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Unknown
So.
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Unknown
We.
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Unknown
Hi. Welcome to the Assessment Alchemist podcast. I'm Tina Wiles, your host, and welcome to week three of the From Panic to Pea series. And today we're going to talk about something that is so quick to do and can actually interrupt, any panic or stress or anxiety or stuck between answer choices and recenter you. And it's a it's a magic.
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Unknown
It's a magic trick. Okay. So, you know the feeling. Okay. You're you're freezing on a problem. Maybe you can't recall what reference materials you need to use for a problem. The, you're the heaviness of walking out of the test room and knowing you have to wait for your results. The feeling of it's the morning of your test, right?
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Unknown
Like all of these, it can be panic, right? But even just normal test stress, right? The it's a big test. And you've put in the hours and the work to prepare for it. And, maybe you're feeling a little overwhelmed, right, so it can interrupt the spirals that you could get in in less than 10s. All right.
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Unknown
So, week one, we talked about, like, what happens with your nervous system. And week two, we talked about why studying harder or more hours isn't the full answer to being able to pass your P.E.. So today we're getting practical and this simple reset is going to help. Okay, so what is this magic mechanism that that I'm referring to okay.
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Unknown
So when we're in any kind of stressful situation and sometimes not even stressful situations, but from, from our, our fight or flight kicks in, right? And we have no control over the fight or flight. And when it kicks in, right. It's part of the autonomic nervous system. And it's just like it sounds. That happens automatically.
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Unknown
Right? I talked about that during week one. And so what you can do when we don't realize that we're in fight or flight mode, but you have the feelings that I was talking about, is we're going to interrupt that whole process in our, in our body. Right. So when a fight or flight is kicked in, we one of the mechanisms that happens is that we actually start breathing very shallow, which is our body's way of preserving itself.
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Unknown
And it's energy for the sabertooth tiger. We might have to fight, but that's not what's actually happening during this test. Right. So, some things, some of those feelings, like maybe the butterflies in your stomach or your heart racing. But one of the things that's causing a lot of that is we actually breathe shallow. And when we're breathing shallow, it actually creates an imbalance of carbon dioxide in our system.
00:03:48:08 - 00:04:26:24
Unknown
And, it's he it's a can lead to some of those feelings. So here's the thing. Our breathing is part of that autonomic nervous system too, right? We don't actually have to make conscious decisions to take every breath that we do, which is really good news, because we wouldn't be able to think about anything else. So, one quick signal to our body that we are okay is we can kind of like, hijack the automated breathing and breathe with intention.
00:04:26:27 - 00:04:54:25
Unknown
Okay? And it's a quick signal to our, our body that we are okay because we can control our breath. So this is our way in to kind of like get behind that automatic reaction that our body is going through. And this anchor breath that I want to demonstrate, and have you do with me is, it's called the physiological sigh.
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Unknown
And some researchers at Stanford went through and looked at the meditation and all different breathing techniques and found that the physiological side is the fastest way to kind of recenter that nervous system. Okay. So I'm going to explain it. And then DΓ©mence drain it and then we'll do it together. Okay. So it is a double inhale through your nose.
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Unknown
And then a slow exhale through your mouth like you're breathing out through a straw okay. And so what you're going to do is you're going to take a deep breath in through your nose almost to like capacity of your lungs. Pause for a second and then do another quick inhale through your nose. So it's two inhales. And then we're going to breathe out slowly like we're blowing through a straw.
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Unknown
Okay. So this is what it looks like.
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Unknown
Okay. So now you try it with me.
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Unknown
Slow inhale through your nose. Quick inhale.
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Unknown
And then slow exhale through your mouth. So if you do that three times all together it takes about 10s. And it's going to kind of reset okay. So I think about it like have you ever had, time when you're crying so hard you get to a part when you're crying that you end up going like a, like that, that's like a reset of your nervous system.
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Unknown
And so this is doing it where you're forcing it to happen. Okay. And, why it works is it's actually like three things that happen. So the double inhale re inflates some air sacs in your lungs that actually start to collapse when we're breathing shallow. Okay. So it helps with you actually be able to take a deeper breath.
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Unknown
The long exhale helps damp the buildup of carbon dioxide. I mentioned that we have when we're breathing shallow and helps dump that out of your body. And the this inhale double inhale actually fires the vagus nerve. And I talked about the vagus nerve during week one. But it's the longest nerve in our body. And it actually by triggering the vagus nerve it's another signal to our body that, it can calm down the fight or flight mode response.
00:07:44:26 - 00:08:12:27
Unknown
So three things. One little breath, that little sigh is doing a lot of heavy lifting. And it's going to help. Okay. So now when should you actually use it okay. Honestly right. As you're preparing you should be practice using it okay. So you know you want to use it. When you're stuck on a problem, when you're not stressed, right.
00:08:12:27 - 00:08:59:29
Unknown
Like basically if you're practicing it all of not all of the time, but like, maybe while you're brushing your teeth, right? You're getting ready for bed at night. Try doing the, the breath so that when you're in the stressful moments that you remember to use it. Okay, so now let's talk about those stressful moments, when you are like the night before the test, the morning of the test, outside the test center, before you push start, when you're going through the test and you're stuck between answer choices, when you're starting to feel a little brain fog, during the test, starting to like, like, feel stressed.
00:08:59:29 - 00:09:26:19
Unknown
Like when you're, like, getting tired during the test. During your break, before you come back, before you start after your lunch break. Right. Like, basically, you could use it throughout the entire test and the night before and even after you're leave the test center and now you're waiting, you know, you have to wait for the results. You can also pair it with, during the exam.
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Unknown
I sort of think clearly step by step. So.
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Unknown
When while you're doing that, telling to yourself, think clearly step by step, okay. I hope this helps. And, we've started I've been sharing it with my kids, and, it helps enough that I was stressed about something the other day, and my 16 year old son said to me, are you going to do that double breath thing?
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Unknown
So. So it stuck with him enough that he told me to use it, right? So, it helps. Okay. Next week we're going to meet, p now a p, who, is an inspiration to me. I hope she becomes an inspiration to you. She has is she's so determined and she's so strong, and she's going to share her story of resilience and what helped her pass the PE, after she failed at nine times.
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Unknown
So I am excited for you to meet her. And thank you so much for joining us this week. And the assessment Alchemist and practice that cycle. The physiological side. Have a great day.
