calming

How Slow Deep Breathing Results in Positive Emotions and More Creativity

Key Points

  • Dominance of the calming parasympathetic nervous system is associated with positive emotions and can be evoked through slow breathing.

  • Slow breathing leads to “hyperpolarization,” which literally makes neurons less excitable.

  • Slow breathing reduces activity in the amygdala, which increases relaxation and boosts creativity.

The Breathing Diabetic Summary

You probably know by now that emotional states are linked to breathing.  When you’re stressed, you breathe faster.  When you’re calm, you breathe slower.  Intuitively, it makes sense.  But how exactly does it occur?  That’s what this current paper explores.  It’s a fascinating look at how cardiorespiratory coherence can potentially influence emotions.  Of course, what matters most is simply that it works.  But here, we learn how it might be working…and it’s pretty amazing.

 

Feedforward or Feedback?

The fundamental hypothesis is that cardiorespiratory coherence (which I’m going to refer to as slow breathing for simplicity, although that’s not 100% correct) can regulate the autonomic nervous system and brainstem.  This, in turn, modulates the emotional regions of the brain.

This is a unique hypothesis because we typically think of emotions through a “feedforward” lens.  An emotion arises in the brain and “feeds” its signal to the rest of the body.  But here, they’re saying feedbacks from slow breathing, namely the ones on the nervous system and brain, can elicit positive emotions.

That is, you might be able to breathe yourself into happiness.

 

How Emotional States Correspond to Autonomic Function

 The most important indicator that this is possible is the link between positive emotional states and higher levels of cardiorespiratory coherence.  Of course, correlation doesn’t mean causation.  Still, the general conclusion from most studies is that positive emotions are associated with parasympathetic (calming) dominance, and negative moods are associated with sympathetic (fight or flight) dominance.

 This supports their hypothesis.  If we simply induce relaxation and parasympathetic dominance through slow breathing, maybe positive emotions will follow.

 

Hyperpolarization might Explain the Calming Effects of Slow Breathing and Meditation

 One fascinating way they propose this feedback might occur is through neuronal “hyperpolarization.”   Hyperpolarization seems to be a fancy way of saying that the neurons are harder to “excite.”  Meaning it actually takes a lot more energy to fire the neurons that make you stressed or anxious.  This helps explain why we feel relaxed after we meditate or breathe slowly.  These practices actually change our cells, making it harder to feel stressed…pretty crazy.

As an aside, I know I feel most joyful and optimistic after my morning breathing practice.  It feels like magic, but I guess it’s just hyperpolarization at its finest : )

 

Inhibition of the Amygdala from Slow Breathing

And here is a critical implication of hyperpolarization: inhibition of the amygdala. 

When we meditate or practice slow breathing (~4-6 breaths/minute), the neuronal hyperpolarization reduces activity in our amygdala.  This turns down negative thinking and turns up creativity.

As Steven Kotler tells us in The Art of Impossible, ““Unfortunately, to keep us safe, the amygdala is strongly biased toward negative information. …This crushes optimism and squelches creativity. When tuned toward the negative, we miss the novel.

Perhaps this is why, after interviewing the most creative people on the planet, Tim Ferriss discovered that “More than 80% of the interviewees have some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice.

These practices naturally lead to cardiorespiratory coherence, quieting the pessimistic amygdala, allowing us to see the novelty all around us.

A Summary of How Slow Breathing Modifies Emotions 

Let’s wrap it all together to see how slow breathing can improve our emotional state. 

Positive emotional states are associated with high levels of cardiorespiratory coherence.  These states induce hyperpolarization, which inhibits the excitability of neurons.  This then modifies regions of the brainstem and inhibits the action of the amygdala and other limbic areas.  However, the opposite might also be true: simply breathing slowly will inhibit amygdala activity, allowing us to experience positive emotions, less stress, and more creativity.

Abstract

The brain is considered to be the primary generator and regulator of emotions; however, afferent signals originating throughout the body are detected by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and brainstem, and, in turn, can modulate emotional processes. During stress and negative emotional states, levels of cardiorespiratory coherence (CRC) decrease, and a shift occurs toward sympathetic dominance. In contrast, CRC levels increase during more positive emotional states, and a shift occurs toward parasympathetic dominance. The dynamic changes in CRC that accompany different emotions can provide insights into how the activity of the limbic system and afferent feedback manifest as emotions. The authors propose that the brainstem and CRC are involved in important feedback mechanisms that modulate emotions and higher cortical areas. That mechanism may be one of many mechanisms that underlie the physiological and neurological changes that are experienced during pranayama and meditation and may support the use of those techniques to treat various mood disorders and reduce stress.

 

 

Journal Reference:

Jerath R, Crawford MW. How Does the Body Affect the Mind? Role of Cardiorespiratory Coherence in the Spectrum of Emotions. Adv Mind Body Med. 2015 Fall;29(4):4-16. PMID: 26535473.

 

2020 Meta-Analysis: Slow Breathing Improves A Variety of Behavioral and Physiological Outcomes

Key Points

  • Across 58 studies and 2,485 patients, heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) and slow breathing improve a wide range of behavioral and physiological outcomes.

  • These methods provide a simple, safe, and effective complementary therapy that could be useful in a wide variety of settings.

  • Slow breathing (without biofeedback) is likely to be enough, requiring little more than a cellphone application to get started.

The Breathing Diabetic Summary

A hallmark of slow breathing is that it increases heart rate variability (HRV). It does this by increasing respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), which synchronizes your heart rate with your breathing. When they match, your heart rate increases while you inhale and it decreases while you exhale.

Thus, RSA enhances the “peaks and troughs” of heart rate with each breath, which increases HRV. Because HRV is a robust indicator of overall health and wellness, this is one way in which slow breathing is so powerful. So much so, in fact, that HRV biofeedback (or HRVB) has become extremely popular to help with a variety of problems. 

With HRVB, a person’s “perfect” breathing rate is determined—that is, one that maximizes HRV. And because increases in RSA and HRV are driven by increases in the calming parasympathetic branch of the nervous system, this can reduce negative stress and increase overall resiliency. This has wide-reaching positive benefits.

We’ve covered many of them before. But here are some of the general benefits:

  • Reduced blood pressure.

  • Reduced stress and anxiety.

  • Improved emotional control.

  • Enhanced cognitive function.

  • Better cardio-autonomic function.

  • Improved gas exchange in the lungs.

In this meta-analysis, the authors performed an extensive literature review to examine these benefits of HRVB from a broader statistical perspective. They included papers spanning a wide range of settings, measuring a wide range of outcomes.

Note that, although HRVB sounds fancy (and it can be), many of the benefits are achieved by simply breathing at a rate of about 5-6 breaths per minute.

Therefore, this meta-analysis also included studies that used 6 breaths per minute because:

it is possible that simply doing paced breathing at about six breaths per minute would have the same salutary effects as breathing more exactly at resonance frequency. […] This can easily be taught by following a computer-generated pacing signal or a clock.

From a practical perspective, this might be the most important aspect of this meta-analysis.

After starting with more than 1,500 papers, they ended up with 58 studies having a total of 2,485 patients.

Their statistical analysis of all these studies revealed that HRVB and slow breathing both significantly improve many aspects of health and wellness.

The greatest benefits were for:

  • Athletic performance

  • Artistic performance

  • Depression

  • Gastrointestinal problems

  • Anxiety and anger

  • Respiratory disorders

  • Systolic blood pressure

  • Pain

Smaller, but still meaningful, benefits were found for:

  • Self-reported stress

  • Quality of life

  • Diastolic blood pressure

  • PTSD

  • General energy

  • Sleep

Interestingly, I would have expected several items on the second list to be on the first. But that’s why meta-analyses like this are so important : ) Also, note that measures like “self-reported stress” are harder to quantify. The authors even mention that these results might be the result of how the questionnaires were given.

In any case, the overall results of this meta-analysis are quite exceptional: HRVB and slow breathing both have wide-ranging benefits for overall health and wellness.

These two sentences from the paper sum it up better than I ever could:

These results suggest that HRVB might be a useful addition to the skill sets of clinicians working in a variety of settings, including mental health, behavioral medicine, sports psychology, and education. The method is easy to learn and can easily be used along with other forms of intervention, with rare side effects.

Abstract

We performed a systematic and meta analytic review of heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) for various symptoms and human functioning. We analyzed all problems addressed by HRVB and all outcome measures in all studies, whether or not relevant to the studied population, among randomly controlled studies. Targets included various biological and psychological problems and issues with athletic, cognitive, and artistic performance. Our initial review yielded 1868 papers, from which 58 met inclusion criteria. A significant small to moderate effect size was found favoring HRVB, which does not differ from that of other effective treatments. With a small number of studies for each, HRVB has the largest effect sizes for anxiety, depression, anger and athletic/artistic performance and the smallest effect sizes on PTSD, sleep and quality of life. We found no significant differences for number of treatment sessions or weeks between pretest and post-test, whether the outcome measure was targeted to the population, or year of publication. Effect sizes are larger in comparison to inactive than active control conditions although significant for both. HRVB improves symptoms and functioning in many areas, both in the normal and pathological ranges. It appears useful as a complementary treatment. Further research is needed to confirm its efficacy for particular applications.

 

 

Journal Reference:

Lehrer, P., Kaur, K., Sharma, A., Shah, K., Huseby, R., Bhavsar, J., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Improves Emotional and Physical Health and Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 45(3), 109–129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-020-09466-z