Ms. C has been troubled by temper problems. She tried to improve herself by reading various self-help books to quickly master many psychological theories. Three months ago, as a team leader, she spent an hour teaching emotion management to her colleagues. However, the next morning, shouts of “Shut up” and “Get out” still linger in Ms. C’s office.
Finally, Ms. C asked a friend for help, and the friend gave her a recording. Ms. C followed the instructions in the recording every day. After two months, her temper improved a lot. What magic spell was contained in this recording that caused such a significant change in Ms. C? It was just a short guide to abdominal breathing exercise vocal cords (downloaded for free from the Internet): When inhaling, inflate the abdomen like a balloon. Take each breath slow and deep. That’s it.
How does slow abdominal breathing help our temper? Our nervous system is more than just the brain. When the brain finds the environment threatening, it commands the other organs to take “fight or flight” actions (such as accelerating heartbeat) through the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. When the threat is removed, the parasympathetic nervous system takes action to return the body to a relaxed state.
However, if we receive threats too frequently and for too long, the sympathetic nervous system will become overactive and the parasympathetic nervous system will stay dormant. The two contrary systems will lose balance.
In Ms. C’s case, whenever she felt threatened in the office, her heartbeat would accelerate to an unbearable level within a few seconds, feeling like she was about to have a fatal heart attack. Driven by her survival instinct, she had no choice but to shout to drive away the deadly imminent threat. Through daily abdominal breathing exercises, Ms. C’s parasympathetic nervous system was trained to regulate her accelerated heart rate once again. She built her heart up to withstand the feeling of threat. Her heart is no longer a rabid dog that blindly attacks.
The job of regulating emotions and controlling temper does not only lie in the brain. We also need to train the entire nervous system, perhaps with a gentle and daily dose of deep diaphragmic breathing exercises. This is another example of the close connection between body and mind.
Written by: Dr. William Chui
Originally posted on: Health HKEJ
Translated by: Cheuk Long Chan
