The Rescue Breath for All of Life's Difficult Situations

Summary

March 6, 2020, 10 min

A quick breathing technique for stressful moments: one short inbreath and one very long outbreath, drawn from Don Angier's samurai art, to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system through the Dorsal Vagal nerve. Also covers a lift test for grounding and a hand mudra from Anandamayi Ma that draws energy toward the heart.

In this video

Teaches

Rescue BreathHand mudras

Discusses

Don AngierShidare Yanagi Ryu AikibugeiGroundingParasympathetic nervous systemDorsal Vagal Complex

Mentions

CO2 toleranceHRV ResonanceSympathetic nervous systemAnandamayi Ma

Key moments

00:00Slower breath comes with practice, but what to do in the meantime?01:05Why one video just on the rescue breath 01:43Origin: one long outbreath through Don Angier's roll sets 02:41Staying grounded: the lift test on the outbreath 03:29Rescuing the parasympathetic: a bigger outbreath than in HRV breathing 04:17Practice: short breath in, long breath out 05:28How the diaphragm presses on the dorsal vagal nerve 06:10Doing it unnoticed while someone talks at you 06:57Anandamayi Ma's mudra that draws energy to the heart 08:07Combine the mudra with the rescue breath to keep your cool