you change course, you shift from feeling stressed to feeling exhilarated the difference between the two feelings is whether or not youre in control.

This article originally appeared on Science of Us 2020 All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content

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How to breathe using the 4-7-8 technique if you're feeling anxious - SBS