Breath and Movement Practices to Reduce Stress

If you're anything like me, over the past several months you’ve gone through some stressful experiences and you have had “a moment.” A moment when reality suddenly hits, daily tasks become overwhelming, your grasp on reality seems loose and your stress hormones spike. Then, something primal and unprovoked happens and you are reminded of your ability to control the situation. You pause. You breathe In. You breathe out.   

As humans in 2020 we are all processing and dealing with our new reality. Even as a full-time yoga teacher, I battle with stress daily. Life can be challenging, and my guess is we are all finding ourselves in these “moments” of moving too fast, becoming over stimulated and reacting to high stress.  

What if we were proactive in our stress management? What if we practiced daily drills to be better equipped? Do we even have the tools?  

For me, breath work for stress reduction is all about breathing on purpose, to proactively rehearse how our nervous system collaborates with our energy system to respond (rather than react) to our inevitable stressors. The key here is the “on purpose” part. Awareness of your breath is enough, but if you're looking to take it a step further, I’m happy to share my “toolbox” with you. Here are a few breath practices and techniques I use when I’m feeling stressed out and need to reset. 

What is breath work or breath practice?  

Breath work is a foundational component in yoga, mindfulness and spiritual practices. In Sanskrit, breath work is known as Pranayama, which can be translated as “breath control.” Breaking the word down, the definition of “Prana” means life force or energy and “Yama” means “restraint”. My personal favorite translation is to “breathe on purpose.” When Pranayama is practiced regularly, it is possible to develop tools to process, understand and manage our energy. Here are some tips to help you practice regularly.  

Create small, consistent goals 

Create goals for breath work that feel easy to you. Once you have landed on one, make it even more attainable. Let’s say you sit down and decide, “today is the day! I’m going to start a daily breath practice. I’ll set aside fifteen minutes every morning!” To make this goal even more achievable, instead try: “I will practice breath work three times a week for five minutes”. Biting your goal off in smaller “chunks” may allow you to tackle your goals with more ease.  

Prioritize basics in the body 

• Diaphragm: Our diaphragm is the major breathing muscle that rests like an upside-down bowl snuggled under our ribs. When contracted, your diaphragm flattens to help create a vacuum in your lungs, which creates space for breath.  

  • ​Feel it:

    • Place your hands on your belly and breathe deeply 

    • Allow your belly to move forward and down and notice the rise and fall of your hands as you inhale and exhale 

    • Close your eyes if you’re able, and take 5-10 full belly breaths to expand your diaphragm 

• Nose and Mouth: Breathe in and out of your nose to build inner heat or try exhaling out of your mouth if you are craving a cooling sensation.  

  • Feel it:   

    • Try alternate nostril breathing (or Nadi Shodhan Pranayama in Sanskrit) to learn more about specific breath through the nose

    • Try a cooling breath practice, Sitali Pranayama in Sanskrit, to feel the benefits of mouth breathing

• Spine: It's a misconception that you need to sit as tall and straight as possible. Instead, allow your priority to be a comfortable seat.  Many people benefit from slight tilt of the hips and a gentle drop of the chin, in order to allow breath to flow more easily.  

  • Feel it:  

    • Sit up with a tall spine and rock your hips back and forth, side to side, to find your neutral hip placement

    • Then, roll your head gently in a figure 8 motion

    • After a handful of reps of hip and head movement, notice how your able to sit with as minimal effort as possible, in a position that is unique to you 

Create a special space 

Set aside a space and set aside time. Keep it simple. You can sit in a chair and rest your feet on the floor. You can create a space next to some natural light. My favorite is to commit to an upright seat both before and after your physical yoga or “Asana” practice. You can use your mat space as your sacred space for your journey into breath work. 

Celebrate the wins 

There is no such thing sa failure when creating a breath work practice. Instead, there is only data that will help you learn what the practice means to you and how you can deepen your relationship with your breath. You will inevitably miss a session or forget. At times the practice will feel amazing and other times frustrating. If you can zoom out on your perspective and view all outcomes as a good thing, an opportunity to ask yourself why, I believe you will create the foundation for longevity in your practice. Celebrate your wins and be aware of the positive benefits as they unfold in your life! 

We’ve all been there: “that moment,” when your heart is beating quickly, butterflies are on the loose and signs of stress on high alert. My hope is that these moments also become moments of awareness and opportunities to expand. Remember: you have tools within you have focused on those tools intentionally.  

Change your perspective of what “a moment” is. A moment is what you make of it with the circumstance you are in, using the tools that you have. In Yoga Philosophy, there is a Sutra or nugget of yoga wisdom, Yoga sutra 1.0 – “Now begins yoga”. Each moment is a chance to start over, a chance to expand our understanding and an opportunity to calm and heal.  

When we acknowledge our breath, we can remember that each moment is a beginning. 

For more mindfulness and meditation techniques, check out CorePower Yoga On Demand.