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Breathing forInstant Stress Reliefby Geoff Dixon

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2 | Breathing For Instant Stress Relief

The world we live in today, with its ultra-fast pace, demands far more of the average person than society did even a mere 50 years ago.

The effects of this relentless drive forward are being felt everywhere, not the least of which is the health of each one of us. Of all the dangers our modern lifestyle exposes us to, I believe, as do many others, that the greatest risk lies in the stress that is placed on our minds and bodies.

One report I came across, published by the World Health Organization, stated that over 80% of all illness was caused by stress of some kind. Many forms of cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, insomnia, depression, gastrointestinal disorders, asthma, low energy, obesity... the list goes on and on. The effects can range from slightly annoying, like not having enough energy to get through a workout, all the way to life threatening conditions.

For a person who is trying to live a healthy lifestyle, unhealthy stress is one of the greatest obstacles to overcome.

In the twenty years that I’ve been a teacher and a trainer, I have unfortunately seen stress ruin the lives and health of more than a few people. One of the first things I do when assessing a new client is to try to get some background information that will help me form a picture of the amount of stress they are currently under. If a client is looking for an intense workout but their insides are shaking from stress, adding in the stress of hard training is not necessarily a healthy choice at that time.

In such cases, I recommend a dedicated cycle of stress relieving exercises and techniques to clear out accumulated tension before moving on to a more taxing exercise program.


My clients implement these “stress busting” techniques throughout their day, to combat the stress before it has a chance to really take hold in their minds and bodies.

Many of these techniques can be done anywhere and anytime, especially during working hours, where most of our stress tends to arise.

The workplace, for most of us, is the place we need to implement these kinds of techniques the most. The dual benefit being that stress is eliminated as it arises, and clearing out the stress will actually make us function better at work. This creates a positive feed-back loop that can really go a long way toward creating low-stress environments.

When a person is free of excess stress, they tend to not only be healthier, but happier. If we can manage to be healthy and happy at work, accessing that state at other times is a whole lot easier.


Yoga and StressI draw on my background in Hatha Yoga and Qigong to create stress-relieving programs for my clients.

Hatha Yoga is a phenomenal tool that can be used for many different purposes. The original aim of this discipline was to remove problems and blockages in a practitioner’s mind and body so a balanced healthy state could be achieved. From there, the practice would progress to strengthening the body and mind, and finally lead the aspirant to a state far beyond their starting point.

Some of the most potent tools for stress relief in the Hatha Yoga arsenal are the yogic breathing techniques known as pranayama.

Breathing is interesting because it’s one of the few processes in your body that is both an unconscious automatic process and one that can be consciously controlled and altered.

Science has proven that respiration is a two-way street. Your state of mind and stress levels greatly alter your breath rate and depth. The more stress, tension and fear you feel, the shallower and faster your breathing becomes.

But because breathing is a two-way street, you can alter your internal emotional states simply by consciously controlling your breath.


When you start working with simple yet highly effective yogic breathing practices, you can start to control how you feel. Stress is an enemy that slowly, and sometimes not so slowly, robs you of the amount of control you have over your life. But by using thetechniques I’m about to show you, you can start to regain that lost control any time you feel it slipping away.

Turn the page and we’ll get started.


Breathing Techniques for Stress ReliefBelly Breathing

The first - and arguably the most important - technique is basic abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing, also known as “belly breathing”.

This method forms the basis of any good breathing program, and ironically, it’s the way we’re supposed to be breathing all the time. Unfortunately, most of us don’t breathe this way, and we pay the price with increased tension and a lower tolerance for stressful situations.

Before you start, it’s important to take a second to check your posture. Proper breathing can only occur if your body is correctly aligned. Through years of stress, tension, injuries, and sometimes plain laziness, most of us have adopted less than ideal posture. Slumped shoulders and a rounded back are more than just unattractive. They’re one of the biggest obstacles in the way of breathing correctly.

Whether you’re at the office, the gym or relaxing at home, proper posture will go a long way toward improving your breathing, and that in turn will help reduce your stress.


First and foremost is to align your spine, getting it as straight as you can manage without undue force. Imagine you’re stacking one vertebrae on top of the next, like building blocks. Your shoulders should be dropped down and relaxed. Your hands can be placed in any position, as long as it’s a position that allows your arms and shoulders to feel tension-free. Your head, like the rest of your spine, should feel as if it is stacked on top of your now vertical spinal column. It helps to imagine that there’s a balloon tied to the crown of your head, gently lifting up. It’s important not to allow your head to tilt upward though. Keep your chin slightly pulled back so that you’re looking straightahead.

This position allows your lungs to fully expand, and gives the rest of your organs the proper space they need to function. The alignment is the same whether you’re sitting in a chair, on the floor, standing or even lying down.

Okay, let’s get to the actual breathing...

Belly breathing is simple. Inhaling through the nose, imagine that your breath goes down into your belly first, expanding it like a balloon. This is impossible of course, but the visualization allows your diaphragm - the trampoline-like muscle that sits under your lungs and is responsible for letting air in - to drop down fully.

It’s important to keep your shoulders down and relaxed throughout the whole breath. Raising your shoulders with tension causes the muscles around your lungs to contract, preventing you from accomplishing your main objective: taking a full breath.

The exhale is also simple. Allow your belly to relax, and let your breath flow smoothly out your nose.


If you’re in a really stressful situation, say before a big speech or meeting, you can exhale out of your mouth, imagining as you do that all the anxiety and fear is being expelled from your body. This brings up the use of the mind during breathing techniques, which we’ll delve into a little more deeply with the third technique.

So that’s belly breathing. It’s a very simple technique, but an incredibly effective one. Practice it so it becomes second nature. And then use it whenever you feel the stress piling on.

A fringe benefit of practicing Belly Breathing is that it’ll gradually shift you back to breathing in a more natural way.

Belly breathing is how we were designed to breathe. I have two small daughters, and when I watch them breathe this is how they do it. They haven’t yet accumulated the stress and tension that interferes with proper breathing.


When you don’t perform deep abdominal breathing, you set up a catastrophic chain of events as far as stress is concerned. You don’t get adequate oxygen into your blood stream. This taxes your body and starts a fear reaction. This fear reaction dumps stress chemicals into your system, which causes your anxiety levels to rise and brings tension to your muscles. The muscles most effected are the shoulder and neck, which tighten and pull up, causing your lungs to get tighter and your breathing to get even shallower.

You can see how it leads to even more tension. It’s a never ending spiral of selfdestruction that’s definitely best avoided.

Alternatte Nostril BreathingThe second technique, also known in Hatha Yoga as Nadi Shodhana or “cleansing of the channels”, builds off the deep belly breathing we just discussed.

Alternate nostril breathing is believed to be a remedy for a whole list of conditions that includes everything from stress and tension relief to the alleviation of high blood pressure, insomnia, low energy and headaches.

It works through its balancing effect on the nervous system.

Research has confirmed what the ancient yoga practitioners discovered: the right nostril connects to the left half of our brain, and the left nostril connects to the right half of our brain.


The left and right hemispheres of our brain see the world very differently. The left half is the logical, analytical side, whereas the right half is the creative side.

The practice of alternate nostril breathing brings a balance to the brain, which transfers to your body. This has ramifications which extend far beyond the scope of an introduction to breathing practices. It is in fact a deep and esoteric aspect of yoga, and one you might consider exploring in future.

There are many variations of alternate nostril breathing. The one I’ll share with you here is an easy variation that I normally teach first. Once you learn this, other variations of the practice are more easily accessible.

I want you to use the fingers of your right hand to manually block off your nostrils. Traditionally, a specific mudra or hand position is used. The thumb is used to block off the right nostril, and the ring and pinkie finger are used to block off the left nostril. The index and middle fingers are folded out of the way.


So let’s get started.

Step One: block off your left nostril and inhale through the right.

Step Two: block off your right nostril and exhale through the left.

Now you’ll reverse the process. Inhale through your left nostril, and then exhale through the right.

It’s easy to remember if you imagine an upside-down V, with the point of the V between your eyebrows. Inhale up one side of the upside-down V, and then exhale out of the other side. Continue doing this back and forth.

You can repeat this breathing pattern for as long as you have time. Two minutes of alternate nostril breathing can really work wonders for reducing stress.


This method of alternate nostril breathing is designed to bring about a total balance. There are many other methods that build off this basic one, and you can learn to enhance your practice, as well as bring about other changes in your mind and body.

Some practices emphasize breathing mostly through the right nostril. This would be appropriate for a time when you really need to energize your mind and body. Other practices emphasize left nostril breathing. This would relax your body to a greater degree, and is a perfect practice to perform at night, to wind down before bed.

There are so many variations of this exercise that it could actually be considered a complete yoga practice unto itself!


Skin BreathingThe final breathing technique I want to share with you uses everything you’ve learned so far, and adds a generous use of the imagination.

Often referred to as Skin Breathing, this technique is a vital part of advanced Hatha Yoga practice, as well as Taiji and Qigong. The technique itself is relatively easy to learn, and as long as you’re willing to use your imagination and be playful, it can be an extremely effective tool for stress relief.

You’ve already mastered the basis of skin breathing: Deep Belly Breathing. That’s as complicated as it gets as far as the breathing mechanics are concerned.

The real “secret” to this breathing technique lies in your ability to engage your mind in the practice. Done correctly and with the right intention, this breathing technique can be used for everything from stress relief to increased energy, or even self-healing of illness and trauma.

You’ll start by simply inhaling with a deep belly breath, and then exhaling it out. But before you take that first belly breath, I want you to take a moment to focus on the surface of your skin. Really try to feel your skin as the barrier between yourself and the rest of the universe.


Step One: take a deep belly breath, imagining that you’re breathing right through the pores of your skin.

Step Two: as you inhale, imagine that your body is expanding like a balloon. Don’t just think about it - I want you to really feel it.

Step Three: feel your body relaxing and “deflating” as you exhale.

That’s it. As you can see, it’s not complicated at all.

This practice is extremely versatile, and is the basis of all the self-healing techniques I teach. The only thing that changes is the intention of the practice.

For example, as you inhale you can imagine that you’re inhaling positive healthy energy. As you exhale, imagine that you’re expelling all of your stress, tension and anxiety. Or as you inhale, imagine that you’re inhaling confidence and power. As you exhale, release any fears you may be feeling.

You can perform this exercise seated, as in an office setting, standing up or even lying down. Lying down works great as a way to prepare yourself for sleep. Try using Skin Breathing to release insomnia by getting rid of all the worries of your day, as well as any anxiety over what’s coming the next morning.


Now Go Out and Put Them to Use!These three breathing exercises are the easiest to learn of all the breathing techniques that I teach.

But don’t be fooled by their simple nature. If you practice them diligently and regularly, they can work what appear to be miracles as far as stress and anxiety are concerned.

I believe they form an indispensable part of an overall approach to health and fitness in today’s fast paced world. I hope they serve you well.


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