How to Keep Your Nervous System Healthy

Breathing; we all do it, but did you know that many of us only take short shallow breaths?

When we breathe in a shallow way, the body remains in a cyclical state of stress—our stress causing shallow breathing and our shallow breathing causing stress.

This sets off the sympathetic nervous system, the branch of the autonomic nervous system that primes us for activity and response.

Here are two simple breathing exercises you can do right now to support your nervous system.

Integrative breaths:

1. Inhale deeply through the nose; expand the belly and fill your chest with air

2. Hold at the top of the inhalation for as long as is comfortable

3. Exhale through the mouth with an audible sigh

Box breathing:

1. Inhale deeply through the nose for a count of 4

2. Hold the breath for a count of 4

3. Exhale for a count of 4

4. Hold the breath for a count of 4