Deep Breathing

     Deep, abdominal breathing is among the most powerful stress-reduction techniques ever devised.  Used properly, it’s as effective as Valium and a whole lot faster.  It only takes five or six deep breaths to begin reversing a tension spiral.  That’s because deep breathing stretches and relaxes your diaphragm, the muscle most effected by stress.  As your diaphragm relaxes is sends an “all’s well” message to your brain, which becomes a signal for your whole body to release tension. 

     As stress and abdominal tension increase, your breathing becomes shallow and rapid.  You breathe mostly in your upper chest.  For some people this leads to hyperventilation and the feeling that they can’t get enough air.  Shallow breathing also changes your blood gasses so the oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio gets out of balance.  At best you feel tired, at worst you can get panicked.  All this is corrected by slow abdominal breaths that help turn off anxiety by giving you more air. 

     When you first learn deep, abdominal breathing, it helps to do the exercise lying down.  Later you can do it in any posture, virtually any time you need to relax. 

     Start by putting one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen (just above your navel).  Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose.  Try to direct the breath downward into your belly, so it pushes up the hand resting on your abdomen.  The hand on your chest shouldn’t move much at all.  Exhale through your mouth making a quiet whooshing sound. 

     If you have difficulty breathing into your abdomen, and the hand on your belly doesn’t rise, there are several things you can try.  Press your hand down on your abdomen as you exhale and then breathe in to push you hand back up.  Or, put a phone book on your abdomen at your naval and breathe so that it rises and falls.  Another possibility is to lie on your stomach and breathe so that your lower back moves up and down. 

     If the hand on your chest is rising along with your belly, try pressing with that hand.  Direct your breath down and away from the pressure on your chest. 

     Once you’ve mastered the deep, abdominal breath, use it any time you feel stress or tension.  Take long, slow, deep breaths that raise and lower your abdomen.  Breathe only when you need to, to avoid hyperventilation.  Focus on the sound and feeling of breathing as you become more and more relaxed.  Continue deep breathing for two to five minutes. 

By:  McKay, Fanning