Managing Stress Through Breathing

September 18, 2006 by Vishal | 1 Comment

When we go through stress, our body undergoes a lot of physical changes such as increase in heart rate, perspiration and most significantly, fast and shallow breathing. As reducing heart rate and perspiration is not something that we have control over, we can however control and manipulate our breathing pattern. So, at times of stress, if we practice slow deep breathing, which is opposite of fast shallow breathing, we can relieve stress. So whenever you experience stress, just make it a point to take slow deep breaths and you’ll immediately see your stress vanishing.

Of course you need not wait for stress to attack you to practice deep breathing. The benefits of slow deep breathing are way beyond reducing your stress levels. Some of them are:

1. Optimum functioning of organs due to increase in oxygen content in the blood. Most diseases are simply due to poor functioning or organs. Due to increase in the oxygen content of the blood, the efficiency of organs is improved considerably.
2. Optimum functioning of nervous system for the same above reason. The result is calm and efficient mind. If your mind is calm and relaxed, your body is relaxed.
3. Improvement in digestive functions because of the massage of abdominal organs due to diaphragmic breathing.
4. Slows down ageing. If you look around our planet, species that breathe slowly have longer age spans than fast breathers.

Supporting links:

• Whiff of Life — An article detailing the correct mode of breathing
• Art of Correct Breathing & Healthy Life
• Importance Of Breathing
• Hatha Yoga breathing

Posted in Stress Management

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