The Tool that is Always in Your Toolbox

If you google “coping skills” you are bound to get thousands and thousands of articles outlining a wide range of strategies, practices, and exercises that could potentially help you manage stress or anxiety.  It’s true that there are exponential numbers of strategies because we are wired so individually and each stressful experience is unique as well. There is one thing that is always available to us.  It doesn’t require us to carry around a small tub of thinking puddy, or wear a spinning anxiety ring, or find the nearest ice-pack… and it doesn’t even require us to spend a penny.  

It’s our breath.  

Your breath is always available to you and can help you through whatever struggle you may be encountering.  The science behind the power of the breath is quite sound.  When you encounter stress, there is an automatic response that happens within your body and in your nervous system.  Things like a faster heart rate, increased blood flow to major muscles, and other survival instincts automatically activate without us even realizing it.  Historically, the human body and nervous system was wired this way to prepare it to face off against a threat, such as a predator or life or death situation.  Although we have evolved over time, and have shaped our world so that these situations are not a part of our daily existence (for most people), that instinctual switch or wiring is still woven into our bodies.  Studies have shown that breath practices, or what might be referred to as “breath work,” is a powerful tool in reining a stress response back in because it gets the nervous system to regulate back to a less activated state.   

Below are a couple of links to some short videos for breathing exercises that seem to be accessible to most people; they can be a good place to start.  

Diaphragmatic Breathing (or Belly Breathing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXjlR4mXxSk‍ ‍‍ ‍

5 Finger Breathing:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz7WZ5jS19I

Box Breathing: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E9Pz3vpzp6c This video offers a visual, you can also count to 4 or 5 in your mind when practicing.  

4-7-8 Breathing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpSkoXRrZnE      

Consider picking one and giving it a try over the next week.  You would want to practice at least once a day, including practicing when you are experiencing stress and when you’re not.  The benefit of practicing strategies when we don’t need them is that it increases the likelihood, we will be able to access it and use it when we are in a state of stress.  This is similar to practicing any other skill before a test or competition – we practice when we don’t need it so that it can be more instinctual.