Relax With This Easy Breathing Exercise

This stress busting exercise is super easy, quick, and you can do it anywhere (although it’s kind of noisy). For the most benefit, you’ll want to use deep breaths and be conscious of the four stages of breathing.

· Sit comfortably with your back straight.
· Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth and keep it there.
· Exhale through your mouth around your tongue, making a whooshing sound.
· Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
· Hold your breath for a count of seven.
· Exhale completely through your mouth, as before, for a count of eight.
· This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

Note that you always inhale quietly through your nose and exhale audibly through your mouth. The tip of your tongue stays in position the whole time. (Or if that's uncomfortbale, just do it without that part.) Spend twice as long exhaling as inhaling.

The amount of time you spend on each phase is not important, but the ratio of 4:7:8 is. If you have trouble holding your breath, speed the exercise up but keep to the ratio of 4:7:8 for the three phases. With practice you can slow it all down and get used to inhaling and exhaling more and more deeply.

This exercise relieves stress naturally. It’s subtle at first, but with practice over time, it becomes even more effective at reducing stress and anxiety. Try to do it at least twice a day, but not for more than four breaths at a time. After about a month, you can extend it to eight breaths. After mastering this powerful tool, you’ll always have with you. When something upsetting happens, just breathe before you react. You can use it to fight low- level stress and to help you fall asleep.