Box breathing to reduce stress

Speaker: Michelle Flynn

Michelle Flynn: Hello, my name's Michelle Flynn Hello, my name's Michelle Flynn I'm a certified health coach, a CBT practitioner and a trauma informed coach. a CBT practitioner and a trauma informed coach. But prior to all of that, I actually worked in the recruitment industry myself for over 20 years. And as it is Mental Health Awareness Week, I wanted to share with you probably the most important thing that I teach any of the people that I'm supporting and that's how to breathe properly. Now, you might be a bit confused because you're thinking we all breathe and yes, we do. But so many people are breathing through their mouths rather than their noses. They're breathing fast and they're breathing shallow into the top of their lungs. And that is activating the stressed part of the nervous system. You may have heard of it, the fight or flight. And when we are in that state, our adrenaline and our cortisol goes up, we're preparing for battle, our heart rate goes up, our blood pressure goes up and the part of our brain where all of our logic and rational sits, switches off and by actually focusing on our breathing, it calms our nervous system, it tells our body we are safe and our body can go back to balance and we can operate at our optimal- whatever that might be. So this breathing pattern, you can do any point in the day when you are stressed or anxious, you can do it just before you go into that difficult conversation or just after you find out that that candidate is not accepting the job, you can do it when you're trying to get to sleep or if you wake up in the middle of the night and you're struggling to get back to sleep. It's called tactical breathing. It's done by the military. The idea is they do it before they go into battle to help them calm themselves down to think clearly. It's also known as box breathing. So we've got some post it notes or you can use a beer mat, but I want you to breathe if possible through your nose, really concentrate on that. All you need to do is follow my voice. You don't need to remember any of this, but we're gonna breathe in for a count of four. We're gonna hold in for a count of four. We're gonna breathe out through the nose for a count of four and we're gonna hold out for four. I'm gonna breathe round the box with you three times and I just want you to feel for yourself how that little bit of calm kicks in and imagine if you did it for a little bit longer, how much better you would be feeling. But I want you to give you that little taste of that tool that you can use at any point in the day you're struggling. So sit yourself down, relax your shoulders, close your eyes. (no one's looking at you!) Start to concentrate on your breathing in and out of the nose. You might notice the air on the tip of your nose. You might notice the temperature change just inhale and exhale. Now we're gonna start breathing round the box. So breathe in for 4, 3, 2, 1, Hold 4, 3, 2, 1, Breathe out 4, 3, 2, 1, Hold 4, 3, 2, 1, in 4, 3, 2, 1, Hold 4, 3, 2, 1, Out 4, 3, 2, 1, Hold 4, 3, 2, 1, In 4, 3, 2, 1, Hold 4, 3, 2, 1, Out 4, 3, 2, 1, Hold 4, 3, 2, 1, Just do one more round of the box your own count and now just go back to that normal inhale, exhale normal inhale, exhale Hopefully you notice yourself just feeling that little bit calmer. You could do that for a little bit longer or if you haven't got enough time to go round the box, just breathe in and breathe out. If you optimize your breathing, I promise you everything becomes easier. You will cope with stress more easily. You will reduce feelings of anxiety, you will think more clearly, your memory will be better. You will sleep better and you will even perform better in the gym. So give it a try. Think of that 4, 4, 4, 4 breathing. If you have any questions at all, please give me a shout. It's Michelle Flynn. You'll find me on linkedin. But the more that you focus on your breathing - and you can do it anywhere and it doesn't cost you anything- the more you're gonna optimize your performance. So give it a go. Let's all breathe better together. Take care.