3 ways the way you breathe might be adding to you your overwhelm and stress as a highly sensitive person

We take around 26,000 breaths every single day but rarely pay attention to it. During our busy days, we don’t really stop to even notice our breath - unless we find ourselves in a yoga class where the teacher is telling us to intentionally focus on our breath while we meditate or practise different yoga poses.

Otherwise, most of us quite often just go about our daily lives without stopping to notice and observe how our breath is flowing - not to mention to regulate it in any way.

But the way we breathe has several deep effects on how we feel in our bodies and in our minds. Our breath reflects our mental and emotional states - when we are stressed out and anxious, our breathing tends to become more shallow. We mainly use the upper part of our lungs and do what is called “thoracic breath”. This then sends stress signals to our brain and body, causing us to feel even more overwhelmed and anxious, with the sympathetic fight/flight/freeze system being activated.

But when we learn to consciously practise deeper breaths, using the full extent of our lungs and diaphragm, we can activate the parasympathetic (also known as the rest and digest) nervous system, triggering our bodies and minds to feel more calm, centred and relaxed.

Especially as highly sensitive persons (HSPs), we spend a lot of our time in the fight/flight/freeze stress response states of our nervous system. We are constantly processing the stimuli within and outside of us, which can often get really draining, very fast. Our bodies need more rest and recovery time and intentional self-care practices than non-HSPs in order to be able to function properly and to truly thrive.

Breathing is a tool we can all access to signal to our brain and our nervous system to calm down, even if we are not feeling very calm or collected in the moment. But the thing is — many of us are often not breathing in an optimal way that would support our wellbeing and strengthened mind-body connection.

The 3 most common mistakes we make with our breathing

1) We are breathing through our mouth

In general, it’s healthier to breathe through our nose, and here’s why: when we breathe through our nose, the air is filtered out of unnecessary toxins and pollution, giving our lungs and cells healthier and cleaner air and oxygen to absorb. Breathing through our nose also humidifies and warms up the air before it gets into our lungs, making it easier for our lungs to actually use the air effectively.

Nose breathing also helps to improve our lung capacity and slows down our breath, which has an effect on stimulating the parasympathetic rest-digest nervous system, helping us feel more calm and less anxious.

Still, it’s estimated that around 30-50% of adults generally breathe through their mouth. By just changing this seemingly simple breathing habit, we can optimise our breathing for better health and more calm.

2) We are breathing too shallow

Most of us are not using our lungs’ full capacity when we breathe, meaning that our breath stays shallow. When we breathe like this, only our chest moves when we breathe in and out (and not the belly). Shallow breathing creates tension in the body and keeps our nervous system in a sympathetic fight/flight/freeze state.

It can easily become a vicious cycle: when we feel stressed out and anxious, our breath becomes shallow and constrained, sending more stress signals to our brain, making us feel even more stressed out, again impacting our breath. To break this cycle, we need to be breathing consciously, using the full extent of the lungs as much as possible.

3) We are not using our diaphragm

Efficient and healthy breathing starts in the nose and then moves to the stomach as our diaphragm contracts, the belly expands and our lungs fill with air. Diaphragmatic breathing helps us slow down our heartbeat and brings more oxygen into our lungs and cells. It slows down our breath and sparks relaxation responses in our bodies - diaphragmatic breathing is key in dealing with chronic stress or anxiety.

Since breathing has an enormous impact on the way we feel in our bodies and our minds (especially as HSPs prone to overwhelm, overthinking and overstimulation!), it’s important that we start paying more attention to how exactly we are breathing and how our breath is flowing in our bodies.

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