Slow exhales are an evidence-based way to calm the body and mind. This simple straw breathing technique can help you extend your exhale and relieve stress.
Video Transcript
The next time you’re feeling anxious, stressed out, or overwhelmed, consider giving this simple breathing practice a try. It’s known as straw breathing.
Activating The Parasympathetic Nervous System
The reason this works is that it activates our parasympathetic nervous system. So let me back this up a little bit. We have what’s known as an autonomic nervous system. It’s part of our nervous system that’s responsible for all kinds of processes going on in our muscles and our glands that are automatic. We’re not thinking about them, like breathing
It can be divided into two systems. First, our sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for all of the fight-or-flight processes: those things that make us feel stimulated, motivated to tackle life, and ready to defend ourselves. When we’re anxious, stressed out, or overwhelmed, this sympathetic nervous system can become overactive.
We can balance it out with the other part of our autonomic nervous system known as the parasympathetic nervous system. This is responsible for our rest-and-digest functions: the things we do when we are calm, at rest, and feel safe.
The Brain and Breathing
Our brain is this amazing prediction machine. I’ve talked about it before, here! It’s constantly taking signals from our body and interpreting how we feel, what’s going on, and our general state of being.
So if we are activated in that fight-or-flight mode and engaged in shallow rapid breathing, we are sending the signal to our brain that we are stressed and overwhelmed.
We can overwrite that signal by doing slow deep breathing, which sends the signal to the brain that we are safe and calm. In this regard, straw breathing is a really simple way to slow down your breathing.
Extending Our Exhales
Essentially, straw breathing is just as it sounds. We slow down our exhale by imagining we have a straw between our lips. We use pursed lips on each exhale.
Why do we want to slow our exhale?
Well, I’ve talked about this before when I demonstrated the extended exhale breathing technique for anxiety and the two-to-one breathing technique for calm.
In general, research has shown that when we can extend our exhale to twice the length of our inhale, we send the signal to the brain that we are calm. It calms us down and makes us feel more relaxed. Straw breathing is a simple technique to help you do that.
Similarly, I’ve mentioned the prompt that can help our kids slow down their breathing. When my youngest was in preschool, he was taught the prompt, “smell the cookies, blow out the candles.” Imagine a plate of cookies in front of you as you take a slow inhale, and imagine blowing out the candles on a birthday cake as you exhale.
Same idea here with straw breathing. Instead of imagining that you are blowing out a candle, imagine exhaling through a straw.
Straw Breathing Technique
So let’s try it together. If you’re comfortable, you can close your eyes or you can simply look down and soften your gaze and start to pay attention to your breathing.
Notice your inhale.
Notice your exhale.
See if you can slow your breathing by deepening it, pulling it down into your belly. Instead of inhaling into your chest, see if you can inhale down into your belly. You might even want to place a hand on your belly and notice if it rises and falls with your inhale and your exhale.
On your next exhale, imagine that there’s a straw between your lips and just exhale through the straw slowly.
Try it again on your own.
One more time.
If you’re comfortable, you can continue to practice straw breathing, or you can come back to this at another time. You can practice when you’re feeling calm already, maybe like going to bed, or you can practice when you’re stressed and anxious as a way to override those brain signals.
Small Changes, Big Transformation
Straw breathing is a simple practice that we can do no matter where we are or what we’re doing. We can control our breath and therefore activate the parasympathetic nervous system to calm the mind and the body.
Our wellness and resilience don’t have to feel overwhelming. We can use simple techniques like straw breathing to prioritize our health and build resilience.
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In the meantime, give extended breathing or straw breathing a try this week and let me know how it goes!
