Stress Relief: Just a Breathe Away
Have you forgotten how to breathe right?
Sep 15, 2009
Jun 02, 2022
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Take a deep breath. As you do, does your stomach go in, your chest expand or your shoulders go up? If so, you're breathing wrong.
Like many adults, you may have "forgotten" the right way to breathe, says Peter C. Trask, Ph.D., at the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, Brown Medical School/The Miriam Hospital in Providence, RI. You pull in air through your chest, instead of through your stomach. When you chest breathe, you become tense, develop muscle fatigue, shortness of breath and may even increase feelings of anxiety.
Trask helps patients re-learn the right way to breathe, called deep abdominal—or diaphragmatic—breathing. It brings more oxygen into your blood and muscles, relieving the effects of stress and lowering your heart rate and blood pressure.
"That's the way you should breathe all the time," says Trask.
You can practice deep abdominal breathing throughout the day, while sitting up straight, standing or lying down. Repeat this cycle three or four times, several times a day, to make it a habit:
Progressive muscle relaxation will also help you de-stress by tensing, then releasing, muscles. Find a quiet room to perform the upper body progressive relaxation below.
In each step, contract your muscles as hard as possible, then relax. Breathe deeply with each action: