Abdominal Breathing - an easy way to relieve stress at work

Feeling stressed?

We know the feeling. When you’ve been on the computer for hours on end, with a heap of work to complete in too little time. Your shoulders are moving closer to your ears, jaw is getting tighter, there are new wrinkles in your forehead, and your belly is hard as a rock. Unfortunately that’s not a nod to your abs of steel either. It’s a reference to the tension being stored in your belly.

When we hold our belly tight because we’re either tense or because our jeans are too tight, we move into shallow chest breathing. Chest breathing is known to increase feelings of stress and anxiety.
The way we breathe has a significant impact on our mental emotional states. It works in reverse too, our mental emotional states affect our breathing pattern. For example when we’re sad we tend to sigh a lot. When we’re angry the breath becomes rapid. When we’re anxious or fearful the breath becomes shallow and moves from the chest. When we’re at ease and relaxed, the breath is even and moves into the belly.

When we breathe into the belly we’re breathing abdominally, known as Abdominal breathing or Diaphragmatic breathing.

Why do we feel at ease and relaxed when breathing into the belly? It all has to do with the nervous system. 

The Nervous System is made up of two parts

    •    The Sympathetic, which controls the stress response, gets us ready for “FIGHT OR FLIGHT” mode when a crisis arises, and
    •    The Parasympathetic, which controls the relaxation response, once the emergency is over it, is known as the “REST AND DIGEST” mode.

When we breathe with the chest we send a physiological message to the body-mind that we need to be in FIGHT OR FLIGHT mode. Which is great if you’re exercising, or if you’re in an emergency situation which requires you to run very fast with all systems of the body fully switched on.

Often though we’re just sitting at our desk, sleeping (familiar with waking up at 3am?), or going about fairly normal tasks. When we make chest breathing a habit, the FIGHT OR FLIGHT mode of the nervous system is activated unnecessarily. Which over stimulates the adrenal glands and taxes the central nervous system and lowers the body’s immunity.

The easiest way to switch off the FIGHT OR FLIGHT mode is to breathe abdominally.

There are neuro-receptors on the wall of the main abdominal artery (AORTA) which measure the pressure in the abdominal cavity. When the pressure is high, (like in abdominal breathing), the neuro-receptors send messages to the brain to relax the body.

This activates the REST AND DIGEST mode: the heart rate slows, blood pressure drops, digestion switches back on, our resistance to infection increases, the feel good hormones are released.
How Abdominal Breathing Works

The diaphragm is a strong, thin sheet of muscle attached to the lower ribs, separating the lungs from the abdominal organs. It is shaped like a parachute, and during abdominal breathing, it flattens down against the abdominal cavity creating more space in the lungs. This draws in more oxygen-rich air and ventilates the lower lobes of the lungs.

EXPERIMENT NOW
If you can, it’s really nice to do this with your eyes closed.
    •    Begin to observe your natural breath. No need to change or control the breath, just watch the spontaneous breath.
    •    Take your awareness to the diaphragm, and visualise or have a sense of the diaphragm.
    •    Take a conscious breath in now, and visualise the air entering the lungs, expanding and flattening the diaphragm downwards against the abdominal cavity, causing the abdomen to rise slightly.
    •    On exhalation, feel the diaphragm and abdomen resume their natural position.
    •    On inhalation your belly is moving out, on exhalation your belly is moving in.
    •    Continue breathing like this for a minute or so.
    •    Notice if you feel different mentally or emotionally compared to a few minutes ago.
 

Practise pointers –
~ the ribcage should remain still
~ the abdomen should contract effortlessly with the exhale
~ to feel very tranquil add a count to your breath. Inhale for a count of 5 -7 seconds.