There are several different methods to use to combat stress and prevent it. In this paper the mindfulness meditation and breathing techniques will be discussed.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation mixes the old teachings of meditation and the modern technique of mindfulness into one exercise. It is similar to Vipassana meditation which is taught to Buddhists for several centuries. For the sake of the paper, we will continue referring it to as mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness meditation is a method to help you learn slow down your uncontrollable thoughts and calm you down when things are going a bit hectic. People who have practiced it for decades describe it as stepping out of the river of life and thought and looking it from outside. It is essentially a meditation and a teaching which recommends being in the present.
The benefits of mindfulness meditation are well researched. It is found that it decreases the severity of subclinical depression and anxiety. It increases attention span and mood regulation.
How to Practice Mindfulness Meditation.
The important part of mindfulness meditation is focusing on your breath. Feel the breath going in and going out of your body. Most of the people focus on the lungs, nose, or belly to feel the breath but the most recommended place is the nose. Some people also recommend thinking “in” and “out” as you breath in and out.
When you think of something else than your breath in mindfulness meditation it is a very natural thing to happen. When it happens just acknowledge it and try to return to focusing on your breath naturally. Don’t judge yourself because you got distracted and try not to think about why you had that specific thought in your mind.
The general recommended minutes for a single mindfulness meditation are 30 minutes but for a beginner is it hard to keep your concentration for 30 minutes so start from 5 minutes and then gradually build up to 30 minutes.
Breathing Techniques
There are several different breathing techniques to help reduce the stress the most well-known ones are the 4-7-8 breathing technique and the deep diaphragm breathing. It helps to reduce the stress and regain the focus of the individual. Breathing techniques also helps individuals to be more mindful of their environments because with breathing techniques people get more relaxed therefore they have more mental space to acknowledge and give attention to stimuli from their environment.
How to Practice 4-7-8 Breathing
- Sit in a comfortable position.
- Empty your lungs.
- Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds
- Breathe out through your mouth with your lips in the shape of like making a whistle sound for 8 seconds
- Repeat 4-5 times.
How to Practice Deep Diaphragm Breathing
This exercise uses the diaphragm, the strong separation set of muscles between lungs and intestines. This muscle works unconsciously and is sometimes it is hard to feel the status of relaxation or straining. Training the diaphragm and learning this breathing technique may take some time.
Be aware that these breathing techniques might make you dizzy so after you completed it give yourself some time to get back up from where you are sitting or lying down.
The diaphragm is a set of muscles that is like a horizontal plane, in the center of your body. It is attached to all sides, just below the breastbone to the solar plexus, the soft spot that you can find there.
The plane of muscles is not entirely flat, but it is shaped like a dome like a dome on a building, with the dome being flatter when the diaphragm muscle contracts, and the dome being higher when the muscle relaxes. Contracting the muscle intentionally is a bit hard. A way to do this is to contract a virtual muscle between your pelvis bottom and the top of the dome.
In that way the dome is contracted, pulled downwards. The bottom of the lungs are attached to the dome, and the tops of the lungs to the shoulder bones. Pulling the dome down with soft belly muscles will make the lungs longer, they expand and can hold more air. Relaxing the tiny muscles between the ribs will support this even more: the ribs allow the lungs more space, and more air is coming in. The soft belly is pushed outwards, which is a bit contradictory to the western, current appreciation of rock-hard stomach muscles. Something to let go off in favor of healthy breathing, another stress point that won’t bother you that hard anymore.
This is how you breath in: relaxing all muscles, except for the virtual connection between your pelvic floor and the top of the dome. The hard part here is to separate the rest of your stomach muscles from this virtual connection, as they want to ‘help’ automatically, and by helping they strain the belly area, restricting the room for air.
Breathing out is done by straining the belly muscles, and if you want to expel the last bit of air also, by contracting the tiny muscles between the ribs. One may be familiar with that feeling sometimes when speaking the air is already used up, but there’s still some part of the sentence left. People tend to contract the muscles between the ribs then, instead of allowing some time to breath and have a solid amount of air to articulate with. This leads to more strain, and all this tension makes it harder to breath. Hyperventilation is nearby, and a lot of people aren’t far from this state all the time. Therefore, their voices are high, their breaths short and shallow and their bodies tell them to almost go in panic mode.
Diaphragmatic breathing does the opposite: the deep, relaxed breathing will make your body feel comfortable. Your brain will understand that there is abundance of air and peace, and this frees up head space for happy, creative, and empathetic thinking. Stress reduces, connections with other people grow, social environments become friendlier, allowing more room for support and cooperation.
Intentional training will also learn you where obstructions are. Maybe while you train this way of breathing, interrupting thoughts will come up. By getting aware of those as described in the mindfulness explanation, you will be able to acknowledge the areas of your life that need attention. The more of these area’s will calm down, the easier, deeper, and more relaxed your breathing will be. Any new obstruction in your breathing you will notice. Your connection with yourself improves, and you will be aware of problem area’s earlier, acknowledge the problems easier, solve them more effective. Less stress will be the result, leading to more peace and room for empathy and compassion.
The steps to follow to use deep diaphragm breathing is as follows:
- Lie down in a comfortable position
- Empty your lungs
- Put one hand on your belly and one hand on your lungs
- Try to take a deep breath through your nostrils into your belly
- You should feel the hand in your belly rising and the hand in your lungs staying in the same position. Do not expand the belly by contracting the muscles. Rather relax the muscles of your stomach, and focus on
- Breathe out through your mouth with your lips in a shape like you are trying to whistle
- You can use the hand in your belly to push your breath gently
- Repeat the process 8-10 times
Be aware that these breathing techniques might make you dizzy so after you completed it give yourself some time to get back up from where you are sitting or lying down. To learn more about how to manage your stress you can check out our Stress Management whitepaper
