Reducing stress effectively when we perceive its toxic effects on our body, our emotions and our mind, implies, first of all, being able to exercise self-control over the way we are breathing.
Our breathing is, among all our vital bodily functions, the only one that, apart from being under the control of the ANS (Autonomous Nervous System), is parallel regulated by the CNS (Central Nervous System).
That is, respiratory function works effectively as a link mechanism between involuntary nerve activity and consciously controllable nerve function.
Breathing, by virtue of its ability to vary the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic activity of our ANS, constitutes a fantastic strategy to increase our stress management competence, being a tool at our disposal at all times.
Breathing properly for stress management
Let's see: what happens in our body when we remain breathing badly?
The problem originates due to the degree of muscular tension existing in the diaphragm, muscle located under the lungs: if the diaphragm is under the effects of tension, it presses the lungs upwards, causing a loss of the total volume of air that these can be used throughout each respiratory cycle.
The more tension in the diaphragm, the greater the degree of oppression in the lungs, causing more agitated breathing.
This way of breathing is not only more accelerated, it causes tensing of various muscles, merely to breathe, which entails a greater degree of muscle tension and energy wasting.
Furthermore, with just a few seconds of maintaining this form of breathing, the heart rate begins to increase in speed, blood pressure increases and a higher degree of metabolic expenditure is caused.
So these signals alert the brain to go into alert mode, which is certainly far from a great idea to eliminate stress.
Importance of training in breathing strategies applied to stress management
We already know what comes next: we have just started the vicious circle of stress.
In this way, a key aspect of training in stress management is learning how to breathe properly, managing to reduce the tension of the diaphragm and exercising abdominal breathing, managing to use all our lung capacity, which will lead to breathing becoming calmer and therefore, breathing without thoracic muscle tension and that will not accelerate our heart rate or raise blood pressure.
If we achieve this the mind will remain in balance.
This would have allowed us to get out of the stress cycle.
Learning how to breathe abdominally can become one of the most important skills in your life to maintain your health and learn to reduce stress in all circumstances.
