What is Headspace? What parents need to know

Breathing is something we all do every day and perhaps take for granted, but consciously paying attention to our breath and practicing deeper, controlled breathing, something that is taught in meditation, can help us in a variety of ways, from helping regulate blood pressure to boosting our mood. Hi, and welcome to headspace. I’m Dr. Yolanda Pierce, a neuroscience researcher who studies the many different functions of the brain. Today, we’ll be talking about the science of breathing and how it impacts your brain and body. Let’s get started.

So, what exactly is breathing? It starts with the air around us, which contains nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen, oxygen being the most important one because we need it to survive. To breathe, air gets sucked through your nose or mouth and then travels through the trachea and into your lungs, which expand. The air then reaches air sacs where oxygen is passed into the bloodstream. So while breathing is the physical process of taking in and expelling air, respiration is the chemical process in which we use oxygen to generate actual energy. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide is released and goes from the bloodstream and into the air sacs, which is then expelled from the body when you exhale. The average person repeats this entire process between 17,000 to 24,000 times a day. We usually don’t even think about breathing because it happens automatically, thanks to our body’s autonomic nervous system.

When you’re faced with a difficult challenge, whether psychological or physical, your sympathetic nervous system, one branch of the autonomic nervous system, gets triggered. The sympathetic nervous system prepares your body for action, that fight or flight response, which makes your heart beat faster and opens up your airways so you can breathe more easily and take in more oxygen. However, how we breathe can actually trigger this fight or flight response. For example, when you’re feeling nervous or anxious, you tend to tense up, and your breathing can start to become more rapid and shallow, known as hyperventilation. You may even hold your breath. If we’re breathing under stress over long periods of time, cells in the brain and the body don’t get the oxygen they need and can’t work as efficiently. The brain is an organ with one of the highest oxygen and glucose requirements; therefore, this sort of hypoxic state can cause problems with brain cognition, making it harder to focus, think of freezing up before a presentation.

This is why in stressful situations people are often told to slow down and take a deep breath. So even though breathing happens automatically without us even having to think about it, we can override that to control our breathing voluntarily. This means that we can control the quality of our breathing. Changing the air pressure inside the lungs is one of the main ways we can alter breathing and increase oxygen levels. For example, slowing down the breath and taking deep breaths into your diaphragm increases the pressure of oxygen in the air sacs, making it easier for oxygen molecules to move into the blood by the capillaries. Increasing oxygen levels activates the rest and digest branch of the autonomic nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system.

Activating the parasympathetic nervous system creates a sense of mental calmness and counteracts the effects of stress and the stress hormone cortisol. There have been numerous studies on how breathing patterns reflect emotions because emotions and the way that the body responds are very interlinked quickly. If you’re feeling angry or stressed, your breathing will be more shallow and rapid. On the other hand, if you’re feeling content and happy, your breathing will be deeper and slower. However, research has shown that controlled breathing can in turn also impact our emotional state. While emotions are complex and often overlapping, new research has shown some promising evidence for how changing your breathing could actually actively influence brain activity associated with perception, cognition, behavior, and emotion. It’s important to note that there are many different techniques of deep breathing, so find one that works for you. Deep breathing may also not be suitable for those who experience shortness of breath, anxiety or panic attacks, or have heart conditions, so please practice mindfully and consult with a healthcare professional if you have any questions. I’m Dr. Yolanda Pierce, and thank you very much for watching.