Breathwork 3: Stress Reduction

Dear Friend,

What happens when we (or our students) try to run away from stressors like exams, full schedules, or hard conversations?

Usually, we can’t run from them. So we experience chronic stress.

Breathwork for Stress Reduction can help!

Let’s start by breaking down the Fight or Flight Response, which we can pretty much blame for all of our stress.

First of all, let’s be grateful that it keeps us alive.

Then, let’s acknowledge that our Fight or Flight Response comes from the most primitive part of our brain (the amygdala) that focuses solely on survival and keeping us safe.

However, that primitive part of our brain doesn’t know the difference between a saber-toothed tiger chasing us and a test at school.

It sends the same amount of blood to our hearts, limbs, and lungs to enable us to run or fight as it would if it were a big cat or a big test.

Our nervous systems are flooded with hormones that make it hard to think. Breathwork is a solution that can provide immediate relief and it’s always available to us.

Breathwork Activity of the Week

Box Breath

Help your students increase focus, awareness, and observation, especially before a test, or any activity where they’d like to experience full concentration. Set a timer for 5 minutes and guide your class through Box Breath.

Sit with your spine tall.
Visualize a box in your mind’s eye.
Build a pattern of rhythmic breathing.
Begin by inhaling to a count of four, up one side of the box.
Next, hold your breath for a count of four as you draw an imaginary line across the top of the box.
Exhale to a count of four, drawing an imaginary line down the opposite side of the box.
Hold your breath to a count of four, completing the imaginary box in your mind’s eye.