One Lever You Can Reach

Your nervous system runs thousands of processes you cannot consciously touch - heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, hormone release. Breathing is one of the most accessible autonomic processes you can also influence on purpose.

That makes breathing a direct link between your conscious mind and your autonomic nervous system. Change your breathing on purpose and you send a physiological signal that shifts your whole nervous system.

Slow, deep breathing switches on the parasympathetic "rest and digest" mode. Fast, shallow breathing switches on the sympathetic "fight or flight" mode. You are already doing one or the other right now.