Breathing Exercise

One of the most effective ways of to reduce stress quickly is a relaxation exercise. It is not hard to understand or learn this breathing exercise, but it could take some time to get used to reminding yourself to do it when you are stressed. The more you practice it, the faster you will be able to actually perform the exercise on the fly and see quicker results. Breathing exercise is thought to be critical to health and is a major part of the underpinning of yoga, Zen, meditation and many other practices and philosophies with the major goal of mental, physical, and spiritual well being.

When you first feel like you are stressing out; the steps are simple:

1. Take a deep breath and hold it for about 10 seconds. The breath should be as deep as you can without puffing your cheeks out, turning red or blue, or feeling any tightness in your chest.
2. Let the breath out slowly over about 10-15 seconds. The slower you can do this, without feeling uncomfortable, the better. You should try to exhale slower and longer than your inhalation.
3. Once your breath is completely exhaled, wait just 3 to 5 seconds to then repeat all three steps, three times.

This will be more effective if you can do it alone in a quiet place, but we all know that most of us experience our stress in a wider variety of situations. Never fear, just as long as you are not talking at the time you perform this breathing exercise (about 3 minutes), you should be able learn to do it so almost no one will notice. Try practicing in front of a mirror. Look for “tells” like your chest rising and falling too much, or your shoulders slouching. When  you can try this in a bathroom stall or (if you are so lucky) your office with the door closed. Then you don’t have to feel self conscious about how you look.

Lastly, be patient. It can take time to get the hang of it if you have never done breathing exercises before. Though, if you have experience with meditation, yoga, or martial arts, this should come to you more naturally. And remember the goal here is to be able to reduce the effect stressful situations and events have on you on the go, at work, and other times when you can’t take a more satisfying half hour break to meditate or get your heart rate up with physical activity.

Readers should feel free to write comments or contact me with questions. This sounds simple, but it has helped me and others I know, immensely. There are more complex breathing exercises that you can try after mastering the one outlined above.