Quick & Easy Stress Reduction Solutions – Part 3
Sometimes you don’t have anything with you, no essential oils, no smart phone with relaxation app or relaxation music or biofeedback instrument. You may not be able to go outside for a nice walk or sit by the lake to relax. You could be in an office on the 25th floor or in the subway feeling stressed. What can you do to relax now?
In my previous article I talked about how spending time in nature can reduce stress and I shared a free relaxation video link. To read that article and view the video click on this link: https://biofeedbackinternational.com/quick-easy-stress-reduction-solutions-part-2/#more-3637
Today we will discuss how breathing can be used relax.
Stress Reduction Solution #3 is Breathing to Relax
Since you were born you have been breathing. If you believe in God and creation, when God created man He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and then man became a living soul. When you stop breathing, you stop living. So breathing is important, right? If breathing is so important then how you breathe might also be important. Have you ever heard someone tell you to take a deep breath when you were upset about something? You may not have believed them. In fact you may have wanted to tell them to shut up or worse. What if I told you that it can be shown scientifically that changing your breathing can directly affect your nervous system and change the activity of your heart. The effect is measureable. We can measure the changes in your heart rate and heart rate variability pattern when you change your breathing. There are professional and home devices that can be used to show this. Some of them connect to PCs, Mac computers, and smart phones and tablets. These devices are very helpful for doing diaphragmatic breathing training because you can see the measurements of what you are doing and the responses that your heart has when you change your breathing. There are also biofeedback sensors that measure your breathing. A belt goes around your abdomen which stretches when you inhale and then goes back to normal when you exhale. It measures how deep you are breathing and how fast you are breathing (breaths per minute). Again, they are very helpful. If you want to learn more about these devices and where to get them contact me. What I want to do here is show you how you can use breathing exercises to calm and relax yourself quickly where ever you are.
Although our brain automatically monitors and regulates our breathing so that we don’t have to think about it, we do have the ability to override that control and change our breathing pattern. We can slow our breathing down, speed it up, make it deeper or more shallow.
When we breathe fast and shallow it tends to make us feel more anxious. It also can have a negative effect on the exchange of CO2 and oxygen in the cells of our bodies.
There are many different breathing exercises that can help to calm our nervous systems. Most of them involve slowing the breathing rate down, making the breaths deeper than usual, and keeping the upper body more relaxed. It is also recommended to have the belly push out during inhalation and pull in during exhalation.
I am not trying to argue which method is best here. Many recommend practicing slow deep breathing for 20 minutes once or twice a day. This is good but many people will say that they don’t have the time to practice that long. What I recommend in these cases is to think of times that you are stuck waiting and don’t really have much else to do. I teach people to take some of the time that they are waiting in line at the store, bank, post office, and red traffic lights to practice slow breathing. This might be from one to five minutes at a time but can happen several times throughout the day. You can also do this on public transportation between stops or during a taxi or Uber ride. These are times that can be very convenient to practice relaxation breathing without having to set aside special time to do it. You can also use this technique during business meetings, before tests, performances, or other stressful events that you know are coming or during ones that surprise you.
At first you may not feel the difference. You will probably start to notice it after you have practiced it for a while. Until then, you can see an example of the changes that can happen by looking at the difference in breathing and heart rate recordings when the breathing pattern changes as measured with biofeedback equipment. Here are a few examples:
The blue line in the image below is a measurement of breathing that is shallow. When the line goes up the person is inhaling, when it goes down they are exhaling. The pink line is a measurement of their heart rate activity. Notice how erratic the heart rate appears. That is what is usually happening when you feel anxious.
In the following graph during the same session, the person started to breath more slowly and deeply with their belly. You can see how quickly the heart rate responded and became more rhythmic and regular as it followed the breathing.
For more information on how the effects of slow deep breathing can be measured see this free YouTube video on breathing to relax:
Stay tuned for the next stress reduction solution.
Harry L. Campbell
President, Biofeedback Resources International
Author of the book What Stress Can Do (available on www.Amazon.com )
www.biofeedbackinternational.com
