James Laughlin shows how to use breathing to fight jet lag. Longer exhales and breath holds trigger relaxation, while longer or frequent inhales boost alertness. Adjust your breathing pattern to match what you need when you land.
Breathwork revolves around this basic mode. The longer you exhale, the more relaxed you're going to be. And if you hold your breath and you're exhaling, you can get very, very relaxed to hold your breath. Exhale, exhale, hold your breath, whatever. There's a zillion different ways to do this. The more you inhale, not only the amount of time that you're inhaling but the amount of inhales per minute will also affect you in the way that they give you energy, they wake you up. So if I want to be more awake and more alert, I can inhale than I'm exhaling. It's a little awkward but every time you do that, every time you inhale, your heart rate goes up. So if you're inhaling more than you're exhaling, you're getting that heart rate up, you're telling your body it's time to wake up a bit. And I've found that these techniques, especially when I'm jet lagged, can be really beneficial.
