3 Tips for When Breathing Feels Stressful

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi

We intuitively know our breath is connected to our emotional state. What’s the first thing people say when someone is upset? “Take a deep breath!”

When we practice breathing exercises in yoga it’s called pranayama, which is different than normal breathing because we’re attempting to change the rhythm and pace of our breath.

When we’re living with the impacts of chronic and/or traumatic stress, it’s pretty likely our breath pattern will be affected. It might feel hard to breathe, and we might breathe quickly or shallowly. Perhaps we sigh a lot and can’t find a rhythm with our inhales and exhales.

While these ways of breathing might not be optimal in the long-term, they’re natural responses to the stressors we’re experiencing.

A few things to consider:

• If we’ve been living with chronic and/or traumatic stress, going “inside” and noticing our breath may feel overwhelming, unavailable, or stressful

• Focusing on our breath may bring up uncomfortable memories or thoughts we don’t feel equipped to deal with

• If working with our breath feels challenging, it can feel easy to feel like we’re failing at breathing, especially if the breathing exercises are intended to be relaxing and calming (but feel anything but!)

 In other words, sometimes focusing on the breath creates more stress, not less.

If breathing feels stressful for you but you want to work with your breath, here are three tips:

1.      Do your own thing.

If you’re in a yoga class and there’s an emphasis on breathing a certain way or on coordinating your movement with your breath, it’s OK to ignore these cues if they don’t feel helpful. Really. If focusing on your breath is increasing anxiety, stress, or tension, experiment with letting your breath do what it wants. You’ll still get the benefits of the pose.

2.    Focus on your body first.

Get moving! Choose movements that focus on the rib cage, shoulders and spine. A few ideas: twists, shoulder stretches, backbends and restorative yoga poses that create space in the back and side ribs. When our ribs move well, our breath will often feel better.

3.    Observe your breath with kind attention.

If you want to focus on your breath, a great place to start is to notice your breathing as you go about your day. Where does your breath land in your body? Your chest? Belly? Throat? Somewhere else? Can you observe your breath with kind attention, without judgment and without changing it? This is itself is a lifelong practice. And, we must develop a baseline of being more aware of our breath before we start to change it.

Breathing exercises shouldn’t feel stressful, make you fatigued, or increase tension or agitation. If they do, ease up, call it a day, or try something different. It can take a lot of time and practice to begin to make friends with our breath. There’s no rush.

If you’d like to breathe better but don’t know where to start, 1-1 sessions can help you. 1-1 sessions offer gentle support to help you feel more at ease and confident in your body and breath. Learn more here.

I hope this was helpful!