The One Thing You Can Do to Reduce Stress: Breathe

The One Thing You Can Do to Reduce Stress: Breathe

When we breathe in, our heart rate increases. When we breathe out, our heart rate decreases. When we breathe at our resonant frequency, the heart and lungs synchronize. For most people, this synchronicity happens around 6 breaths per minute.

Breathing this way for 10-15 minutes causes a decrease in stress hormones (cortisol) and an increase in restoration hormones (DHEA). The brain regions involved in stress responses also begin to quiet down. Our entire system begins to change. Simply put, our breathing changes our state of consciousness.

The exercise below is intended to help you find the 6 breaths per minute pace.

Breathe from the belly.

In the beginning, don’t worry about the pace too much. Focus on the qualities of the breathing. Allow the breath to become smooth, relaxed, gentle, long, and natural.

Don’t force it. Tuning into the concept of natural breathing is the most important step in the process.

Time your breathing to determine what pace helps you feel somewhat relaxed and natural. You can do this by simply using a clock with a second hand or a stopwatch.

Allow the inbreath and the outbreath to be the same amount of time. For example, 4 seconds in and 4 seconds out.

Do not try to take in or breathe out more air.

A common mistake people make when beginning to work with the breath is attempting to increase the length of the breath by either breathing in or breathing out more air. The lungs can only hold so much. Attempts to inhale or exhale more air than the lungs can hold will create more stress.

The trick is to slow the rate of breathing. You can imagine that your lungs are like a balloon filled with air, and you are holding the opening between your fingers. You control how much air comes out at any given moment. Controlling the flow of air is the best way to slow the breathing without creating discomfort or hyperventilation.

If you begin to feel light headed or uncomfortable, stop the exercise and assess what you might be doing to influence that reaction. It might be that you are taking too deep of a breath when normal-sized breath would suffice. Return to natural, relaxed breathing.

Use a breath pacer to help you shift your breathing to 6 breaths per minute. If this is uncomfortable, make it a little faster.

Take your time and be patient with yourself.

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