https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntfcfJ28eiU

First of all, stress is generic. Second of all, the stress response activates certain things and shuts down other features of our body. And then it's a sense of agitation that makes you want to move. And that's because fundamentally, the stress response is just this generic thing that says do something.

1. There is however, a way in which you can breathe that directly controls your heart rate through the interactions between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.

So, if you want to calm down quickly, you need to make your exhales longer and or more vigorous than your inhales.

2. And so, whether or not it's in line at the bank or whether or not you're wearing a mask nowadays or you're not, whatever the conditions may be where you're at and your needs, when you're feeling stressed, the physiological sigh done just one to three times, it will be double inhale, exhale, double inhale, exhale maybe just two times will bring down your level of stress very, very fast.

I mean, there's some other effects of carbon dioxide I don't want to get into, but when you do the double inhale-exhale, the double inhale reinflates those little sacks of the lungs. And then when you do the long exhale, that long exhale is now much more effective at reading your body and bloodstream of carbon dioxide, which relaxes you very quickly.

3. For those of you that have trouble sleeping or just relaxing through the day, the physiological sigh can be repeated for 10, 15 cycles if you like. Some people find that it actually puts them to sleep.

4. With the physiological sigh, the best way to do it would be to double inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. But if you can't, and you can only do that through your mouth, just do it through your mouth. If you want to do it all through your nose, do it through your nose.

The way this works in the real world is best captured by a study that can be mapped back to so-called Wim Hof breathing.

5. So, it's deliberate hyperventilation. Why would somebody want to do this? Well, deliberate hyperventilation done for maybe 25 cycles.

So inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Typically, it's done in through the nose out through the mouth. Although sometimes it's just through the mouth. If you do that for 15 breaths, 20 breaths, 25 breaths, you will feel very alert. People who have anxiety will feel anxious. They might even have an anxiety attack.

However, we need to ask why that kind of breathing feels that way. And it's because that pattern of breathing, rapid movements of the diaphragm will liberate adrenaline from the adrenals.

6. You breathe very quickly in these cycles of 25 breaths and regardless of what you call it, it doesn't matter, adrenaline is released. If you take a cold shower, adrenaline is released. If you go into an ice bath deliberately, and even if you do it non-deliberately, adrenaline is released. You are mimicking the stress response.

And that adrenaline serves to suppress or combat incoming infections.

that was published in a very fine journal, the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the US." It's literally called "Proceedings of the National Academy of USA"

6a. Some people like the ice bath. I rarely do the ice bath. Some people like cold showers. I like hot showers. So, I take hot showers, but I do this kind of breathing ( I will take 25 or 30 breaths. Exhale, hold my breath. 25, 30 breaths again, exhale, hold my breath for about 15 seconds. 25, 30 breaths again, exhale, hold my breath for 25 or 30 seconds. Then a big inhale. And I hold my breath until I feel the impulse to breathe. Again, I feel it's safe for me). Again, they are all having more or less the same effect of increasing adrenaline, which allows you to combat the infection

7. Please do try and check out the NSDR protocol. See if they're right for you.

8. If you're running, for instance, and you're at max capacity or close to it, or you're kind of hitting like 80, 90% of maximum on the bike and you dilate your gaze, what you'll find is the mind can relax while the body is in full output.  But it's a form, not really of stress inoculation, it's more about raising stress threshold so that the body is going to continue to be in a high alertness, high reactivity mode, high output, but the mind is calm.

9. The data really points to the fact that social connection and certain types of social connection in particular are what are going to mitigate or reduce long-term stress.

10. So, finding just a few people, even one or an animal or something that you delight in,