Focus on Your Breath: Learning How to Relax

Exceptional, easy entry into an experience of the Relaxation Response is available when we pay attention to the breath -- the basic foundation of a large number of meditative practices.

Simply focusing on the flow of air into your nose, down into your chest, then following the exhalation of the breath -- has a restful and calming effect, which allows your body to move into the Relaxation Response.

The breath is an amazing and ever-present tool to lead you to deeper relaxation.

Pay attention to the experience, the physcial sensations, of your breath, noticing the flow of air as it moves in and out of your body.

What do you notice? Is your breath deep or shallow? Is it slow or rapid? Is it smooth or jerky? Is it quiet or noisy? Is it regular or irregular?

As you pay attention to these qualities of the breath, begin to allow the breath to gradually become deep, slow, quiet and regular.

Allow your belly to become soft, and let the breath drop all the way down into that softness.

Notice -- and hesitate for just a moment -- at the "still point" after you breathe out, before you begin to take in the next slow, gentle in-breath. This still point between the breaths, between the out-breath and the in-breath, is a place that can gradually deepen and lengthen as you allow yourself to "float" here.

Allow yourself to ride the waves of your own breathing, moment by moment, breath by breath. Feel how the breath breathes you.

You may want to try taking "mini-relaxation breaks" during your day, relaxing for a moment or two as you simply pay attention to your breath.

As you enter these "mini-relaxation breaks" through working with "soft-belly," diaphragmatic breathing you can feel your level of stress and anxiety begin to quickly diminish.

These are peaceful moments! Know that these moments of peace and calm are available to you at any time that you become mindful of your breath.

Conscious Breathing: Breathwork for Health, Stress Release, and Personal Mastery
by Gay Hendricks

"In your life-time you will breathe in and out more than a hundred million times . . . What if you made a tiny improvement in something you did that many times?" Hendricks offers guided breathing exercises, most done lying down and in combination with gentle movements which are designed to free the movement of the diaphragm, increase oxygenation and relax the body. Benefits can include stress reduction, pain management, improved health and spiritual growth.

The breath is unique in that it is a bodily activity that occurs automatically, whether one is thinking about it or not -- and yet is controllable through conscious will. We can choose to breathe deeply, we can hold our breath, we can breathe quickly or slowly.

This amazing quality underscores the effectiveness of breathing in activating the Relaxation Response. By consciously paying attention to the breath, we are intervening in the parasympathetic nervous system of the body, which has a direct effect on other automatic responses such as heart rate and blood pressure.

Thus the simple act of watching your breath as you breathe slowly and deeply starts to lower your heart rate and steady your blood pressure. As you continue to do this, your endocrine system commences to reduce the amount of stress hormones it is releasing. Gradually your bodily systems are slowed as the Relaxation Response spreads throughout your body.

Click here for more information about the Relaxation Response.

The Relaxation Response
by Herbert Benson

This groundbreaking book is based on studies at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Benson shows that relaxation techniques such as meditation provide immense physical benefits from lowered blood pressure to a reduction in heart disease. The book teaches a simple meditation technique to help the reader attain the relaxation response.

When we are balanced, that is to say in the state of being in "calm" or "relaxation," our bodies respond very differently than when we are imbalanced, that is to say in the state of being in "stress" or in the "flight, fright, or freeze" response. The chart below helps you to see how these states of being affect various aspects of your body.

Notice the last entry in the chart: breathing rate!

Beyond the Relaxation Response: How to Harness the Healing Power of Your Personal Beliefs
by Herbert Benson

In this sequel to The Relaxation Response Benson concludes that combining meditation with faith in a healing power, either inside or outside the self, is even more powerful in combating stress. This highly rated book clearly conveys the power of mental strategies in influencing health and the healing process.

Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing (Audio CD)
by Andrew Weil, M.D.

In this two CD guide, Dr. Weil teaches eight fundamental breathing exercises. He considers proper breathing the single most important practice for healthy living. In plain language, Dr. Weil explains the secret of breathwork's power over our health and its remarkable ability to influence and even reprogram the nervous system.

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook
by Martha Davis, et.al.

This fifth edition self-help classic offers many self-assessment tools and calming techniques to help overcome anxiety and promote physical and emotional wellbeing. It presents a comprehensive look at stress, its physical manifestations and the multiple ways it can be managed. Chapters on breathing, relaxation, meditation, thought stopping, stress management, time management, assertiveness training, and body awareness offer the reader focused approaches to dealing with the many varieties of stress.

Stillness Speaks
by Eckhart Tolle

Tolle emphasizes the art of inner stillness, the place where thoughts, ego and attachments fall away and we're left only with what the moment has to offer. He writes, "When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world."