Take a breath ……..

Diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing)

Stress can be defined as “a situation where demands on a person exceed that person’s resources or ability to cope”.

A certain amount of stress is needed in our lives to keep us interested in life and to help us face challenges. The feeling of good stress coincides with the feeling of being in control, the feeling of bad stress happens when a person feels overwhelmed and powerless by difficulties. When a person is living with never-ending pressure and they are constantly stretched to the limit, illness can happen.

Some stress is good for us, it gets the body ready for performance due to the release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. This enhances the body’s ability in the short-term. If severe stress is allowed to continue in the long-term, the body’s performance will decrease and the constant flow of stress related chemicals and continual stimulation can cause problems with the body’s systems and lead to a decline in health.

When the body is stressed the heart rate increases, breathing increases in rate but decreases in volume becoming more shallow, digestion stops, blood flow changes, muscles tense, immune system functions at a lower level, our mind becomes hyper alert and hormone output changes.

Breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing is simple and effective and is useful for calming down a restless mind and helps keep anxiety and stress under control. It focuses on breathing deeply rather than shallow breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing reduces tension in the upper body and also increases the amount of oxygen throughout the body. Our bodies can benefit with reduced heart rate, a calmer mind with our body systems functioning at a more optimal level.

If we breathe incorrectly and use only the top part of our lungs (shallow breathing), we expand our ribs and our chest puffs upwards, this can add further stress to our bodies. When we deep breathe we are using our diaphragm to breathe and fill our lungs with air.

Take time to breathe and simply be living right now, right here. Aim to spend more time doing the things that make you happy and less time on the things that don’t.

Method

Find a comfortable place to sit, sit up straight, relax your body

Put your hand on your abdomen, breathe in slowly though your nose to the count of three, allow your abdomen to rise (push your stomach out)

Hold your breath for a count of four and then release the air slowly through your mouth to a count of four.

Repeat a number of times until you are breathing correctly using your abdomen rather than your chest.

Use this breathing method whenever you experience a stressful time.