Self talk

“The breath is a type of bridge, between the body and mind with a two way inter-relationship between emotions, mental processes, patterns of body tension and breathing”

Our inner speech activates muscles that allow us to speak, and creates irregularity in respiratory movement. 

Our breathing patterns and rhythms have become complicated as humans as we have developed complicated language and speech. As we talk, we need to regulate our breaths and use it to make sound as well as using the airway and tongue muscles to create the shapes of the sounds. 

Our brain and nervous system need to be able to stay in rhythm with our speaking and moving. Specifically the pacemaker of the brain which regulates the breathing rhythm called the pre-Botzinger complex (you’ll hear this guys name more often as you begin dive into breathing science) 

It has been proposed within scientific literature that excessive mental speech and overthinking can lead to irregularity of breathing because it’s disrupting the tempo and timing of our breathing rhythm. 

There have even been personality traits explored within breathing science. Traits such as perfectionism have been discussed as well as guilt, grief, anger and resentment leading to more shallow and unregulated breathing. 

The branch of breathing science that explores the connection between breathing and emotions is called Respiratory Psychophysiology and it’s fascinating. This is the literal mind-body science and some of it’s counterintuitive and surprising. But more and more research is beginning to show that how we talk to ourselves and the emotion attached to those thoughts has a major affect on many of our bodily systems. 

Breathing both regulates our stress and indicates the level of stress we are in. It’s important to check in with your breathing to measure where you’re at. Generally you will automatically feel it slow and deepen. 

These are the reasons it’s important to take time to quieten your mind and not just your mouth. To allow your breathing to be the conductor of your body and bring it back into rhythm and coherence, to allow the brain to regulate it’s oscillations and come back into tempo. 

To take this practice to a higher frequency, try some resonance frequency breathing at a tempo of 5 breaths per minute.