De-stress with Deep Breathing

Anxiety and stress is something most people deal with but for millions of people it can get out of control. Finding a way to calm down or relax is different for everybody and you have to find what works best for you.

For this article I have grouped stress and anxiety together because they create the same response in our bodies. When we start to feel pressure in our chest and a crippling feeling of helplessness, our body floods with acetylcholine which causes epinephrine or adrenaline to be released from our adrenal glands. This causes our heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension to increase which all work together to create the systemic feeling of stress or anxiety. We have to recognize that both stress and anxiety are subjective, meaning we cannot always tell how someone else is feeling. People do not always have outward or obvious signs. Therefore, we cannot pass judgement.

Note that stress can be chronic and more long term where anxiety is usually caused by a trigger.

There are lots of ways to calm ourselves down but it comes down to this. You must be intentional about calming yourself down.

The body is very good at this automatic or autonomic response of flooding with theses neurotransmitters to create a response. However, the body does not calm down automatically. So we have to do this purposefully for ourselves.

Check out this deep breathing video.

Deep breathing is key because it essentially burns up extra neurotransmitters thus allowing our body to return to a normal state.

It helps to imagine that your breath is calming and that with every breath your body get more and more calm, or fills up with peace.

I encourage you to try deep breathing anytime you feel stressed or anxious. Deep breathing gets easier with practice, so don't feel discouraged if it takes you a while to get the hang of it.

There are plenty of other ways to de-stress or calm your anxiety and I encourage you to find a way that works best for you.

Make today wonderful,

Sarah Z

Created by Sarah Zastrow- Bay Area Wellness