3 Steps To Help Calm Your Mind Whenever It’s Spinning, From An Integrative MD

Your breath is the link between your body and your mind, because your breath is connected to your nervous system.

When the body is threatened, the sympathetic nervous system, or the flight-or-fight acute stress response, is activated. This prepares the body to move into quick action to defend and protect itself: pupils dilate, the heart pumps faster, blood pressure increases, and the breath becomes shallow and rapid.

When the threat is gone, the parasympathetic nervous system takes over and creates the rest-and-digest or relaxation response. The heart rate and breath slow down, and the body begins to repair and rejuvenate itself.⁣ 

The fascinating thing is that the nervous system activates the body the same way, regardless of where the threat is coming from. The threat could be physically present (a lion chasing you), or one that your mind perceives to be threatening (a deadline at work, a conversation with a loved one, or a social event with friends). In any of these instances, the nervous system will activate the body through a cascade of hormones that then activates the physical body.

In other words, the mind has a direct affect on the breath via the nervous system. And the reverse is also true. By changing the pattern of your breath, you can also affect your nervous system, which in turn, changes the physiology of your body and the state of your mind.⁣⁣

The most important thing to do when you have spinning, anxious thoughts racing through your mind is to find a way to get out of your head and down into your body. And your breath is the fastest way to do this.