Reduce Your Stress Using Cadence Breathing
Learning how to down regulate your stress response is paramount to long term success as a firefighter both on the fireground when the stakes are the highest and often, even more importantly, when you are off the job. Coming home after a busy shift can sometimes help the amount of stress you are experiencing and sometimes it can unfortunately make it worse. Have you ever pulled into the driveway feeling relatively rested, excited to be home and then by the time you walked through the front door you instantly felt exhausted, irritable, and frustrated mentally?
Don’t worry. This response is normal and should actually be expected so it’s easier to deal with beforehand vs being reactionary. This feeling is your nervous system adjusting from the hyper aroused sympathetic state that we live in for our entire shift at work and is adjusting quickly in an attempt to create a homeostatic balance and adjust to a more relaxed parasympathetic state. This quick adjustment happens at home because it’s a familiar place that (hopefully) provides a safe and relaxing environment and all of the stress chemicals that are released over and over while on shift are starting to take their toll on all of your bodily systems.
You absolutely are not alone if you have ever felt this and luckily for all of us there are some great resources that we can use to help with the transition from the fire station to home life. The easiest way for us to deal with this chemical dump is using a simple cadence breathing routine. Cadence breathing simply is rhythmic breathing which is consistently referenced in the scientific community as the most important factor in breath work to reduce stress. One version of cadence breathing is the famous “Box Breath”.
Box breathing is an effective technique for some while others can’t tolerate any breath holds because of their hyper aroused state and their tolerance to CO2. If this is you that’s ok! All of us can use a simple cadence breath with fantastic results and it is extremely simple to implement. Attempt to breath solely through your nose when using a cadence routine especially if you’re at rest. Breath in for a set amount of time and then double that amount on the exhale. For example breath in through your nose for 4 seconds and be sure to drive the entire breath using your belly and really try and fill up the lower lobes of the lungs. Then on the exhale breathe out through your nose for 8 seconds. Repeat this process anywhere for 4 to 30 times and see where your headspace is. This works because of a whole host of factors related to the vagus and phrenic nerves, parasympathetic tone, and a lot of other nerd stuff we won’t get into here!
Give it a shot. This is a great way to reduce stress in the driveway before walking into the door. We’d suggest 4- 6 breath cycles to make an impact and 10-12 to really help set your headspace. Combine this with an intentional mindset and positive outlook and you’re setting yourself up for the best chance possible in less than 5 minutes.