Exhaling helps offload carbon dioxide and stress. Inhaling twice then exhaling can re-inflate the lungs and calm the heart. This simple technique takes just seconds and shifts the autonomic nervous system towards calmness. It's hard to control the mind with the mind, so try this method when feeling nervous or stressed.
“There’s no difference between the physiological response to something that you’re excited about and something that you’re nervous about or dreading,” says Andrew Huberman, associate professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University. In this podcast episode, Huberman talks with host and lecturer Matt Abrahams about his research on the autonomic continuum, a spectrum between states of very high alertness or fear, all the way down to deep sleep, and shares how to better-use the system to your advantage.
“If people can conceptualize that the anxiety or stress response is the same as the excitement response, they feel different,” Huberman says.
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