Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
Breathe in, then push the air out gently against a closed throat, or against lightly pinched nostrils, for a couple of seconds.
The change of pressure in your chest is what does the work, and two or three rounds are enough to notice something. Keep it gentle. Straining is neither necessary nor helpful, and this is not a competition with yourself. If pausing with the breath out feels comfortable, some traditions add a slow nod of the head while you wait, and you can leave that out entirely and still get the effect.
Qur’an and Sunnah
'Did We not relieve your heart for you' (Quran 94:1). Relief is described as reaching the chest, which is where this one is felt.
أَلَمۡ نَشۡرَحۡ لَكَ صَدۡرَكَ
Did We not relieve your heart for you [Prophet]
Qur’an 94:1read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A methodological review of heart rate variability is a useful reality check here, since it documents how strongly breathing pattern, posture and measurement conditions shift these autonomic numbers. Breath manoeuvres do genuinely move the measure. The review is about measuring the signal well, not about whether this particular manoeuvre helps anyone feel better, which is untested in this bank.
Laborde S, Mosley E, Thayer JF. (2017). Heart Rate Variability and Cardiac Vagal Tone in Psychophysiological Research - Recommendations for Experiment Planning, Data Analysis, and Data Reporting.. Frontiers in psychology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Changing the pressure inside your chest gives the sensors in your blood vessels something to respond to, and they answer by slowing you down.
When not to
Skip this if you are pregnant or have high blood pressure, glaucoma, a heart condition or a history of fainting, and stop straight away if you feel light headed.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
When someone finally reaches somewhere safe, do not be surprised if they fall apart rather than bloom. Stay close through that part.
Yoga, slow breathing with feedback, neurofeedback and listening programmes are all aiming at the same target. Pick the one you can actually get to and keep doing.
Roughly four fifths of the traffic on the vagus nerve is heading up from your body to your brain. Your brain is largely reading a report from your body.