Take a gentle, deep breath in for a count of 4.
Now slowly breathe out for a count of 6, a little longer than your inhalation.
Repeat 3 times.
With SKY practice as part of your daily meditation routine, you will find:
A calmer, clearer mind to handle tough, stressful situations
More energy to get stuff done
Stronger immunity and well-being
Using the science of breath, you can raise your energy, manage your difficult emotions, and find lasting ease...so you’re ready to face your day confidently. Every day!
What is stress?
Stress can be defined as the degree to which you feel overwhelmed or unable to cope as a result of pressures that are unmanageable[1].
For the majority of us, life can be stressful. At one point or another, many of us will have experienced that sense of being overwhelmed, as if everything were just too much and beyond our capacity to manage. This sense of overwhelmedness, which is known as stress can have serious repercussions on our health too, especially if it lasts longer.
Interestingly, not all stress is bad. In fact, stress can also help you accomplish tasks and prevent you from getting hurt. For example, stress is what gets you to slam on your car’s brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of you. That's a good thing, without that you will actually end up having a major accident!
We are naturally equipped to handle small doses of stress. But, we are not equipped to handle long-term, chronic stress without having its physical or mental, or behavioral consequences.
Take a few minutes for self-reflection
Stress can mean different things to different people. What causes stress to one person could be of little concern to someone else. Some people are able to handle stress better than others.
It is said that self-awareness is the key to solving many of life's problems. So if you would like to learn how to manage and relieve your stress, the first step is to know what causes you stress.
Trigger points
Grab a pen and paper, or open your notes app. Take 5-10 minutes to list some situations in which you strongly felt overwhelmed and stressed. Situations could be apparently minor or very major doesn’t matter, just honestly note your observations.
What is stress doing to me?
Once you have listed your trigger points, take a few minutes to note, how do you—your body and mind react to it? How does stress affect your life, whether personal, interpersonal, academic, or professional?
Stress can affect all aspects of your life, including your emotions, behaviors, thinking ability, and physical health. But, because people handle stress differently, the expression of stress can vary from person to person.
How do you manage your stress?
For most of us, stress is part of our daily life. However, just because stress is unavoidable doesn’t mean it has to dominate your life. Breathing and meditation can be effective tools to help manage and ease stress. The best part is that it is available to all of us, anywhere and anytime we need it. It will not only help to reduce stress, but also to improve mental and physical health, and improve the overall quality of life. Using your breath in certain ways can make you more resilient towards stress!
Stress is part of everyone’s life. What matters most is how you handle it. We have listed some of the healthy ways and some unhealthy ways to manage stress below. When your stress levels are high, check what you do to relieve your stress. Becoming aware of how you typically handle stress can help you make healthy choices.
Stress Relief - the key is in your own breath
Having understood what stress is and your self-reflection about it, let us go back to your original question - how does breathing help in stress relief?
To understand this, let me begin by asking you a question - did you know these secrets about your breath?
Breath is the greatest source of energy
The mind and breath connection—a shift in one impacts the other
We can train our breath to influence our emotional state, and loosen the grip of stress and anxiety or any other difficult emotions
“Our breath can significantly change the state of our mind. So usually if we’re in a very high-stress moment, it’s very difficult to talk ourselves out of it. It’s just very challenging to change your mind with your own mind, your thoughts with your own thoughts. However, if you calm your nervous system, which is what we do with the breath, then your mind can start to calm down as well,” explains Emma Seppälä, the author of Happiness Track and the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education[9] at Stanford University.
A 2019 study at Yale University[10] evaluated the impact of three well-being programs on undergraduate students: SKY Breath Meditation, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and Emotional Intelligence, compared to a control group. Of all the programs, SKY Breath Meditation had the most benefits—reducing stress and depression, enhancing mental health, social connection, mindfulness, and positive emotions.
Using the SKY (Sudarshan Kriya) Breath Meditation (also recommended by New York Times bestselling author James Nestor in his book BREATH[11]), you will become more resilient and have the best tool in your toolkit to manage any kind of stress in your life. Deep breathing in the face of an actual stressful situation is like taking a Tynelol to quickly relieve pain. Whereas SKY will day by day enhance your ability to deal with stress, you will feel no longer or less overwhelmed even though life can throw any stressful situation at you.
SKY - the best breathwork based meditation to deal with stress
Be proactive, take the first step
When you are stressed, your body produces stress hormones that trigger a ‘flight or fight’ response. This response helps you to respond quickly to dangerous situations. You can quickly return to a resting state known as rest and digest, without any negative effects on your health if the stress is short-lived.
However, there can be times when stress becomes excessive and too much to deal with. If your stress response is activated repeatedly, or it persists over time, the effects can result in wear and tear on the body and can cause you to permanently be in a state of ‘fight or flight’, and can impact both your physical and mental health.
Before you reach that state, take the measures that can help you cope with stress in healthier and safer ways!
We are here to help you.
Join Beyond Breath: A Safeway to Stress Relief, a free online class where you will get a first-hand experience of a powerful breathing technique and enjoy a calming guided meditation with a live instructor. You will also get the opportunity to interact with the instructor, learn more about SKY[12], and find out what this life-transforming meditation practice can do for you.
Takeaway
Meditation doesn’t eliminate our stress; but it helps manage it well. A lot of that boils down to how we perceive stress. Meditation helps clear our mind and to improve our perception. And thus rather than getting overwhelmed by any situation, with regular practice of SKY, you will feel in good control in any demanding situation and will be able to smile through it.
References:
[1] https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/s/stress
[2] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-symptoms/art-20050987
[3] https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-symptoms/art-20050987
[4] https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/watch-out-for-unhealthy-responses-to-stress
[5] https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/blog/breathing-exercises-stress-coping-skills-that-can-improve-your-life
[6] https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/online-guided-meditation
[7] https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/yoga-for-anxiety-10-tips-to-deal-with-stress-and-anxiety
[8] https://www.mindful.org/breath-brains-remote-control/
[9] https://www.mindful.org/use-breath-strengthen-mind/
[10] https://news.yale.edu/2020/07/27/improve-students-mental-health-yale-study-finds-teach-them-breathe
[11] https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/blog/breath-the-new-science-of-a-lost-art-a-review-on-james-nestor-book
[12] https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/research-sudarshan-kriya
Sejal Shah, E-RYT 500 Sri Sri Yoga Teacher, YACEP, C-IAYT, Meditation Teacher, SKY Instructor, NYU Post Graduate Medical School approved Yoga-CME retreat facilitator, Mind-Body Wellness Writer, Homeopath. She can be followed on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Breath Meditation for Stress Relief: How It Can Boost Your Resilience
Feeling overwhelmed with stress? Try meditation for stress relief. Learn how to build your resilience using simple tools like your own breath.
By Sejal Shah | Posted: December 12, 2020
If you find yourself using more of the unhealthy and short-term ways to manage your stress, know that they are harmful and dangerous in the long-term. You probably have already experienced this. That is why you are here, to find safer and more effective ways of stress relief.
Here’s everything you need to know about breathing meditation to get started.
Getting regular physical activity
Practicing relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing[5], meditation[6], yoga[7], tai chi, or massage
Keeping a sense of humor
Spending time with family and friends
Setting aside time for hobbies, such as reading a book or listening to relaxing music
Get regular sleep
Eat a healthy, balanced diet
Healthy ways to manage stress[3]
Let us unpack these secrets:
When we don’t have enough energy to cope up with the situation, we feel swamped and stressed. But if you had the energy, you could easily handle the given situation. Food, rest, a positive and peaceful state of mind, and your own breath are the top four sources of energy. By learning the correct ways to tap these sources of energy, you get the ability to handle any stressful situations that you come across in life.
Every emotion has a specific breathing pattern. Consider some examples: When you are happy like when smelling a rose, your inhalation is naturally slow, steady, and strong, and the exhalation passive or shorter. When you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, say when facing a challenge, your exhalation is stronger.
While the breath acts as a barometer for how you’re feeling, it’s also a tool. The way you breathe also influences the way you feel. You may not be able to see and control what is happening in your mind, but your breath is tangible and easily accessible. By learning to control your breath you can manage your mind and emotions.
Whenever you are under pressure, breathing exercises like deep breathing can help you shift gears[8], and change your emotional state.
Healthy ways to manage stress[3]
Watching endless hours of TV
Withdrawing from friends or partners or, conversely jumping into a frenzied social life to avoid facing problems
Overeating or weight gain
Undereating or weight loss
Sleeping too much
Drinking too much alcohol
Lashing out at others in emotionally or physically violent outbursts
Taking up smoking or smoking more than usual
Taking prescription or over-the-counter drugs that promise some form of relief, such as sleeping pills, muscle relaxants, or anti-anxiety pills
Taking illegal or unsafe drugs
Unhealthy ways to manage stress[4]
Common effects of stress[2]
On your body
Headache
Muscle tension or pain
Chest pain
Increased heart rate
High blood pressure
Fatigue
Change in sex drive
Stomach upset
On your mood
Anxiety
Restlessness
Lack of motivation or focus
Feeling overwhelmed
Irritability or anger
Sadness or depression
On your behavior
Overeating or undereating
Angry outbursts
Drug or alcohol misuse
Tobacco use
Social withdrawal
Exercising less often
