Are you finding yourself upset and amid a difficult emotion? Whether it is anxiety, stress, sadness, or anger, our instinct can be to take immediate action because we just want this feeling to stop. Just take a moment before doing anything to calm your nervous system. This makes such a huge difference in feeling more grounded and being able to make good choices for ourselves.
It might not feel like it, but you have the power to calm yourself down. We can change our minds by practicing to calm our bodies down.
Take a moment and breathe with me.
I won’t go into a lot of explanations or scientific talk about why the exercises are helpful. I chose this to be a practical guide as I find that when I feel stressed out or upset, I just want to keep things rather simple and practical.
Deep breathing exercise
This is one of my absolute favorite exercises if I am feeling upset. When going into the exercise, I always question myself if this will make any difference. However, after the exercise, I feel much more relaxed and way calmer than before. Try it and see how it affects you.
- Place one hand on your heart and one on your lower stomach. At the same time, feel the support of the chair you are sitting in or what you are lying at. I prefer lying down, if possible.
- Then breath in through the nose to the count of 3 and out through the mouth to the count of 6. – Do this 6 times
- Now breath in through the nose to the count of 4 and out through the mouth to the count of 8. -Do this 6 times
- And last breathe in to the count of 5 and out to the count of 10 – Do this 6 times.
You can repeat this as many times as you like. Notice how your body feels afterward. What do you notice?
Breath in a square
I often use this exercise if I have a hard time falling asleep. After a short while of doing this, it gets hard to keep my eyes open.
- Find a square to look at. Through the exercise, your eyes will be moving in this square (I often use a window I can see from my bed)
- Now breathe in while you let your eyes follow one line of the square.
Now hold your breath while you let your eyes follow the following line on the square
- Now hold your breath while you let your eyes follow the following line on the square
- Hold your breath while your eyes follow the last line in the square.
Now repeat as many times as you wish.
Diaphragmatic breathing.
I learned this when I was studing to become a singer but afterward I have come to learn that this exercise is good for a lot more than just becoming a better singer. Some people also call this technique “Stomach breathing” Of course there is no such thing as actually breathing with your stomach. The stomach moves due the expansion of the Diaphragm.
This type of breathing slows down our heartbeat and helps us to be way more oxygenated than if we only feel our breath in our chest.
You can do different variations of this, and it doesn’t have to take more than 3-5 minutes before you feel a difference.
I prefer doing this:
- Lie flat on the floor and feel the support of the floor under you.
- Take a book and place it on your stomach. Feel how the book moves up and down.
- Breath slow in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Set a timer for 3-5 minutes or as long as you wish. Notice how your body feels different after the exercise. What do you notice?
Conclusion:
Just like it’s an important skill to be able to calm our body by working with our emotions and our thoughts, it’s just as important to be able to calm our thoughts and emotions by calming our body. This is especially helpful when we experience intense emotions and it’s hard to think clearly. But it’s also a good way of staying regulated throughout the day. Just incorporating a small 3-minute break here and there throughout the day to do some breathing can have a really big impact on our stress levels and our wellbeing.
I encourage you to practice taking small breaks doing these techniques or other breathing exercises you like regularly and notice the effect on your wellbeing.
So, try the techniques and let me know how they affect you.
Also, share what you do when you feel the need to calm down?
1 thought on “3 breathing exercises to calm down”
3 very usable and powerful exercises to find peace and grounding