专题05 短呼吸运动比正念冥想更能提升情绪-2023年高考英语外刊阅读及模拟强化训练

Short Breathing Exercise Lifts Mood More Than Mindfulness Meditation 短呼吸运动比正念冥想更能提升情绪 文章选自《新科学家》 主题语境：人与自我 子语境：运动与健康 原文出处：New Scientist 语篇类型：说明文 关键词：exercise；mood；breath；technique 篇章导读：在一项小型研究中，周期性的叹气——慢慢吸气，然后再短吸一口气，让肺部充分膨胀，然后尽可能长时间地呼气——对提升人们的情绪特别有效。 原汁原味外刊阅读及模拟强化训练 Practising a simple breathing exercise for just 5 minutes a day for one month could boost your mood. Melis Yilmaz Balban at Stanford University in California and her colleagues randomly assigned 114 people, average' age 27, across the US to practise one of three breathing exercises or mindfulness meditation for 5 minutes per day at home, at any time that suited them. One breathing exercise was cyclic sighing, which involves inhaling slowly and then taking another short breath in to fully inflate the lungs, before breathing out for as long as possible. Another exercise was box breathing: inhaling, holding the breath, exhaling and holding the exhaled breath again. The last was cyclic hyperventilation. This involves taking longer inhales and shorter exhales 30 times before exhaling fully. The participants who were assigned to mindfulness meditation didn't practise any breath control, but passively observed their breathing to help focus their awareness on the present moment. All four groups showed improvements in mood and reductions in anxiety after one month, according to daily questionnaires. However, this was more pronounced among those doing the breathing exercises, particularly cyclic sighing, compared with meditation. “We hypothesised that control over your own breathing as opposed to passive observation gives people a more positive feeling about themselves,” says Yilmaz Balban. Cyclic sighing may be the most effective technique for improving mood because it involves longer exhales, which are known to be more calming than inhales, she says. Her team is planning a larger trial involving about 500 people that will compare cyclic sighing with hypnosis fo