To breathe is to be alive. If we no longer take breaths, we cease to exist. Our bodies, specifically our autonomic nervous system, knows this. Without thinking about it we breathe over 20,000 times per day, giving our bodies the oxygen it needs to survive. As we move about our day our bodies recognize when it needs more or less oxygen and automatically increases or decreases the pace at which we breathe. So what does this have to do with emotion?
First, let’s start by having a clear understanding of what emotions or feelings are. Most people are familiar with the words we use to attribute meaning to an emotion. Below is a feelings wheel that lists many different feeling words. Happy, sad, and angry are common words we use to communicate how we feel, but it does not actually communicate what we feel.
Emotions are complex combinations of physiological and chemical reactions that happen in our body. Although we use our brain to give us language to describe how we feel, the sensations in our bodies are what we feel. Anxiety often feels like tightness in the chest. Sadness may feel like a heavy or a deep ache. Happiness may bring a smile to our face and a pep to our step. Content brings a sense of relaxation to the body. External stimuli automatically affect our bodies and in milliseconds our brain interprets these sensations allowing us to make sense of what we feel.
So. Back to breathing.
The autonomic nervous system which is in charge of breathing, is also in charge of things like heart rate and digestion. Emotions we’ve named as fear, anxiety, excitement, and many others can be recognized by an increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and churning of the stomach. There are two parts of the autonomic nervous system - sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. When we sense fear or stress, our sympathetic nervous system kicks in. It’s more commonly known as the fight, flight, or freeze response. When this happens our heart rate increases so that we can take in more oxygen to have the ability to act.
Since our body automatically does this, there are times our sympathetic nervous system is activated even if there is no immediate threat. Trauma, bad memories, and even fears like failing a test can trigger it. Before you know it, your body is tense, on edge, and breathing heavy.
This is where breathing comes in.
Although breathing is an automatic process, you can also take control of it. By choosing to take slow, elongated breaths, you are physiologically helping your body quiet the sympathetic nervous system while activating the parasympathetic system nervous. This is what is activated when you are at rest. So while the situation or problem may still be present, the fast breathing, tense muscles, and tightness of the chest will decrease, aka feelings of fear, stress, and anxiety, will decrease.
So next time you talk about how you feel, pay attention to what you feel, and perhaps breathing may be able to change that.
Sources
American Lung Association. (n.d.). 2020: the year we lost our breath.
Feelings wheel. (n.d.). https://feelingswheel.com/
Headspace. (2022, September 27). A neuroscientist explains how breathing impacts the brain [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HojLhKlJto
Jerath, R., & Beveridge, C. (2020). Respiratory rhythm, autonomic modulation, and the Spectrum of Emotions: the future of Emotion recognition and modulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01980
McDonough, B. M. (2024, October 29). Making sense of interoception. Harvard Medicine Magazine.https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/making-sense-interoception#:~:text= It%27s%20a%20call%20from%20the,internal%20signals%20from%20the%20body
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