Breathing | Stress Reducing Tips | @caroline-cavanagh | The Anxiety Alchemist

Here's my best tip for when stress has gone through the roof, and it's so simple— it's breathing. And I know you're going to say it's obvious, but try it. When we're stressed, the body goes into the fight or flight mode, and it naturally makes you breathe more quickly. But you can manually override that by changing your breathing. And whilst there's lots of tips out there on breathing techniques, this one I find the easiest, and it's just to breathe out for as long as you possibly can. I think about blowing candles on a cake, but without actually blowing them out. You just keep breathing out for as long as you possibly can until you can't breathe out anymore. Because by expelling all the air from your lungs, you then naturally breathe in for longer. And when you breathe in for longer, you can breathe out for longer as well. and that clicks your system back into the rest and relaxed mode. It works. Give it a try and feel your stress levels just come down to that point where they may be more manageable.