How to Breathe Better to Reduce Stress

Proper breathing when stress comes can reduce anxiety and anger.  Proper breathing can also help prevent stress later in the day.  In addition to this, breathing exercises can also be good for one’s overall health.
The Community Counseling Clinic at Youngstown State University offered these 10 key steps in breathing techniques for reduction of stress.
1. Sit in a comfortable and peaceful place
2. Rate one’s tension on a scale of zero to one-hundred, with zero being totally relaxed and one-hundred representing as tense as you have ever been.
3. Then take a deep breath and hold for four seconds, but remember to breath from your diaphragm.
4. This should be done three to four times a day
5. While breathing, become aware of yourself in regards to heartbeat or a specific external noise.
6. Switch from concentration on things that inside of you to things that are outside of you.  Take your time while you focus back and forth
7. Begin to focus more intensely solely on your breathing and begin to phase out the other thoughts and external stimuli around you
8. If you need extra help relaxing, use a key word, such as calm to trigger a peaceful relaxation as you exhale.
9. After 15 minutes of peaceful breathing, begin to awaken yourself.  Start simply with the hands and feet and then begin to awaken larger parts of the body.  Conclude with stretching.
10. Finally, open your eyes and re-rate your stress on the tension scale mentioned in step 2.
These relaxation strategies can help re-energize oneself and reduce stress.
If you are interested in Stress Management Consulting, please review the program.
AIHCP