2 Quick Stress Relievers

Dear Friend,

How are you? 

If you’ve been feeling more stressed than usual, you’re not alone.

Our world is changing fast and a lot of people are finding it challenging to stay balanced.

My goal for this year is to share simple, science-based tools that can help us be more resilient.

Today’s tip comes from 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success by Liz Moody.

She describes how one of the quickest and easiest ways to shift out of the sympathetic nervous system/stress mode into the parasympathetic nervous system/rest and digest mode is to work with our breath.

There are lots of different breathing patterns you can experiment with, but two that have been shown to be especially effective are the following:

1) Cyclic sigh - “Take two sniffs through your nose, hold briefly, and follow with one long exhale through your mouth. Repeat 2 or 3 times.” This breathwork pattern was shown to be the most effective in a Stanford study of several stress reduction tools.

2) Box breathing - Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, breathe out for a count of 4, and hold for another count of 4 (making a “box” of 4 counts of 4). “This breathing pattern has also been shown to be a powerful activator of the sympathetic nervous system.”

Working with our breathing can be a great stress management tool - it’s effective, free, and something we can do anywhere at any time.

Do you have another favorite breath pattern for stress relief? Send an email to liz@happybrainlife.com and let me know!

Sending much love,

Liz