The mechanism
Your accelerator and your brake are on the same pedal.
The in-breath and the out-breath do opposite things to your heart rate, every single breath, whether you notice it or not.
- In-breath: the brake lifts. Vagal activity drops, heart rate rises slightly, and the system leans towards alert. Breathe in longer than you breathe out and you nudge yourself up.
- Out-breath: the brake engages. Vagal activity increases, heart rate falls, and the system leans towards rest. Make the out-breath longer and you nudge yourself down.
- It works in seconds, not minutes. This is not a belief, a mood or a technique that needs to be believed in. It is a reflex arc, and it is available in the middle of a difficult conversation.
- Smooth beats long. A long, ragged, forced exhale does not help. A slightly longer, smooth, unhurried one does. If you feel short of air at the end, shorten it.
Using it
Three doses of the same idea.
Same lever, three different situations. You do not need all three, and your plan will tell you which one is yours to start with.
All day
Out-breath a beat or two longer than the in-breath, through the nose, without thinking about counts. This is the version that changes your baseline.
In the moment
One full breath in, then a long, slow breath out through slightly pursed lips. Repeat once or twice. Enough to take the top off a spike.
Before sleep
A longer out-breath, lying down, for a few minutes. It is the clearest signal you can give a body that the day is finished.
One measure to watch
Your controlled exhale.
Take a full, relaxed breath in, then breathe out as slowly and evenly as you can through pursed lips, and time it. It reflects both the control you have over the muscles that do the work, and how comfortable your system is with the rising carbon dioxide as you go.
It moves with practice. It is also the number that tends to reward smoothness over effort, which makes it a good honesty check on how you are practising.
Next short read
What heart coherence actually is
Coherence is not a good heart rate or a relaxed mood.
Read this →
Why over-breathing keeps you wired
Breathing more air than your body needs is one of the most common and least noticed drivers of anxiety, poor sleep and afternoon fatigue.
Read this →
How your day sets up your night
Sleep is not something that starts at bedtime.
Read this →
If you have a Calm Plan
Nothing here is required reading.
Your plan works on its own. These pages are for the days when you want to know why it works, not what to do next. If something in yours is not landing, or your numbers have stopped moving, that is worth a conversation rather than more reading.
Book a session with RichOr reply to the email your plan arrived in. It comes straight to me.