How to use your breathing to fight stress

Breathing is a vital function of our body. A natural act, which is not taught, but doing it consciously, especially in complicated situations, can be the key. Not for nothing, in times of stress, grief or anguish, one of the oldest pieces of advice is: breathe deeply.

So much so that it has its own day. International Breathing Day is celebrated every April 11 with the aim of inviting people to remember, experience and celebrate the healing and unifying power of this act.

Breathing must be distinguished as a natural reflex, from that which is done consciously. The latter, and as its name suggests, seeks to become aware of the breath as a tool to bring calm in intense or hectic moments, to bring the breath back to its normal rhythm or simply to clear the mind, relax the body and help us in concentration.

“We live a good part of the day on autopilot, that is to say without being aware of what we are doing. Studies show that we spend about 50% of our waking time immersed in our thoughts and disconnected from our experience. Pausing and intentionally bringing awareness to the present moment, whether to feel our breath or another area of ​​our experience, allows us to check in on how we are physically, mentally and emotionally, to observe our needs, to step out inertia and autopilot,” says Luigi Accatino, PUC psychiatrist and mindfulness instructor (www.mindfulnessensalud.cl ).

Every day when getting up, Isidora Echaurren (31 years old, commercial engineer) breathes according to the “box” technique before meditating. After nine years in marketing, she decided last year to become a certified health coach and realized the importance of this habit in well-being. “It has helped me a lot and I also recommend it to my patients. When you are agitated or stressed, it allows you to regain your normal breathing, helps regulate the body and decrease this intensity. In addition, it has benefits associated with stress management and lowering cortisol (the stress hormone), “explains the creator of the @thehappylife.cl account.

In fact, he still repeats it during the day. “At noon, when I feel like I haven’t stopped, I start again and before bed, as part of my routine. I also use diaphragmatic breathing, another technique that involves drawing air towards our belly during inspiration,” he explains.

Free and conscious breathing can be practiced anytime and anywhere. And while it sounds easy, breathing properly in difficult times isn’t. There are different techniques, one of the most popular is box breathing, because like the geometric figure, it has four stages.

Its daily application only takes 5 to 10 minutes and helps reduce stress, improve sleep, have greater mental clarity and a significant reduction in anxiety.

To start: sit on a cushion, on a chair or on the floor, but the back must be straight. The first thing is to exhale all the air that is in the lungs to start properly.

1. Inhale through your nose and count to four as your lungs fill with air.

2. Hold, again, and with air in lungs, count to four.

3. Exhale: On a count of four, slowly push the air out of your lungs.

4. Hold without air in the lungs and again count to four.

This process should be repeated for five minutes. And as you progress, instead of up to four, you can go up to five, six or more times.

A word of advice: to do the inhale-hold-exhale-hold exercise, some people find it easy to imagine moving around the edge of a box while practicing their breathing, hence the name.

The ideal is to do it twice a day, at the beginning of the day and at the end before going to sleep or after a difficult moment.

Breathe: the new science of a forgotten art. “It doesn’t matter what you eat or how much you exercise; It doesn’t matter if you are young, strong and smart. Your health essentially depends on the way you breathe,” says American journalist James Nestor in his book published in 2021. In just over 300 pages, the author claims that breathing is medicine for our health. Available in digital and physical format ($24,000).