COMMUNICATION, BEHAVIOUR & ART
Drowning in stress, anxiety or negative emotions?
Grab a lifesaver and reset your body and mind with this simple slow breathing exercise designed to reduce stress, anxiety, and negative emotions.
Breathing Technique for Sleep, Anxiety, Stress & Emotional Balance
Scroll down to find a guided breathing exercise video, or continue reading to learn how controlled breathing positively affects your body and brain.
Physiological Effects of Stress
When experiencing stress or negative emotions, your brain prepares your body for what might come next. For example, during fear or anxiety, your body activates the freeze, flight, or fight response.
These physiological changes are autonomic—meaning they happen without conscious effort—and disrupt your normal calm state.
In fear responses, your heart rate, breathing, and blink rate increase. Blood rushes to muscles, such as those in your thighs, readying you to run. Hormones like adrenaline flood your system, digestion and reproductive functions may pause, and your vocal cords tighten.
Physical Sensations Caused by Stress
Although many physiological changes go unnoticed, the physical sensations they create—like butterflies in the stomach, shaky limbs, and a higher-pitched voice—are often very apparent.
The Power of Breath for Stress Relief
Breathing is unique among autonomic responses because you can consciously control it. By focusing on slowing your breath, you calm other overactive autonomic processes and regain control over your body and emotions.
I’ve created a simple animated breathing exercise to help you stop stress and negative emotions in their tracks. Use this preventive technique before stressful events to keep anxiety at bay.
Slow, controlled breathing not only reduces stress instantly but also offers long-term benefits such as lowering blood pressure, reducing depression symptoms, alleviating pain and muscle tension, and improving mood and oxygen levels.
Slow Breathing Exercise
Aim for Four Breaths per Minute
If four breaths per minute feels too challenging or if you have respiratory conditions like asthma*, try the five or six breaths per minute exercises instead (scroll down to find these).
*Please consult your doctor before starting any breathing exercises.
Use whatever time you have—even two minutes helps. The videos last ten minutes, so breathe as long as you can.
Always breathe in through your nose and breathe out through pursed lips in this exercise.
Sit with a straight posture, get comfortable, and notice your abdomen rise as you inhale and fall as you exhale.
The videos are silent so you can add your own soothing music or sounds as you prefer.
If you were able to follow along, congratulations—you just slowed your breathing to four breaths per minute! Adults typically breathe between 12 and 18 breaths per minute, and during stress, this can increase to 20 to 45 breaths per minute.
Breathing at four breaths per minute is optimal for reducing stress, but breathing rates of five or six breaths per minute also provide significant benefits. Avoid going below four breaths per minute, as it can have the opposite effect.
Below are animated breathing exercises for five and six breaths per minute. Each exercise follows the same pattern at a different breathing rate, so there is no need to do all three unless you want to try them out.