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by Woodson Merrell, M.D.
APOGEE’s Integrative Health Advisor

A new study shows that cancer cells migrate and thrive in the presence of stress hormones. Studies such as this reinforce what I tell my patients: Actively working to transform your reaction to stress is the single most important step you can make to take back your vital energy and improve your health.

Notice that I wrote “transform your reaction” and not “cut stress from your life.” It’s often hard to change the fabric of our lives. But you can turn down your reactions to life’s events and turn on a calmer way of being. Once you are calm, you can become aware and better choose how to respond to situations, further transforming your reaction to stress. Your health will benefit in many ways.

Our body has two nervous systems: fight or flight and calming. The hormones produced by your sympathetic nervous system during a stressful or fight or flight response are cortisol and adrenaline. Your body releases these when you react to something you perceive as stressful—whether it’s a traffic jam, a sick child, or a deadline at work.

Ideally, after the excitement, our fight or flight system turns off and the calming parasympathetic part of the nervous system takes over. But researchers are finding that today many people have high levels of cortisol all day; they’re constantly perceiving their environment as stressful. The result is chronic health problems, including high blood pressure, poor digestion, heart disease and general fatigue.

You can turn on your calming system and decrease the amount of stress hormones in your blood in one easy step: Focus on your breath. Just perform this simple in-and-out breath break anywhere and anytime: in a parking lot or on a train or bus, in your office, at home.  Studies of this technique show that it results in slower pulse, lower blood pressure, relaxed intestinal muscles and lower cortisol, adrenaline and blood carbon dioxide levels.

Breath Break

• Sit up straight, close your eyes.
 Breathe in through your nose to the count of four, focusing on the sensation of the air moving through your nostrils.
• Breathe out for a count of four, feeling the air as it leaves your nose. 
Pause for a beat at the end of your exhale before you breathe in again.
• Continue for two minutes.

If an idea starts spinning through your brain during this breath break, just say to yourself, “breathing,” and gently bring your focus back to your breath. The idea is not to engage in thoughts—just to focus on your breath.

Ideally, you should take a breath break every two hours throughout the day. It’s an especially helpful exercise to do upon waking in the morning—just sit at the edge of your bed first thing in the morning, for 15 minutes if possible. Or, if you wake in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, focus on your breath, gently moving aside intruding thoughts of your daytime life.

You can move this stress-reduction break toward traditional meditation by introducing a word such as “calm,” “peace,” “om”—or any other sound or word that works for you. As long as you focus on the word and not the thoughts that come unwittingly to mind, you are helping to turn on the calming systems in your body.

There are many types of meditation, including mindfulness meditation, during which you focus on thinking kind thoughts about objects or people in your life. There are also many resources where you can learn meditation techniques, including books, CD’s and downloads. But the simple breath-break skill that I’ve described here is a good place to start.

You will find, as millions have before you, that breath breaks and meditation are useful skills that can transform your response to stress and improve your health throughout your life.