Breathing Exercises For Stress Management
More and more when you hear and read about how to manage emotions and stress, you come across research on breathing exercises. Two places this has gained considerable traction in recent years is in the field of exercise physiology and in mindfulness and/or meditation practices.
Stress And Mood Management
Exercise psychologists and physiologists - as well as stress control techniques in military applications - often focus on the breath as a way to control and regulate our emotions. A quickened respiratory rate can physiologically create a state of heightened stress and make it more challenging to respond to pressure from a place of calm. As we lengthen our out-breath we activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and we become more calm.
Needless to say, there is also a lot of focus on the breath in yoga and meditation. Many meditation practices focus exclusively on the breath and encourage people to focus on the breath as a way to practice being present. This sort of work can also be a great way to train our attention - to learn to “stay put” in our presence so that we are not letting our attention be carried away by each and every capricious thought. In addition, there are techniques designed to activate what is called the physiological sigh, and also plenty of techniques where we are guided to count our inhale, time spent holding our breath, and duration of the exhale. These sorts of techniques are often designed to reduce anxiety.
A Somatic Approach
This is all great. It’s wonderful that increased research is centered around how the body (not just our thoughts) is so directly related to our experience of anxiety and our experience of being calm, relaxed, and present. What I see missing in much of this work, however, are practices to help people connect with their entire body. It’s important to be aware of how you are breathing and experiment with breath patterns and ways of breathing that can support you, but your whole body is a door through which you can assess your stress level and practice mood management.
Taking A Deep Breath To Help With Anxiety
When I have clients practice taking a deep breath (or often several deep breaths in a row) I encourage them to inhale through the nose filling their belly first (letting their belly extend out so the lungs can fill more fully). As the belly fills I then cue them to pull the air into the chest (without engaging the shoulders and neck too much) and then immediately let the air go through their mouth. This is a very natural way to breathe and relax and it encourages us to relax in our entire body.
Importantly, the out-breath should neither be a push, nor should we be measuring it out and controlling it. It should feel like the in-breath is an image of pushing a heavy ball up a hill, and on the out-breath we are just letting the ball roll down. This is because when we push out or, conversely, measure out our exhale, we are contracting our body to do this. Instead, we want to be in a practice of relaxing our muscles and letting them rest. Often I work with clients over a period of several sessions of bodywork and coaching to teach them and help them feel how this particular way of taking a deep breath can support them. Almost all of my clients report that this deep breath is extremely helpful.
Somatics Includes The Whole Body
In Somatics we want to include the whole body. The breath is important - very important - but ultimately we want to embody our full self. This means feeling your feet, legs, belly, how you relax your gaze and jaw, etc. As we become embodied we have more of a capacity to relax ourselves fully and become even more skilled at being present. In this way somatic work is not simply a “tool in our tool bag” but rather a way to transform how we are as a person; how we show up in our presence both for others and for ourselves.
Send me a message to learn more about how taking a deep breath and somatic bodywork can support you.