This is a YouTube video titled "Box Breathing Exercise | How to Hack Your Breath with Dave Asprey" containing a guided breathing exercise explanation by Dara Ladjevardian from February 12, 2024. The content focuses on teaching the box breathing technique to help reset the nervous system and improve vagal tone for better health and stress management.
If you're feeling stressed out or anxious, here's a breathing exercise that'll reset your nervous system. It's called the box breath, and it helps you tone your vagus nerve. Your vagus nerve runs alongside your neck and it controls your fight or flight response. Higher vagal tone equals better overall function. Less risk of diseases, better control of your blood glucose, less inflammation. The first part of the breath is to inhale for four seconds, like this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4. Then you wait for four seconds with your lungs full. 1, 2, 3, four. And then you breathe out slowly for four seconds. 1, 2, 3, Four. And then you hold your breath empty. 1, 2, 3, FOUR. Now, when your lungs expand slowly like this, your vagus nerve picks up on the expansion and it signals the release of acetylcholine, which tells your heart slow down. A slowed heart rate calms the entire nervous system. And this is one of the many techniques that we use at my neuroscience facility to retrain your brain. It's called 40 Years of Zen. You can go longer than four seconds. In fact, you can do a box breath with 20 seconds on each side. So you breathe in for 20 seconds, hold your breath for 20 seconds, breathe out for 20 seconds, and hold your lungs empty for 20 seconds without feeling like you're going to die. Now, however long is most comfortable for you. Do it for five minutes, do it for 10 minutes, and watch your brain change right in front of you. It's magical. Give it a try and tell me how it worked for you. Leave your comments here.
