Belly Breathing

Deep belly breathing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to calm the nervous system and lower our stress. After just a few minutes of practice, belly breathing helps to slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, and decrease muscle tension. It does this in part because it stimulates the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the calming part of your autonomic nervous system. This calms and quiets the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn system. For this skill it is helpful to either lie down or scoot down in your seat, lounging back a bit, making sure you are comfortable. To learn more about our Mindfulness Basics program, visit https://studentwellness.uiowa.edu/pro.... Mindfulness Basics features content from the evidence-based curriculum, Intro to Mindfulness®. It was specifically designed for teaching mindfulness, meditation, and stress management to college students and other young adults.