How to Control Your Breathing and Create a Calmer Space for Yourself

Breathing techniques play an important role in many mind-body practices, like meditation, yoga, and tai chi. Deep or controlled breathing can be beneficial for your health and wellbeing, including helping you manage stress, reduce anxiety, and encourage mental and physical relaxation by:

• Slowing your heart rate

• Lowering your blood pressure

• Increasing oxygen exchange

• Reducing stress hormones

These techniques can also help improve decision-making and concentration (when you’re calmer, you can think more clearly).

Just Breathe

As a mantra, “just breathe” is a good one, especially for those of us who tend to become anxious or stressed during a workday. It’s a reminder to take a moment for yourself and focus on your breath.

As a veterinary professional, breathing techniques can come in handy when dealing with a challenging client, performing a surgery or other procedure, or any time you start to feel overwhelmed.

You can perform these techniques sitting, standing, or lying down, whichever is more comfortable for you and appropriate for where you are. You don’t necessarily need a yoga or workout mat, for instance. You can try them when you first wake up in the morning while you’re still in bed. Or if you want to perform them during your workday, you can do them while standing or sitting in a chair.

Here are some techniques to try.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Also called “belly” breathing, this technique encourages deep abdominal breathing by engaging the diaphragm. Among other benefits, it can help manage stress and promote relaxation.

To try it:

1.     Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen.

2.     Slowly and deeply breathe in through your nose, focusing on making sure your stomach expands like a balloon (and the hand on your abdomen rises).

3.     Slowly breathe out through your mouth, tightening your abdominal muscles to pull in your stomach as it flattens (and the hand on your abdomen falls).

You can tell you’re breathing properly when your abdomen rises and falls but your chest doesn’t.

When you’re performing some of the next techniques (unless otherwise noted), you’ll want to use diaphragmatic breathing.

Another Basic Breath

One of the simplest techniques you can use to help calm down and improve focus is to adjust your inhalation-to-exhalation ratio. In this case, you’ll want to breathe in for a shorter time than you breathe out.

To start, try a 4:8 ratio:

1. Slowly breathe in through your nose for a count of 4.

2. Exhale slowly through pursed lips (as if you’re blowing out a candle) for a count of 8.

You can consider 1 count to be equal to 1 second. As you practice the breath, you can increase the length of a count if you wish.

Do this for 2 minutes for a quick reset or longer if you’re meditating or need more of a break.

Bellows Breathing

If you want to wake up quickly or need a burst of energy during an afternoon slump, you can use this technique, which works faster than the caffeine from a cup of coffee (and you won’t have that crash afterward). Similar to the previous breath, this stimulating breath will produce calm alertness, just in a different way.

Try:

1. Taking a few deep breaths in and out through your nose. Make sure use your diaphragm and expand your stomach completely with each breath in.

2. Next, perform the “bellows” part of the breath by breathing out forcefully and quickly through your nose and back in. This is 1 cycle. Aim for about 1 second per cycle.

Start with 10 to 15 cycles (seconds) of the bellows breath per round, then return to your natural breathing. You can build up your time per round (up to 1 minute/round) and the number of cycles in a second (up to 3 cycles/second) as you get used to this technique. You can also add more rounds, with a minute or so break of regular breathing in between.

Stop if you feel lightheaded. If you are pregnant, have high blood pressure, or have heart or respiratory conditions, consult your doctor before trying this breath.

Box Breathing

This technique (also called “square breathing”) can help induce calm, lower stress, and increase concentration. It can be particularly useful for relaxation before sleep (or if you wake up in the middle of the night and are having trouble falling back to sleep).

Try it by:

1. Inhaling for 4 counts.

2. Holding for 4 counts.

3. Exhaling for 4 counts.

4. Holding again for 4 counts.

You can consider 1 count to be equal to 1 second, so each cycle should take about 16 seconds. Repeat for a minute or so to help achieve quick stress relief, or build up to 5 to 15 minutes for a deeper feeling of relaxation.

You can also decrease the count to 3 if needed.

Physiological Sigh

I learned this breathing technique from my dog, who used it when he was shifting from a tense or more active state into a calmer, relaxed state (similar to canine “shaking off”).

Essentially, this is a double inhale followed by an exhale. Like some of the others we’ve covered, this technique helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, interrupting the “fight-or-flight” response. It quickly works to lower your heart and respiratory rate and helps reduce stress and is good to use if you feel overwhelmed or right before a stressful event.

You can try it by:

1. Taking a deep breath through your nose.

2. Taking a second short but deep inhale until your lungs reach full capacity.

3. Slowly release your breath until your lungs feel empty.

Between the first and second inhalations, don’t exhale.

Repeat the cycle once or twice.

4-7-8 Breathing

This powerful technique, which was developed by Dr. Andrew Weil, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, reduces stress and anxiety, and can improve your mental wellbeing. It can also help you fall asleep and get back to sleep.

To try it:

1. Inhale through your nose for a count of 4.

2. Hold your breath for a count of 7.

3. Exhale through your mouth (pursing your lips and making a whooshing noise) for a count of 8.

To achieve long-lasting benefits, you’ll want to perform this technique twice a day, every day. The length of time it takes matters less than ensuring that you complete 4 breath cycles twice each day (ideally, morning and evening, but you can also do it any time you start to feel stressed). After a month, you can build up to 8 breath cycles at a time as you get used to the practice (sticking to just 4 cycles is fine too).

Integrating These Breaths Into Your Daily Routine

As you try these breaths and start using them regularly, you’ll find that you’ve gained a natural way to help yourself relax, calm down faster, and remain calmer over time. The more you practice, the better the effect on your mood, concentration, sleep, stress, and anxiety, and even your physical health.