SEPTEMBER 2019 WOMEN’S HEALTH / 7 5PH
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You’re in a late-
afternoon slump...
TRY HA-HA BREATHSIn lieu of another cold brew,
focus on trimming the
length of your exhalations.
“Taking a longer inhale and
a shorter exhale shifts the
ANS to increa se your hear t
rate, turning on your SNS,
making you feel energized
immediately,” says Dr.
Guarneri. (It’s the opposite
of what you’d do to calm
yourself down.)
Execute the breath: Lit-
erally laugh your way to a
more revved-up day. First,
take a deep breath to fill
your lungs. Then push out
your breath in three forced
bursts, a s if you’re saying
HA-HA-HA. Repeat until
you feel perky.You’re all heated
inside...
TRY RHYTHMIC
BREATHINGYou may already know that
chronic inflammation is
behind every major chronic
disease. This breath type—
which is like hyperventilat-
ing—changes the activity of
the innate immune system
(the first step in the body’s
immune response), a
Dutch study found. Hyper-
ventilating is a “good” mini
stressor that increases
levels of adrenaline, says
Zandra Palma, MD, a prima-
ry care and functional
medicine physician with
Parsley Health. The result?
Inflammatory activity in
the body mellows.
Cool down: Sit and take
30 rapid breaths. Exhale
and hold for as long as you
can. Then deeply inhale
and hold 10 seconds. You
can keep this going for up
to an hour if you’re feeling
it. (The caveat: Skip rhyth-
mic breathing if you have
a heart condition or are on
antipsychotic meds.)You’ve got too many
balls in the air...
TRY HEART-FOCUSED
BREATHSIs life one long juggling act
lately? When you feel
crazed, your heart does too.
It has a nerve that sends
info to your thinker, says
Dr. Guarneri: “If the heart is
under stress, it signals that
you’re in trouble, and your
brain floods your body with
stress hormones.”
Longer breaths with
equal inhalations and exha-
lations (a style developed
by HeartMath Institute,
a nonprofit that works on
stress-relief methods),
however, can improve heart
rate variabilit y, or HRV—a
measure of how much the
time between heartbeats
varies. High HRV is good; it
may indicate that your body
is resilient under pressure.
So equalize: Inhale and
exhale for about five sec-
onds each, envisioning the
breaths moving in and out
through your heart. Think
of something you love too.
Continue for 20 minutes.Chant
It Out
WH writer Jessica Migala
details her first-time experi-
ence dabbling in Kir tan
Kriya, a breath-meets-song
meditation method.“I’m no meditator or song-
stress. So you can imagine
the butterflies occupying
my stomach one evening
on a recent wellness re-
treat in Mexico, as I sat
with a group of strangers
on the beach at sunset
next to a bonfire, chanting
to beautiful background
music. While new territory
for me, this form of singing
meditation, known as
Kirtan Kriya, is a com-
mon—and uncomplicat-
ed—practice in kundalini
yoga. Just 12 minutes
daily for eight weeks may
help preserve memory
and cognitive abilities,
research shows. The
thinking is that Kirtan
Kriya may boost blood
flow to the brain, says
Mimi Guarneri, MD. And
all you have to do is re-
member this chant: Sa Ta
Na Ma. Then park your-
self in a comfortable posi-
tion and sing out loud—
don’t be shy! On my
getaway, our group even
broke form and danced
barefoot while we medi-
tated. I left feeling peace-
ful and focused and like I
could conquer anything.”
TAP AN APP
Download Breathe
(iPhone) or
Breathe2Relax
(iPhone and Android)
to s e n d yo ur s e lf c ue s
throughout the day.