How to Lower Cortisol with Breathwork Techniques from the Experts
Calls for mental health awareness are at an all-time high, and it's more essential than ever.
In the past year, research from Mental Health UK found that over a third of adults experienced high or extreme levels of pressure and 20% of workers needed to take time off due to stress. With many teetering on the edge of burnout, we are continually told to prioritise our mental wellbeing and lower our stress levels. But where do we start?
One of the hormones that spikes in response to stress is cortisol. Cortisol is painted as the 'boogieman' of wellness, and we are repeatedly reminded to avoid raising it at all costs. Despite this simplistic picture, cortisol is still necessary for a wide range of bodily functions, but keeping stress low to avoid extreme levels of cortisol, and the damage this can do to our health, is paramount.
With advice from the experts, we cover some strategies designed to help you to lower cortisol and keep your stress in check.
What is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a crucial hormone produced by your adrenal glands, which sit above your kidneys. This hormone – which is technically a steroid – plays a vital role in managing stress and impacts various bodily functions, including metabolism, inflammation, blood pressure regulation, blood sugar levels, and sleep-wake cycles. As part of the endocrine system, your adrenal glands ensure that cortisol levels are balanced, as any imbalance can negatively affect your health.
What Are the Symptoms of High Cortisol Levels?
High cortisol levels can lead to a range of symptoms, including:
Weight gain
Water retention
High blood pressure
Mood changes such as anxiety, depression, or irritability
Muscle weakness
Fatigue
Difficulty concentrating
Sleep disturbances such as insomnia
Increased thirst and urination
Bone thinning leading to osteoporosis
Slow wound healing and increased infections
How to Lower Cortisol Levels
One of the most effective ways to lower cortisol is by practicing breathwork. Expert breathwork coach and founder of The Breath Space, Jamie Clements, explains why breathwork can be a transformative tool for lowering cortisol levels.
'A lot of these techniques are about teaching people to slow down and move into the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system, which is our rest and digest state,' says Clements. 'Breathwork is obviously an incredibly impactful tool to do this.'
Breathwork is hugely popular, and for good reason. A review published in Scientific Reports concluded that breathwork may be effective for improving stress and mental health.
'There was a really brilliant study that looked at five minute protocols of either mindfulness meditation or certain breathing techniques and their effects on reducing stress, improving mood and regulating the nervous system,' says Clement. 'They found that all of the breathing techniques they studied outperformed mindfulness meditation in those three areas.
'So, if we're thinking about direct interventions to reduce stress, and as a result, reduce cortisol, that is a pretty compelling reason to think about using the breath intentionally. We can't deny the evidence is promising, enough to persuade any sceptic to hit the mat too.'
How Does Breathwork Lower Cortisol?
According to Clements: 'Cortisol is one of our primary stress hormones. Everything that is speaking to lowering cortisol is about slowing down. We live in a highly stimulated, often over stimulated state within our nervous systems. That leads to increasingly higher levels of cortisol, which perpetuates this feeling of stress.
'Often we can get addicted to these cycles of stress. Rest is a foreign concept to most people, and so is stillness. We have two options when we're working with the nervous system and breathing techniques: the first being to up-regulate, which is to increase that energy within the nervous system and consciously activate the stress response,' says Clements.
'But obviously here we're talking about how we can down-regulate our stress response and move us out of that high activation, high stimulation state. The breath is a unique tool: it's part of our autonomic nervous system, which governs our stress response, but it's unique because it's the only part of that system that we can consciously control.'
Clements explains that through conscious breathing techniques, we can shift the state of our autonomic nervous system and lower stress. 'Some of the simplest and most effective ways to do that are through reducing your respiratory rate,' says Clement.
Multiple studies support the benefits of breathwork. For instance, a review conducted at The University of Skövde examined the effects of three different breathwork protocols on markers such as cortisol levels and heart rate variability. The findings suggest that breathwork exercises can significantly reduce stress and improve mood.
How Can I Begin Breathwork?
Slow it down
Clements recommends that the first step is slowing down: 'So breathing more slowly, breathing deeply, using the diaphragm to stimulate the vagus nerve, which is the primary nerve in that parasympathetic response. Also breathing through the nose. Extending your exhale is a really effective way to to do that, so making your exhale longer than your inhale lowers your heart rate and moves you into that nice parasympathetic rest and digest state.'
4-7-8 breathing
We can also incorporate breathwork by using tools and techniques such as short breath holds like 4-7-8 breathing. Clements recommends to breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 or 7 seconds and then slowly extending the exhale for 8 seconds. 'This is a really great way for the breath to start reducing stress,' says Clements. 'Reducing that sympathetic drive that activation energy, which in turn will reduce stress levels and reduce cortisol. In terms of getting started with breathwork, these are the fundamentals and the best place to begin.'
Building awareness
If we don't fancy taking on new techniques, according to Clements we can start by just bringing an awareness to the way we are currently breathing. 'Become gently and gradually more aware of how you're breathing day to day, moment to moment and then trying to move towards a slower, deeper, more gentle pattern of nasal breathing as your resting default state of breath,' he says.
'That's going to help overall health and wellbeing, but particularly stress levels,' adds Clements. 'We then can also move into this realm of nervous system regulation and start to work with some of those simple techniques. Things like extended exhale breathing, 4-7-8 breathing and box breathing — which is a really popular one. That really is the best place to start.'
Breathing breaks
It needn't take long, just two minutes could do the job according to Clements. 'One of my favourite concepts to introduce to people is this simple idea of breathing breaks. So rather than trying to set aside, you know, 30, 40, 50 minutes to put a practise in place, it can be really integrating 2 to 5 minutes of a single technique between calls, between meetings or between clients on the commute,' says Clements.
'Wherever it might be, just starting to include natural pauses in the day to bring greater balance, greater calm and less stress into our lives overall.'
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