Breathing exercises to calm down: simply breathe away stress

Breathing exercises against stress

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Breathing exercises for calming strengthen the nerves and help us find peace. These are the best exercises for strong nerves and a calm mind.

Do you feel stressed every now and then, under power, completely emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted?

You always have the best tool with you: your breath. We show you the best breathing exercises to calm your body and mind.

Everyone is familiar with stress, inner turmoil and the feeling of being constantly tense.

All three things make us sick! Both body and mind.

In the past, it was the famous saber-toothed tiger that put our ancestors in exceptional situations. Today, it's the job and everyday life that get us down.

Both in the past and today, stress ensures that our body is in a constant state of alert. Add to the work stress anger, worries and fears and the mix is perfect.

Sleep disturbances, permanent fatigue, listlessness and digestive problems are the result.

If possible, you should try to avoid such situations. However, that is usually easier said than done. Fortunately, there are great breathing exercises to calm down.

If you can't settle down before going to sleep at night, breathing exercises can even help you fall asleep. They can normalize the heartbeat and reduce stress.

How you can calm the body with breathing exercises

Consciously breathing in and out is really good for our body. Although the nervous system works mostly automatically, we can control it at least a little.

We can indirectly influence functions such as pulse, blood pressure or even muscle tension.

Physical activity - be it sports or conscious breathing exercises - lowers the cortisol level in the body. The stress hormone adrenaline is also reduced.

Consciously controlling our breath helps us calm our nerves. Deep and relaxed breathing through the nose and mouth tells our brain: danger averted.

Thus, breathing exercises to calm down have a stabilizing effect on our entire body. They help us to lower blood pressure again and be more relaxed.

With conscious breathing we can

  • Lower the blood pressure
  • Lower the heart rate
  • Reduce stress hormones
  • Calm palpitations
  • Switch the body to regeneration
  • Strengthen our nerves

Our breath is a natural source to relax. And to fill up with new energy.

Breathing exercises for calming

 

The best breathing exercises for calming and against anxiety

You can do the breathing exercises to calm down while sitting, lying or standing. Take about 10 minutes to do them.

If you choose to sit, make sure your posture is very upright and your spine is straight.

Also, open a window or do the calming exercises outside.

Relax the mind with breathing

The simplest breathing exercise to calm down is to be aware of your breathing. Without changing anything about it. Observe yourself. How often do you breathe? Do you breathe deeply or superficially? Can you relax while breathing?

Simply observing our own breathing helps us relax. It distracts us from anxiety, worry and anger. Even if we think we can multitask: Our mind can only focus on breathing or on anxiety. So we trick it.

Calming breathing lets us consciously perceive the moment. This allows both body and mind to relax. This in turn tells the nervous system that it can let go. The body begins to reduce stress hormones.

Through conscious breathing, you can gain distance from things that happen around you. And you no longer see many situations so narrowly. The head becomes clear again.

Here's how:

  • Breathe in and out only through the nose.
  • The breath is even.
  • Two seconds pass between inhalation and exhalation
  • Count to 5 on the inhale and also on the exhale
  • Those who feel fit can increase the inhale and exhale to 7 to 10 seconds.

Breathing exercises to calm anxiety

In Anxiety situations you should breathe less. Instead of 8-12x per minute, reduce your breath to 6x.

In doing so, one concentrates fully on the breaths. The breathing exercise has a very calming effect, as one concentrates exclusively on breathing. In this way, you distract yourself from anxious thoughts.

Anxiety and inner turmoil always start from the nerves. Often small things are enough and we feel completely lost and overwhelmed. Now it is necessary to calm the nerves, so that you can find peace.

What helps me well in such situations are passionflower dragées. Passionflower has a calming, relaxing and stress-relieving effect. It helps to fall asleep and brings the nerves back to a normal level.

In the dragées you will find the active ingredients highly concentrated. On days when I feel anxious, I take one tablet an hour before I go to bed. Within an hour, the passionflower has a relaxing effect.

It also helps me to turn off the head cinema and in doing so to see things that are really unimportant, but grow into a huge thing in my head, in a more relaxed way.

I have tried a few preparations, but I am stuck with Dr. Boehm Passionflower Coated Tablets* got stuck. Thanks to the coating, they are very easy to swallow and work best for me. Just give them a try. They are currently on offer at Shop Apotheke.

Sighing frees us inside

Those who are very tense and under power can counter this with Sigh Remedy.

To do this, breathe in through your nose. Very deeply. Hold the breath and count to 3. Now open your lips and exhale with a sigh of "Haaaaaa".

In the office, you can of course breathe the "Haaaaa" silently. At home, however, you can also do it with a deep sigh. The deeper the voice, the greater the relaxation. The vibrations of the deep tone soothe the chest, neck, throat and head.

In addition, the sound has a very liberating effect. Repeat the breathing exercise 5x.

Deep exhale during inner tension

Anyone who is worried can simply breathe it away. And that through long and deep exhale. The exhalation should take twice as long as the inhalation.

Let the negative energy flow out of the body. It may help to count the seconds of breath or to track them on a clock.

Breathing exercises

Conscious and deep abdominal breathing for strength from within

Let the breath consciously flow deep into you with each inhalation. Until the air fills the abdominal cavity.

Place the hands on the belly. The thumbs point to the head. The remaining fingers down.

You can now perceive how the abdomen lowers and rises. When you inhale, the abdominal wall rises. When you exhale, it sinks.

When we are under stress, we breathe superficially and much more frequently. As a result, we take in less oxygen. The lack of oxygen stresses our body much more. We are on the alert again.

This vicious circle can only be stopped by conscious abdominal breathing.

Tip: In the morning after waking up, abdominal breathing gives us energy for the day.

Exciting facts about breathing

Normally, people breathe 8-12 times per minute during complete relaxation and 12 to 18 times during normal exertion.

Babies breathe 40 to 50 times per minute

In adults, the lungs move about 20,000 times a day.

The natural breathing is abdominal breathing.

With each breath, we take about half a liter of air into the lungs

You can tell how stressed you are by the way you breathe. The more superficial our breathing, the more stressed we are.

By the age of 21, our lungs inhale about 3.5 million balloons.

The world record for holding his breath was set by Peter Colat in 2011. The Swiss held his breath underwater for 21 minutes and 33 seconds.

Our conclusion

With conscious inhalation and exhalation we can calm body and mind. Take time out every now and then to fully concentrate on your breath. Our breathing exercises for calming down help you to reduce stress.

Looking for a workout to calm down? Check out our Yin Yoga Workout over.

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