How to Release Stress with Breathing Exercises

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Take a moment for yourself.

(Be it in your bathroom, bedroom, car etc.)

Removed from company, and here for a moment to breathe… settle into a seat, or simply pace your space, if your battery feels a little over-charged.

Start by naming the emotion & any layers of feeling underneath.

Admit and accept from yourself, that this emotion is present.

Remembering that emotions are fluid and ever changing. They’re also often quite layered!

Define the trigger or boundary crossed.

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Was it:

• This person’s actions
• this circumstance
• this personal boundary

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Take a moment to lay it all out for yourself.

As if you’ve just called your best friend, and you have one minute to explain it to them.

Be detailed. Unearth any surrounding emotions or concerns.

I will rejoin you in a couple breaths time, to allow you a moment of reflection.

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Back together now, exhale all the air from your lungs.

Empty as you can get them.

Inhale fully and deeply through the nose.

Exhale out the mouth as if you were fogging up a mirror.

Focus on the feeling of constriction in the throat and exhale as loudly as you can.

If you can, try this super advanced Yogi trick – and stick out the tongue on the exhale.

It’s called Lion’s Breath. 🦁 A simple breathing technique wherein the exhale is done with an open mouth, tongue extended, and making a “ha” sound (with that feeling of fogging up a mirror in the back of the throat).

This breathing trick is said to calm stress and anger, relax the mind and also seems to have an effect that makes one smile.

Something a little funny about sticking out our tongue like this, but the effect is strangely stress relieving.

Try this 3 times, consciously slowing and deepening the breath.

Shake out the hands, give the wrists a little twist. Shrug the shoulders up to the ears. Let it go. Melt the shoulder blades down and in to the spine. Take a breath in as you look up and a breath out as you tuck chin to chest.

Move on and remember that emotions are not permanent. They also move (putting the motion in emotion since day one 😉), they change and they flow.

Thank you for taking this moment with me, wishing you a better day.

With Love,

Esta