You’ve got an interview in some minutes, and you are feeling all tensed? Or perhaps yours is the feeling of anxiety? Or Prolly you’ve got this irritable gut feeling, and it makes your head spin round and round?
You want to overcome stress and that paranoid feeling?
Worry no more because You are just a few lines away from getting over such feelings!
Do you know, a breath exercise might just be the best remedy to help you to get through the day?
When we are stressed, anxious, or tensed, the sympathetic nervous system, with its fight or flight response, can threaten to overtake us. It is a familiar feeling – ‘butterflies in the stomach, a racing heart, rapid breathing, and sweaty hands. This is the work of the sympathetic nervous system, and these symptoms can build up to a full-on panic attack.
But, hold on a seconds, what if you could use a
breathing exercise for stress relief to turn off the sensitive nervous system at the first sign of stressed day or anxiety?
In the same way panic, anxiety, and stress sends the respiratory rate into an over-drive – breathing becomes rapid and simple – you can also use your breathing to send panic and anxiety ‘packing.’
The breathing exercise for stress relief works like a cascade. You want to know how? Then read on!
Practice.
Below is a list of what to do when you are stressed out:
- Take a little breath in through your nose and a little breath out. Hold the out breath for a slow count of two. Release and breathe in again and out through the nose again for four times.
- Repeat process one but this time, hold the out breath for a slow count of three. Release and breathe in and out through the nose again for three breaths.
- Repeat the process two times then hold the out breath for a slow count of four. Release and breathe in and out through the nose again for five times.
- Repeat until you are holding your breath on and also the out-breath for a slow count of ten.
- Now you have to reverse the process.
- Take a small breath in through the nose followed by a small breath out. Hold your out breath for a slow count of seven. Release and breathe in and out through the nose again for 3 breaths.
- Take a small breath in through your nose by breathing out a little. Hold the out breath for a slow count of six. Release your breath and breath in and out through the nose again for 3 breaths.
- Repeat this step and make sure you are holding your breath on the out breath for a slow count of two.
Once you have completed the
breathing exercise for stress relief , concentrate on keeping your breathing low (into the diaphragm) and slow, so that the sympathetic nervous system does not regain dominance.
The breathing exercise mentioned in this article have the same effect as re-breathing the air from a paper bag – what was once a common treatment for hyperventilation – you are building up the carbon dioxide that is being breathed off by an anxious body. It is no longer considered safe to re-breathe air from a paper bag, but the
breathing exercise for stress relief is quite safe and easy to do.
The breathing exercise for stress relief is a very useful exercise to employ whenever you feel stressed – maybe before a speech or an important presentation; use it to take your mind off something that is bothering you and making you feel stressed. It is an effective breathing exercise, not only because it switches off the sympathetic nervous system, but also because it is a great distraction for the mind which loves to escalate drama.
The calming breath exercise is a practical, useful tool for reversing panic and stress and restoring calmness. Say “no” to fight or flight; say “yes” too low, slow breathing and the soothing relief that comes with it.
Voila!… Easy as a pie!