Here’s my favorite tip to close out April Stress Awareness Month.
Recently, a friend of mine who has a stressful job thanked me for sharing a tip to help them manage stress. They’re using this simple tool during their stressful day and it’s helping a lot. Since it’s so helpful for my friend, my clients, and myself I know it will be helpful for you too!
This tip is to simply deepen your in-breath and breathe out for a longer count than breathing in.
Watch this short video and see this practice in action.
Here’s why this works… When we’re stressed we tend to breath shallow. This is the automatic response of our sympathetic (fight/flight) nervous system. When our stress response is activated our body is ramping up for getting out of a dangerous situation. Our heart rate increases, our breath becomes faster and high in the lungs and the body releases the stress hormone cortisol.
The problem is when we’re in a stress response but not in any real danger—like an important meeting, the kids are acting up, running late for a show. The mind and body are connected so chronic stress can wreak havoc on our physical and mental health.
The opposite happens when we breath deep into the belly and slow the exhale—this activates the parasympathetic (rest/digest) nervous system response. Our heart rate and breath slow down and we’re more able to focus on the task at hand.
When we approach challenges from a more calm, centered place the results are more likely to be in our favor. The body isn’t giving off signals of danger so we feel safe to respond with our higher conscious mind not react from our subconscious survival part of the brain.
We can literally hack the autonomic nervous system simply by controlling our breath. Give it a try next time you’re under a lot of stress!
