Breathe Your Stress Away!

Before a big or nerve-wracking task, I'm sure someone has said "take a deep breath" to you in the past. You may have thought to yourself "how is taking a deep breath going to help me accomplish what I need to do?". Turns out, taking that deep breath very well might help you accomplish your big task better than if you were to "panic breathe", those short and shallow breaths that you take when things are just about to become overwhelming or difficult. Here's the science on it.

Diaphragmatic breathing, or “belly breathing,” involves fully engaging the stomach, abdominal muscles, and diaphragm when breathing. This means actively pulling the diaphragm down with each inward breath. In this way, diaphragmatic breathing helps the lungs fill more efficiently.

Here are just some of the benefits diaphragmatic breathing can have:

• It helps you relax, lowering the harmful effects of the stress hormone cortisol on your body.
• It lowers your heart rate.
• It helps lower your blood pressure.
• It helps you cope with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• It improves your core muscle stability.
• It improves your body’s ability to tolerate intense exercise.
• It lowers your chances of injuring or wearing out your muscles.
• It slows your rate of breathing so that it expends less energy.

One of the biggest benefits of diaphragmatic breathing is reducing stress.
There are many ways to breathe from your diaphragm, my personal favourite is box breathing is also known as square breathing. This is because each of the four steps involves breathing or holding the breath for 4 seconds, creating a 4×4 effect.

1. Sit or stand upright.
2. Slowly exhale through your mouth, getting all the oxygen out of your lungs.
3. Inhale as you count slowly to four in your head, filling the lungs completely without strain.
4. Hold the breath while counting slowly to four.
5. Exhale and release the breath slowly to the count of four.
6. Hold the breath out for the count of four.
7. Repeat the cycle five to ten times.

So next time you're feeling stressed, give diaphragmatic breathing a try! It'll take some time to get used to but I assure you it is certainly worth the effort. Have questions or want further instructions or guidance on diaphragmatic breathing? Visit us at Nurture Family Chiropractic in Guelph, we'd love to be a part of your health journey.

BREATHE YOUR STRESS AWAY