Answer to Monday's Question

Summary: Still waiting to find out why it may be a mistake to take a deep breath before going onstage? Here's your answer below ...

 If you listened to me on the air (or on your computer) Tuesday on WVLP-LP FM Valparaiso, you may still be wondering the answer to Monday's blog question: What's wrong with taking a deep breath to dispel your stage fright jitters?

The answer, which I promised to share in our show on "Overcoming Fears," but ran out of time beforehand, is simply this:

Taking a deep breath, if done quickly, can actually raise your heart rate and increase your body's parasympathetic nervous system response. In other words, you can heighten your emotional nervousness just by elevating your heart rate with excess oxygen. ... So, how do you slow down and relax?

It turns out deep breathing is the right thing to do, after all. But there's an important and distinctive catch: When you breathe in deeply, be sure to do so slowly. And even more importantly, be very sure to breathe out even more slowly than your inhale. Slowing your breath rate will slow down your heart rate, which will automatically send signals of relaxation to your body in turn. If you truly want to dispel agita, as in Monday's blog post example sentence, you'll follow these very important steps to breathing deeply and properly.


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