Now You Know: “Sym Pathos”

“There’s three types of breathing. There’s sympathetic. There’s parasympathetic. Then there’s pathetic.”

– Tait Fletcher, ladies and gentlemen.

Okay, okay. First, I hope that made you smile.

Second, besides this quote being one of my all-time favorites relating to Breath & Exposure – Tait, you’re a legend! – I’m intentionally using it today as a conversation starter for the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS): 

1. 1.       The sympathetic (SNS): responsible for arousal, including the fight-or-flight response; acts as the body’s accelerator.
   2.       The parasympathetic (PNS): promotes self-preservation functions, like digestion and wound healing; acts as the body’s brake. 

Here’s what I want you to know: one of the most critical, foundational pieces of information that the Breath & Exposure program seeks to help students understand & develop, is how to use breath as a remote control to better regulate your ANS. If you think this relates just to the ice, think again. Folks, regulating your ANS is an invaluable skill for life.

Here’s what I also want you to know: functions aside, I think the naming of this system is a little dramatic. (Yeah, I said it.) For starters, your ANS is very much not automatic once you begin to use tools such as breath and/or vision to intercept and redirect it. Also, could we not just use simpler words – like system one for alertness and system two for calming

Well, at least that’s what I used to think, until I learned otherwise…

Etymology nerds, it’s your lucky day. Here’s the history – almost two thousand years ago, the Roman physician Galen gave the SNS its name because he observed that it functioned with the emotions (sym pathos). Conversely, the PNS was named for being “against emotions.”

Fun facts aside, for life-altering insight on how breath, ice & sauna practices can radically impact your performance & health for the better, I hope you’ll join me for the next Breath & Exposure Seminar this Saturday!