Breathing performs several functions, including not only oxygenation or oxygen supply to tissues, but also the regulation of our emotional background. The way we breathe is directly related to our condition. So, with the help of breathing, you can regulate our relationship with the world, cope with stress, get more strength and self-confidence.
When we relax the stomach and breathe deeply, we cannot experience acute negative emotions – for example, get angry. Don’t believe? Do an experiment: try to relax your stomach and lower back, take a full breath, then a calm, soft exhalation and think about what makes you terribly angry. What emotion does this thought respond to in the body? If you imagine anger as a huge wave, then with full free breathing, it will manifest itself as ripples on the water, no more.
Here are some exercises that will allow you to regulate stress with the help of breathing and prevent acute negative conditions.
Preparing for breathing exercises
Before performing the exercises, it is important to prepare the body for them: relax the abdominal diaphragm – a muscle on which the quality and depth of breathing largely depends.
Stand up straight, feet shoulder-width apart, raise your right hand. Remember the state when you gently, gently stretch in bed. Make the same soft pull with your right hand, without much effort, slightly.
The left leg presses noticeably on the floor, the right one stretches up a little – the oblique muscle chain begins to work. As a result, the upper ribs relax, the tops of the lungs begin to breathe. The muscles around the middle ribs relax and stretch, the diaphragm relaxes. To deepen this state, stretch upward as you inhale, release the tension as you exhale.
Perform the exercise with the other hand, sit on a chair and note how the pattern of breathing has changed: how much freer, calmer and more stable it has become – these are the indicators we strive for when we need to relieve stress.
Exercise with an imaginary ball
There is a very simple rule of breathing. When we need to feel the filling of the body, its calmness and strength, we breathe through the nose. If you need to get rid of something – say, from unpleasant experiences – we exhale through the mouth.
Let’s start with an exercise that will nourish our sense of strength and confidence. Imagine that a balloon is hovering in front of your face. When you exhale smoothly, it slightly moves away from the face, when you inhale, it approaches. The breath should be light and free, so as to provide a gentle interaction with it.
Now imagine that this balloon is in your stomach: as you inhale, you inflate it, and as you exhale, it gently deflates. It is blown away – by itself. Your attention is directed to the inhalation, the exhalation occurs by itself.
Pay attention to how your breathing changes when you “see” the ball inside: don’t speed it up or slow it down by willpower, but just watch how much freer, calmer, more relaxed it becomes.
Breathe out the trouble
If you feel a load – something that you would like to get rid of – take a series of exhalations through your mouth. There are different techniques for such breathing: it can be sharp, energetic, slow, drawn out.
If you want to relieve nervous tension, exhalations can be sharp and frequent. With an oppressive sensation, the exhalation will be more prolonged: as if you are exhaling from somewhere deep, putting all the accumulated, stagnant emotions into this movement.