As Firefighters It’s Important We Train How to Down Regulate to Increase Our Mental Toughness
There I was laying in a mental health professionals office on a “sound table”. I had a pair of super nice headphones on and the world’s heaviest body pillow smashing down on my chest. The practitioner that was helping me told me that there would be two different soundtracks that I would hear and that the whole process would take 45 minutes or so. I had just gotten off shift that morning from a 48 hour set and had four getups the night before. I was sleepy but also excited for a four day full of projects, family time, and kids sports starting up. I thought “well, let’s give this a go and at the very least I’ll get an awesome nap out of the deal!” About 5 minutes in I thought to myself “this might be a long 45 minutes” as my brain was racing and I had a hard time turning off all the chatter inside my mind. The bed and body pillow vibrated along with the sounds coming through the headphones and it was calming but nothing extraordinary. “Enjoy the quiet time” I kept telling myself. One soundtrack finished and I didn’t notice any major differences with my busy mind. I tried hard to not think about the long list of “to-do” items I would try and tackle as soon as this was over. The second soundtrack started. This sound was different than the one prior and the vibrations continued to match the tone and tempo. “Enjoy the process” I kept telling myself. “Be present”. Then almost like a blink in time the practitioner told me quietly, “OK! We’re all done. Take your time and sit up when you’re ready.” I thought to myself “Whoa! What happened to the last 20 minutes?!” It truly was as if we had just started and then it was done. As I sat up I felt a tremendous calm and sense of clarity internally. I had no more mind chatter and felt completely refreshed. The to-do list seemed far away and a whole lot less daunting. The 48 hour set and the four wake-ups the nigh before never even crossed my mind. “That was AWESOME! When can I come back to do it again?!” I thought to myself. I told the practitioner about my experience and then asked her “does that table and the sounds and the vibrations work to target the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)? You know..does it work to increase your window of tolerance more towards the bottom of the stress response window to help us as firefighters down regulate more effectively and break the constant state of hyper vigilance?” She simply smiled and said “Exactly! Pretty cool isn’t it?!”
Increase Your Mental Toughness By Chilling Out!
As firefighters and first responders, we are typically constantly training, preparing and practicing for the “big one”. The call that defines a career. The call that separates the players from the poseurs. Usually everything we do and have ever been taught in the fire service is geared towards this scenario. We build tactical fitness workouts that replicate the amount of strength and cardio demands we will need, we endlessly rep the basic skills needed to stretch the line, force the door, throw the ladder to be successful on the fireground. We use imagery to put ourselves in this situation every time we drive by that high life hazard building in our first due. The list is long and very effective as we prove on the drill ground and the fire scene. But we often neglect the benefits of recovery. We neglect sleep, quality time with the crew in the firehouse, stretching and listening to our overworked bodies. To our overworked minds. We neglect quality time with our friends and with our families. Simply put, we intentionally neglect to take care of our brain, our minds, ourselves. We neglect our Parasympathetic Nervous System.
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Parasympathetic Nervous System
The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) is the bottom line for our Window of Tolerance. It is commonly referred to as the “Rest and Digest” system and allows our bodies much needed space to repair and restore itself. Our heart rate and respiration rate lowers because of the PNS and this system is conducive to our long term survival. We need the PNS to function properly and we like to refer to this system as the “brake pedal” in the relationship with the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) which acts as the “gas pedal”.
As we spoke about in the original blog post of this series here if we drift or crash below the PNS line we can experience apathy, boredom or even severe depression. Sometimes we realize we are trending towards dropping under the line of the PNS and we do things to “up-regulate” to help break us out of the mindset. We use power statements such as “let’s go!” or “suck it up!” to motivate ourselves to get out of bed and into the gym. More often than not however, we as firefighters trend towards the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and are even pretty commonly well above the SNS line in a hyper vigilant state without even realizing it. This is why training the PNS is so important so we have quality actionable tools at our disposal to help down regulate whether it is on an emergency scene, while processing a tough call, or even on our days off where we should be spending as much quality time as possible with the ones that we love and that love us.
Train the Parasympathetic Nervous System
So how do you train the PNS in a simple format that will ensure your and your crews success on the fireground? Luckily it’s not all that complex and doesn’t have to include fancy therapy sessions like sound tables. Here are 3 simple to implement concepts to help get you started on the right track:
- Diaphragmatic Breathing
- Extend the Exhales
- Mindfulness
Breathe!
If you’ve followed us here at Firefighter Craftsmanship for any amount of time you’ll know that we are big fans of intentional breath work. Breathing is something we all do without even thinking about it. But how we breathe and specifically how much we breathe in certain circumstances can have positive or adverse effects on our Central Nervous System. Chronic hyperventilation (especially in youth) is tied to higher levels of anxiety, fatigue, and depression in multiple studies. We also like to correlate how important our breath is when we’re working in SCBA with a finite air supply. If we are breathing faster than we actually need to, we shorten the amount of time and work we are able to accomplish on the fireground. This isn’t just about increasing aerobic capacity through cardio training. This is about increasing respiratory efficiency and effectiveness. The good news is breathing appropriately is an attainable skill but it will take some diligent work and practice along the way to break some old bad habits. For now let’s strictly dive into how our breath can set us up for success as we train the PNS and down regulate from the stressors that “the job” and life in general throw our way.
Use Your Diaphragm
When we breath and intentionally activate the diaphragm there are a whole host of benefits. The key to truly getting a solid diaphragmatic breath is to breathe through your nose. The diaphragm is the primary breathing muscle in the body. As you can see in the animation above, the diaphragm will move down into the belly space. This draws air into the lungs and allows the ribs, belly and diaphragm to move out of the way of the lungs themselves.
You’ll hear a lot of cues about “breath into your belly” and the intent of these are to activate the diaphragm. Unfortunately these cues often miss the mark and the practitioner is simply moving their abdominal muscles in and out without much respiratory benefit. The main benefit of diaphragmatic breathing is that the lungs can fill all the way up with clean fresh air which capitalizes on the small sacs located predominantly at the bottom of the lungs called the alveoli.
The alveoli are responsible for O2 being absorbed into the bloodstream and conversely CO2 is taken from the bloodstream and exhaled out into the atmosphere as waste. If we capitalize on diaphragmatic breathing it forces us to take deep, quality breaths and fill the lower lobes of the lungs up. Deep complete breath cycles are interpreted by the nervous system through the Vagus Nerve as a PNS activation cue which leads to lower heart rate and lower respiration rate!
To find and intentionally activate your diaphragm start by taking your hands and wrap them around the bottom of the rib cage; thumbs in the back and just below the lowest rib. Squeeze lightly. Now take a large inhalation through your nose. Focus on the movement into your hands and differentiate between the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm itself. You should be able to feel the diaphragm move down and way from the chest area underneath the abdominal muscles.
With practice you will be able to specifically activate the diaphragm and get a nice deep full breath into the lower lobes of the lungs. Give this a shot during your next tactical fitness workout and see how you are breathing (is it hyperventilation using primarily the upper chest, shoulders and neck or nice full deep breaths using the diaphragm?) Next, see if you can intentionally train your body to breath deep into the diaphragm even at high demands in SCBA.
We’ll put out a lot more content in the future about diaphragmatic breathing and its benefits but for now try and activate your diaphragm when breathing. The easiest way to do this is by breathing through your nose!
Extend the Exhales
Extending the exhalation 2:1 vs the inhalation is proven to have parasympathetic effects. This works because once again this breathing technique triggers the vagus nerve which is responsible for many things in your body including heart rate, respiration rate, and serves as the hub for all things rest & digest!
This technique is simple and we use it quite often when responding to a call, while working on the fireground and capitalizing on times of rest, or when trying to down regulate before we walk into the house after a long set with little to no sleep. We prefer to breathe through our noses whenever possible as this also triggers the vagus nerve.
Extension Protocol: 4:0:8:0 Repeat 8-12 times
Breathe in through the nose for 4 seconds
Breathe out through the nose for 8 seconds
No breath holds on the inhalation or on the exhalation for this one!
This technique is also widely used for PTS and PTSD treatment and is completely scalable for whatever time amount you can tolerate. For some the 8 second exhalation is too long initially so start with a 3:0:6:0 protocol or less and work your way up as your system allows you to.
We also really like to use this protocol to help fall back asleep quickly when on shift/at home or to help quiet the mind and focus on the next task at hand.
Mindfulness
Quieting the mind will help you control your body and your brain. We like to use Headspace to help guide us through an intentional mindfulness routine and try to integrate it into our TIME morning routine everyday. There are a lot of apps and programs available paid or unpaid out there so give one a shot and see what you think.
Mindfulness training helps you to become more focused, more resilient to stress and to intentionally activate the PNS system. It doesn’t need to be complex and research shows that as little as five minutes a day can have positive effects on your body’s response to stress!
To practice mindfulness, find a spot where you won’t be disturbed and sit in a chair or on the floor. When we’ve practiced mindfulness laying down we always fall asleep but you can give that a shot too! Start by taking a nice deep inhalation through the nose and let it out through the nose or mouth. Close your eyes and try and only breathe through your nose to capitalize on the vagus nerve response. Focus your mind on the breath and feel the weight of your body in the chair. Your mind will wander and that is ok! Once you realize that your mind has wandered gently bring it back to the feeling of weight on the body and continue to focus on the breath. Over time your mind will wander less and you will be able to feel like you are above the “trees” and can patiently sit and watch thoughts go by without having your mind attach itself to them. Mindfulness training aids and apps like Headspace help because the instructor will audibly remind you to bring your attention back to the breath or the weight of your body and not let your mind spin out of control for the allotted time.
We’ve used these techniques and training with tremendous success even at the firehouse so give it a shot, train your brain like a warrior, and don’t feel guilty to provide yourself some space to re-energize, restore, and re-engage. By capitalizing on these simple training methodologies, using the breath and mindfulness, they are a great way to ensure you obtain the goal of finishing this career happy, healthy, and strong.
