- I'm gonna have to give
you the disclaimer now. Not a doctor, not a breathing therapist, I'm a science journalist
who went into this world to write and learn from all these people. Having said that, I was able to pick up a
few tricks along the way that I use all the time. But I don't often do this but this is such an easy practice. I'll give you a little preamble of how this is gonna work in your body So maybe you can feel it. Actually will start breathing and as you're breathing, I'll explain what's happening. So this is the easiest
thing to do in the world. It's so easy that a lot of people think, Oh, that's not gonna do anything for me. But look at the science
and you'll find otherwise. So breathe in, to a count
of about five or six. Don't worry if you're second
off three, four, five, six, exhale to that same count three, four, five, six, inhale two, three, four, five, six. Exhale two.. so just keep doing that, I'll keep clapping here
like I'm at a concert. So as you're doing that, something amazing is
happening in your body, is by breathing this slowly, you're absorbing more oxygen, but you're also keeping more CO2. So there's more oxygen
entering your brain, and if you put your hand over your heart, when you're exhaling, you're gonna feel your heart rate lower. Dr.Patricia Gerberg and
Richard Brown he's at Columbia, have found that just having
people breathe like this even for a few minutes a day, is fantastic for blood pressure. They use it for their
patients with anxiety, depression and other fear-based disorders. I have found that I can breathe like this for about two minutes, I can take my blood pressure before, and breathe like this two minutes later, I can see my blood pressure
go down about 10 to 15 points. People say that's impossible. Try it out. Let me know how that
works for you.(giggles) So breathing is this. If you're still breathing
that way you can continue, but we're gonna slightly
change it up here, start to breathe to, to a rate
of about, just try this one, inhale to about three and
exhale to about eight. If eight is too long, cut it to six. That's fine. As long as the exhale is
longer than the inhale. So when you do this again
you can feel your heart rate. You can feel it on your
wrist too if that's easier, your neck, whatever. Inhaling to three and as you exhale, you feel your heart rate going down. You inhale again,(inhales) and your heart rate's gonna
softly just drift off, go down. This isn't placebo effect
and it's not psychosomatic. What's happening when
you're exhaling longer, you are touching into that
autonomic nervous system. Which is supposed to
be automatic, it's not, we can take control of it, and you're taking control of it right now when you're breathing. So by exhaling longer, you were putting yourself
more into a relaxed and restful state, what's known as the parasympathetic side of the nervous system. And this is very clear to see if you put sensors on and look
at heart rate variability. So throughout the day if you
want more energy,(inhales) inhale more than you're exhaling, and that's gonna give
you a stimulating effect. If you wanna calm down, if you're stressed out
before you're going to bed, double the amount of time
it takes you to inhale. Breathing you can just think of this, as these different levers
that we can turn on and off and there's 500 different ways, Pranayama, Chinese, Qigong, whatever, but they're all doing the same thing. They're allowing you to
calmly access functions in your body through the breath. (upbeat music) - [Woman] To learn more, watch the entire interview
on YouTube or @nelda.com. This has been a Nelda Live Short.
