The well-being of managers and employees: part 2 - Spirit

The second big part of the path to a happy, fit leader or employee is the mind.

Of course, they are closely linked, and the exercises we'll look at in this section help not only the mind but also the body.

Have you ever seen a baby breathe?

Unless it's in the throes of bronchiolitis, a baby inhales by inflating its belly.

And how do you breathe?

We're supposed to breathe in by inflating the belly.

Watch this video: when you breathe in, your lungs fill with air. The diaphragm is a muscle located under the ribs, separating the thorax from the abdomen. When we inhale, it descends, acting as a pump for the viscera. But if you inhale by pulling in your abdomen, the diaphragm doesn't drop as far, and the lungs run out of room, so the ribs take over. The ribs and accessory inspiratory muscles (pectoralis minor, certain neck muscles) are supposed to be used only when you're exerting yourself and needing maximum oxygen, not on a daily basis. So, when you inhale by pulling in your stomach and arching your torso, you cause :

• Overstimulation of the ribs and therefore the thoracic vertebrae
• Cervical muscles 
• The result is pain in the ribs, neck and back, and digestive problems...

Once you've mastered this, simply repeat it frequently to relearn how to breathe. I advise you to take 5 deep breaths with your belly inflated every day. You can also practice this exercise when you're a little stressed, before an important meeting, a conference, a client appointment, etc.

Let's go further: breathing has an even greater power

It can boost or calm you. It can reduce stress and slow down the aging of your body. And it costs less than botox 

This is what we call cardiac coherence: the rhythm of your breathing acts on your heartbeat.

Breathing affects the nervous system. There are two types of nervous system:

• Sympathetic nervous system: responsible for action, making you move, jump, etc.
• The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for resting and activating the digestive system.

Breathing acts on these nervous systems, as well as on cortisol levels, a stress hormone.
 

So how do you work on cardiac coherence?

The concept is to perform breathing cycles (inhalation and exhalation) lasting 10 seconds.

Here you have 3 options: 

• Work on cardiac coherence for balance (neither energizing nor relaxing): simply breathe in for 5 seconds and breathe out for 5 seconds.
• Work on your cardiac coherence to energize yourself: the aim here is to boost your sympathetic nervous system, and to do this you need to stimulate inspiration: simply inhale for 6 seconds and exhale for 4 weeks.
• Work on cardiac coherence to relax: in the opposite way, you need to stimulate the parasympathetic system: so inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 6 seconds. This type of breathing is recommended when you want to calm down when you're irritated, but also when you want to fall asleep. This breathing rhythm is used by many companies to help you fall asleep, such as the Dodow box, which projects light onto the ceiling that expands and shrinks, setting your breathing to a relaxing mode of cardiac coherence.

I recommend the Respi relax app, which is free and very easy to use.

There are several modes: balancing, relaxing, energizing, which correspond to the possibilities I mentioned above. Simply follow the cursor: as it rises, inhale; as it falls, exhale. Follow the rhythm of the cursor.

To help your mind, and therefore your body, there's another highly effective tool: mindfulness.

Meditation is one of the methods of mindfulness.