Stress and anxiety reduction seems to be big businessnowadays. People will spend boatloads of money to go to a special relaxationcenter and break free of their troubles. While these types of ventures no doubtwork, and group relaxation sessions definitely have their benefits, what arethose of us to do who don’t have the luxury of packing up and going to aspecially designated place for stress relief?

                Thereare so many options for anxiety and stress relief that we can access basicallyanytime, anywhere, for free. Probably the easiest, and arguably the mosteffective method is proper breathing and breath control. When we are stressed,even just a little, our breathing becomes shallow. We end up breathing quickerand not taking as much air into the lungs. This type of breathing can cause a buildup of carbon dioxide in theblood and upsets the general balance of our body, making you feel even worse.Often, this can lead to panic, encouraging even quicker breathing of less depthand manifesting in symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, muscle aches and thelike.

                Relaxedbreathing is slow, gentle and deep. Just by forcing yourself to breath likethis, you can trick your body into calming down and coming out of the physicalaspects of stress. Then you can focus even more on controlling your breathing.Basically, the biggest part is deliberately breathing through to your stomach.By forcing the breath to the stomach, you are breathing the way your bodyintended, with the diaphragm, deeply; this small return to the fundamentals ofyour body has extreme and definite calming properties and can relieve evenextreme feelings of stress if done in a quiet environment conducive torelaxation in as little as 10 minutes.

                Haveyou tried any breathing techniques for stress reduction or general relaxation?Do they seem to work? What other methods have you used for stress reduction?What works for you? Let us know!

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