IS Breathing Stress Relief?

This may sound like a strange question, how we breathe can either increase our stress or bring stress relief. You may not be aware, but when you are anxious or worried you tend to breathe fast and shallow. Which increases your anxiety while your mind just keeps racing. Your breath can bring stress relief  if you breathe deeply and slowly. What this does is help your body relax and gives your mind something to focus on, your breath. Did you know your mind will match your breath. If you breathe slow and deep your mind will also slow down.

I want to share with you three breathing techniques to help  bring stress relief:

1. Focus on your breath going in deep and going out long. Focus on your breath as you slow down and breathe more deeply. Repeat this a few times.

2. This technique works well if your mind is stubborn and doesn’t want to slow down or focus on the breath. This technique is more active and forces the mind to focus on the breath. First you breath in and hold your breathe. So, it’s a little uncomfortable. No, not too long, you don’t want to turn blue! Then breathe out and hold your breath out until it’s a little uncomfortable. If you’re gasping for air, you held your breath out too long!  Repeat this a few times to give your mind a different focus. It’s a great distraction from whatever is creating stress or anxiety in your life, at least temporarily.

3. This is a Buddhist technique and I find it helpful sometimes.

You focus and you breath in health and you breathe out disease or pain.

Breath in love, breath out judgments.

Breath in peace, breath out tension.

Basically, you can chose whatever positive attitude you want to breath in and then you breath out whatever you want to release or let go of.

The important point is that you choose hat is important to you and brings you some peace.

You can repeat the same things over and over again or change the words each time. I find this very soothing and calming.

To Your Highest Good,

Laura Meehan, MA

Integrative Counselor and Coach

Founder and Liberator of Allowyourlightoshine.com

Ambassador of Cure for Boredom on Howtoliveonpurpose.com

P.S. I also suggest that you get  the CD-  Echoes of the Heart… a Sacred Journey. This was created by my good friends Robert and Terri TallTree. This is beautiful flute music that you can play in the background. It’s very calming and soothing. The music  helps bring a greater sense of balance and harmony into your life and  helps you reconnect with your own spiritual nature. You can play this all day long, if you’d like, in the background.