Video

Transcript

so today I want to show you something

pretty cool on how to make some slight

changes in your breath your breathing to

help you lower cortisol and pull

yourself out of a stress strength

anxiety and even a panic attack now you

can also use this if you have asthma or

if you’re just not able to sleep I use

this technique every single night before

I go to bed to just put myself into a

deep sleep pretty fast all right so this

entire topic revolves around one muscle

called the diaphragm which is a

fascinating muscle the diaphragm is the

only skeletal muscle that has both

involuntary and voluntary function in

other words it can run automatically

without you even thinking about it

that’s called involuntary and you can

also control your breathing so you can

bypass this involuntary mechanism all

right so this diaphragm it’s right

underneath your lungs and if you ever

look at that what happens with the

diaphragm it acts like a parachute so

when it contracts the parachute goes

down and it pulls oxygen into the lungs

and they expand and then when it

releases and relaxes passively you can

actively relax it and then the pressure

of your lungs once you get this oxygen

in will release mostly passively and

allow CO2 to exit your body a lot of

times people when they think about

stress they think about needing more

oxygen but you really don’t need more

oxygen when you are in stress you need a

balance of that CO2 and oxygen to allow

oxygen into the cells the CO2 is needed

so let’s say for example you have

someone in a panic attack right what are

they doing they’re hyperventilating

they’re getting a lot of oxygen with

very little CO2 so what can they do to

pull themselves out of that state they

can breathe in a paper bag to get more

CO2 which can help the absorption of

oxygen so it’s not just about increasing

oxygen it’s about putting in this

balance of oxygen and CO2 now the

diaphragm which is right underneath your

lungs is a very ignored muscle it’s so

important because it works 24 7. it

can’t take a break it works constantly

you deliver oxygen in the body and get

rid of the skin to balance that

statement and so it has to work when you

exercise when you’re sleeping it has to

work constantly by the way when you do

exercise and you push yourself you might

feel like side pain on the side of your

your rib cage that is the diaphragm uh

cramping and so if you’re not used to

that level of exercise it can definitely

be an issue and it can actually stop you

from exercising because it can go into a

cramp also hiccups are related to a

diaphragm problem this is why for

example hiccups are triggered by stress

and so stress can affect the nerve

signals that can create this

inappropriate signaling to the diaphragm

which can then cause this irregular

pickup effect now the diaphragm is 100

controlled by a nerve it’s called the

phrenic nerve and you have two of them

the one on this right side though does

also innervate the gallbladder and the

outside of your liver the liver capsule

now there are some mixed reviews as far

as whether it innervates the gallbladder

and the liver or not I think it does

because if you have pressure within the

bile ducts if you have pressure within

the gallbladder if you have pressure

within the liver you’re going to get

this referred pain from the phrenic

nerve that goes up to the right side of

your nectar here it can go to your right

trap it can wrap around to the rhomboid

area right through here so anything

right here is usually the phrenic nerve

being referred from down in the

gallbladder so just from a treatment

standpoint if you have right shoulder

pain and you get treated for this area

and you don’t get relief that’s because

it’s being referred from down in the

gallbladder area chances are you ate

something that you shouldn’t have eaten

or you overrate something that you

should be eating you just eat too much

and you’re getting bloating so there’s

other things that can affect this nerve

other than just being in stress for

example you can have gallbladder

problems you can have gallstones you can

have bile sludge you can be a diabetic

and have this condition called diabetic

neuropathy which affects the phrenic

nerve in which case the remedy for that

is mean okay so just make another note

if you are a diabetic and you have that

problem and relating to the gallbladder

the antidote the real simple solution is

to take something called taka to help

you thin the bile and that it’s sort of

that referred pain pretty quick okay

another condition that can affect this

nerve is a hernia there’s a weakness

within the collagen tissue that

separates and it’s bulging up into the

stomach area and so that can put

pressure on the phrenic nerve as well

but I think out of all the things that

can affect breathing in the critic nerve

bloating is at the top of the list you

also have another thing called gastric

bypasser surgery that can affect the

phrenic nerve in fact 20 percent of

everyone who gets that surgery has a

problem with the phrenic nerve and they

have pain to the right side so that

being said how does one lower cortisol

by changing their breath pattern what

you do is you actively take over this

automatic system and so you start

putting control in and start regulating

the pattern of breathing anytime you’re

in this sympathetic flight or flight

State the typical breathing is not going

to be a balanced inhalation in

exhalation it’s usually going to be like

this

it’s a short exhalation the inhalation

is going to be longer than the

exhalation so this simple solution is

just to balance out your breathing so

the first thing I’m going to recommend

you can use this throughout the day like

just do it five minutes before you go to

bed do it five minutes through the day

you know if you’re stressed you want to

breathe to the nose okay and you want to

breathe in for four seconds okay and you

want to breathe out for four seconds

just balance your breathing and I

recommend you breathe to your diaphragm

and the way you do that is you put your

hand on your stomach

and you push out the stomach as you

allow the diaphragm to pull the air in

okay I mean you can breathe through your

chest

but I recommend you bring to your

stomach because it’s just going to be

less stress on your body

so let me demonstrate

now you couldn’t see that but I

basically counted in four seconds in in

four seconds out if you did that for one

to five minutes you would feel very very

relaxed I recommend you do it while

you’re driving I recommend that you do

it if you’re walking in nature through

the day just for five minutes it will

greatly help pull you out of stress and

reduce your cortisol levels now there’s

something else you can do to take it to

the next level and this is really good

if you’re in a major stress State okay

so what you’re going to do is you’re

going to keep your inhalation constant

like four seconds but you’re going to

increase the time of which you exhale

okay so you’ll breathe in for four

seconds

and you’ll breathe out for like seven or

eight seconds now what is that gonna do

it’s going to stimulate a part of the

nervous system called the

parasympathetic nervous system and that

is a system that reduces adrenaline it

helps reduce cortisol that is a system

that helps you go into the deep Delta

wave sleep and so you’re bypassing this

automaticity of the suprenic nerve and

you yourself are now in the broad

receipt and you’re switching from the

sympathetic mode to the parasympathetic

mode so in one of the studies there was

a significant decrease in cortisol

levels after 45 minutes of using these

breathing exercises and they mentioned

that cortisol is a hormone that can be

easily affected by your breathing and I

listed in the description other studies

that shows that when you do these

breathing exercises your cortisol levels

will go down and here’s another study

using deep in slow breathing techniques

to reduce anxiety and vagal outflow

that’s the vagus nerve the vagus nerve

is responsible for something called the

parasympathetic activity in the body

that’s the system that helps you relax

helps you sleep and helps you digest and

here’s another study uh called the

effect of diaphragmatic breathing that’s

breathing to your diaphragm on attention

negative effect and stress in healthy

adults so in this study they compared uh

people who did the breathing exercises

to people who did not and there was a

significant lowering of cortisol after

these breathing exercises compared to no

changes in cortisol levels in the other

group and so they concluded that when

you breathe with your diaphragm you will

improve sustained attention as well as

lowering your cortisol levels and I want

you just to do this breathing exercise

for a couple minutes and then I want you

to comment down below of what you

experience but you’ve never done this

before I think you’ll notice a pretty

big change in your stress level go ahead

and try it now and if you haven’t seen

my video on panic attacks you have to

check that out right now because I go

into a little bit more on the details of

why it’s so important to increase your

CO2 to absorb oxygen I put that video up

right here check it out