Breathing Exercises for Stress Relief
There are many methods that you can use in order to reduce stress and achieve relaxation. We will explore several of the most popular ones here, and more as we go along in future articles.
Fortunately enough, the most effective relaxation techniques are also the easiest ones to perform. Methods such as breathing exercises, meditation, and others, are very good at quickly reducing tension and stress.
One of the first things to do when anxious or stressed is to control your breathing. You see, when most people breath they make shallow inhalations and exhalations. That is what's called "chest breathing" or "shallow breathing" because the inhalation of air stops at about the chest level. When breathing this way, your body doesn't receive its optimal amount of oxygen, and that escalates your stress level even higher. The solution is to breathe deeply (deep breathing) by inhaling air all the way to the diaphragm (at the stomach level).
When breathing this way, you will notice that your stomach rises with each inhalation and withdraws with each exhalation. Because this type of breathing immediately brings more oxygen to the lungs, most people report an almost immediate relief of tension when performing deep breathing.
Here are several of the many breathing exercises that you can do:
Breathing Exercise 1 – Deep Breathing Short Exercise
This is the easiest breathing technique to perform since you can do it anywhere and anytime. Sit in a chair with your back straight and close your eyes. Slowly breathe in as far down your stomach as you can, and slowly breathe out immediately after. Do not hold your breath. You can also time your breathing so that you breathe in while counting to five, in your mind, and doing the same when breathing out. Repeat this process several times. After you’ve done this about four or five times (although it may take longer, depending on your stress level) you will start feeling a relief.
If experiencing a high level of anxiety you can use another variation of this technique. With this method, you will need to make your exhalations longer than your inhalations. For example, you will count to four when you inhale and to five when you exhale.
The beauty of this exercise is that you can do it anywhere. You also don’t have to be sitting. You can do it lying down or standing up if you prefer.
Breathing Exercise 2 – Deep Breathing Long Exercise
This is similar to the previous exercise with the only difference being that the goal here is to lower stress levels and make you more relaxed in general over the long term as opposed to quick relaxation with immediate results. In this exercise you will perform deep breathing for a longer period of time.
Lie down with your eyes closed and your body straight and relaxed. Do not cross your arms or legs. Start breathing deeply as described in Exercise 1 above. You do not have to count this time. Simply breathe in and out with deep inhalations and exhalations. Feel your stomach rise and fall with each breath that you take. Continue with this process of deep breathing for ten minutes or so. Set aside a bit of time for yourself each day to do these deep breathing sessions. As with meditation, it’s best to find a quiet spot and time so that you will not be interrupted.
This exercise is meant to help you "relearn" the deep breathing process, which is actually the natural way that your body is supposed to breathe. With time, you will discover that you will start breathing deeply automatically more often without consciously triggering the process.
Breathing Exercise 3 - Sighing
One of the things that your body does naturally to relieve tension is sighing. You've probably often noticed it happening when feeling stressed. Usually, sighing is followed by a sensation of tension relief and relaxation, so you can use this simple method consciously to quickly alleviate stress:
- Sit or stand so that your spine is straight.
- Sigh as deep as you can and let the air exit naturally from your lungs, and enter naturally right after. Don't focus on breathing in; let the process occur naturally.
- Focus on the feeling of immediate relaxation that follows the sigh.
- Repeat steps 1-3 about ten times as often during the day as you need.
