Breathing and Relaxation

Breathing and relaxation techniques can help you to be more in control, feel secure and therefore feel a sense of approval. You may need to combine it with other processes to fully achieve all of this, but in the end the effort will be worth it. It can be particularly helpful in stressful driving conditions.

Remember, without breath there is no life. It's no coincidence that the first of the ways to relieve stress (tip 3) was one of the breathing and relaxation techniques: now extend that practice by adding content. Breathing and relaxation techniques increase oxygen to your brain, which could reduce your need for caffeine, try Tip 4.

Tip 1: How do you start your day? Could you incorporate a short five to fifteen minutes, possibly on your journey to work, when you use breathing and relaxation techniques to help you to feel calmer and more appreciative of life all day long. Slow your breathing down and make it very gentle, actually connecting with feelings of gentleness. Expand these feelings of gentleness from your heart and surround your anticipated activities for the day. Represent to yourself the best possible outcomes and be open to the potential for it to be so. As you move through your day, bring feelings of gentleness to everything you do, and everyone with whom you are in contact. Don't forget the importance of being gentle with yourself!

Tip 2: Deep breathing: Breathe out, squeeze your abdomen steadily and tuck up under your ribs and toward your back, releasing all the breath from the bottom of your lungs. Allow your body to relax and allow the breath in naturally, and then gently repeat for thirty to sixty seconds. Imagine how a room full of dank, stagnant air would feel, and then imagine if several windows were opened to allow a breeze through. Pushing out all that stale air is an excellent way of increasing fresh oxygen supplies to your body. It also has the advantage of making you use your diaphragm muscles. It may be easier to do this lying down. Breathing and relaxation techniques calm you down, put you more in control and improve your health.

Tip 3: Throughout the day, choose a routine to do your three longer, slower, deeper breaths and imagine relaxing your muscles when breathing out. Now add in saying the word 'Theta' to yourself as you breathe out. Allow this to take you into a deeper sense of relaxation. Three breaths will probably only take about fifteen seconds, you could do that, couldn't you? This has to be the simplest of the breathing and relaxation techniques to incorporate, with massive benefits.

Tip 4: Panting / Breath-of-Fire: Quick breathing, still using the diaphragm but in a relaxed way. Maintain a focus of even breaths in and out, and it's important to relax other muscles, so in this exercise don't put extra effort in, let the focus do the work. Do this for three to six minutes a day, and/or do it for a minute at odd times during the day. Use this especially when you need to wake up your thinking. When you decide to reduce your caffeine intake you can use this process to quickly refresh your thinking.

You will find that breathing and relaxation techniques are easy ways to reduce stress.

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