Breathwork For Stress

In today's session with Stuart Sandeman, you are learning all about the power of the breath when managing stress. By taking control of your breath and slowing it down in a stressful moment, you can control how your nervous system responds. And having a daily practice of slow, relaxed diaphragmatic breaths can help you change your relationship with stress, resetting your stress levels, and how your body and mind respond.

Transcript

Welcome to day two of Insight Timers Strategies for Stress Challenge.

Let's take a moment to get settled.

Close your eyes,

Take a deep breath in and exhale out.

Let's dive into today's strategy for stress.

Hello and welcome to Insight Timers Strategy for Stress Challenge.

Throughout the course of this challenge,

You're learning strategies to not only help you handle stress in the short term,

But lifestyle changes you can make to shift your relationship with stress in the long term.

My name is Stuart Sandeman,

Author of Breathe In Breathe Out.

And today we're going to explore the power of breath work to manage stress.

So let's dive in.

The way you breathe influences your two divisions of your nervous system.

Your sympathetic nervous system,

Which is your stress response,

And your parasympathetic nervous system,

Your rest response.

So if you're in a stressful situation,

Your breathing will speed up to activate your sympathetic nervous system,

Your fight or flight response,

Your stress mode.

This is a good thing.

It's there to keep you safe and get you out of danger.

And when you feel safe and relaxed or winding down at the end of the day,

Your breathing slows and the parasympathetic nervous system takes over to help you rest and digest.

But here's the thing.

Your nervous system response does not know the difference between a stressful situation happening in your environment and a stressful situation that's fabricated through thought alone.

It triggers the same response and a similar stressful breathing pattern.

So if you're worrying about the past or you're fearful about the future,

Or perhaps you're stuck in a loop of overthinking,

Well,

Your breathing will react with a stressful breathing pattern and you'll instigate more stress in your body and mind.

Now,

If a stressful day becomes a stressful week or even a stressful year,

Then you can get stuck in a bad habit of stressful breathing.

This could be breathing too fast,

Breathing too much,

Maybe over breathing through your mouth,

Perhaps over dominant chest breathing or irregular breathing patterns,

Or perhaps you freeze and stop breathing altogether.

But by taking control of your breath and slowing it down in a stressful moment,

You can take control of the way your nervous system responds.

And having a daily practice of slow,

Relaxed,

Diaphragmatic breaths can help you change your relationship with stress,

Resetting your stress levels and how your body and mind responds to stress.

This is also to do with the chemistry in your body,

Because when you're stressed,

Your breath tends to speed up to get you out of danger,

To fuel your body.

And this causes a drop in carbon dioxide.

This drop in carbon dioxide changes your pH,

And the body doesn't like to stray too far out of its range of pH,

So it compensates by holding on to acidity instead of releasing it when you go to the toilet.

So the body resets its pH levels,

But it resets at the stressful rate of breathing.

So if you are stuck in a stressful breathing pattern,

You might get stuck there because the chemistry resets,

And your body finds this new homostasis,

This new balance.

So it's important that if you've been through a stressful moment,

Or you're experiencing a lot of stress,

That you use your breath to regulate your nervous system and reset your body and mind.

So I want to introduce you to a breathwork practice you can call upon any time you're suffering from acute stress,

But also something you can use throughout your day to manage stress levels,

Or to have as part of a daily practice.

Firstly,

Remember the phrase,

If in doubt,

Breathe it out.

If you're feeling stressed,

Anxious,

Or overwhelmed,

Then a nice long drawn out breath will slow your heart rate,

Lower your blood pressure,

And move you into a parasympathetic response,

So your body and mind start to calm.

So let's give it a go together now.

You can do this practice anywhere.

The amount of times I've done this on the fly,

In a stressful moment,

In that heightened moment of stress,

When I've needed it the most.

But you can also practice it in a more meditative way to help really reset the body and mind.

So if it's safe to do so,

I'd like you to close down your eyes,

Or bring them to a soft gaze.

That will help bring your awareness inwards.

Place your hands on your belly,

So you can feel it rise and fall.

Now I'd like you to breathe in through your nose for a count of four.

Using your diaphragm,

So feel your belly rise before your chest.

Good.

Now hold your breath for a count of four.

This will let carbon dioxide rise in the body slightly.

Breathe out through your mouth for a count of eight.

This nice long drawn out breath will slow your heart rate and calm your body and mind.

Moving into your parasympathetic state.

Good.

Now in a couple of rounds you'll notice a difference.

But as part of a daily practice,

This will really help you find your calm.

So let's keep going.

Breathe in through your nose for four.

Feel your belly rise.

Hold your breath for four.

Keep calm and still.

And breathe out through your mouth for a count of eight.

Relax your shoulders.

Just let them drop away from your ears.

Good.

In for four.

Feel your belly rise.

Hold for four.

Keep calm and still.

And breathe out through your mouth for eight.

Relax your shoulders even more.

In for four.

Belly rise.

Hold for four.

Peaceful and still.

And breathe out for eight.

This time relax your jaw.

Letting go of any tension,

Any strain.

In for four.

Hold for four.

And breathe out for eight.

This time relax behind your eyes.

Letting go of any tension.

Let's keep going.

In for four.

Belly rise.

Hold for four.

Calm and still.

And breathe out for eight.

Relax your forehead.

Letting any tension just melt away.

In for four.

Deep into your torso.

Hold for four.

Steady and relaxed.

And breathe out for eight.

Relax your whole face.

Let's go for three more rounds.

In for four.

Hold for four.

And breathe out for eight.

Letting your whole body relax and become heavy.

Let a wave of calm flow over you.

Good.

In for four.

Hold for four.

And breathe out for eight.

One last one.

In for four.

Hold for four.

And breathe out for eight.

Now just slowly,

Slowly bring some awareness back into your body.

Start by wiggling your toes,

Your fingers.

Just gently,

Gently moving your head.

Perhaps you may like to have a stretch.

When you're ready,

You can open your eyes and come back into your space.

How did that exercise make you feel?

Did you notice a shift in your body and mind?

Are you feeling more calm and relaxed?

You don't only have to use this in acutely stressful moments.

You can also make this a daily habit.

Or include it as part of a routine to help keep you calm and relaxed.

Just try the practice in for four,

Hold for four,

Out for eight.

For three or four minutes,

Any time that works for you in the day.

It's also a goodie to help you wind down at the end of the day.

To help you drift off and have a good night's sleep.

So I'd love to hear how you got on with this exercise.

And any time it's helped you throughout the day.

So please share your experiences in the discussion forum.

I'm Stuart Sanderman and thank you so much for breathing with me.

Reviews

Great practice thanks! I was just curious on how would the impact of 448 breathing differ from 478 breathing. Would love to hear some insights on that! Thank you

This worked very relaxing indeed. Thank you very much 🌟🫶🙏!

This was a wonderful practice.I felt so light and peaceful.
Thank you for showing up for us.

Thank you Stuart for this breathing practice. It was so very relaxing for me!
I really love breathing medis a lot! Our whole family is stressed atm, so this helped me.
😇✨️🙏🏻✨️😊

I had bookmarked this one and came back to it today. Good for re-centering yourself when stressed or anxious.

Excellent! Balance of theory & practice and a soulful voice! Thank you

I suffer cronical hyperventillation. Altho i reduced my stress income for already a long time, breathing keeps being difficult. This excercise worked en gives me hope. Thank you for sharing...

Loved this! Thankyou. I want to get you in to do a session at Diageo

This is a great breathing exercise. Does it have a name? I call it 4-4-8. My stress levels are high and my energy levels low though it is improving ever so slowly. I need to incorporate this to my daily life. Thank you for sharing.

This was wonderful; so helpful for relaxing at bedtime. Will try it throughout the day too. Thank you 🙏🏻

Wonderful way to calm down 🩷 thank you for this exercise 🌸

Thanks for sharing, this did help to slow my breathing rate. I’m wondering if you have found 4-7-8 breathing to be a bit long with the breath hold of 7 counts? I like the background music too 😊🙏

This was a great practice to calm down.

Great to activate the parasympathetic system, and thus calming your mind

Short exercise but really helpful in reducing stress and overthinking. Thanks!

I have found your breathwork practices incredibly helpful.I have downloaded your book breathe in breath out...it's amazing.Im learning so much.I can't thank you enough.I even find your voice soothing which is very helpful

I arrived feeling a bit stressed and my stomach feeling upset, to ending with more calm within myself. Breathing this way definitely helped! Thank you.

Just what I needed after a stressful day. Will try to remember to do this daily, thank you

This was a very soothing breathing exercise. Perfect way to start my morning. Thank you 🙏

I return to this one a lot, it’s so straight forward and the basic biology info makes it a nice one to introduce ‘sceptics’ to breathwork. Thank you. 🙏
If there is a version without the challenge intro that would be great too 😄