What happens to you when you are in a stressful situation? I remember going into meetings with my doctor, coming out and not being able to remember what was said. Thank goodness my husband was there, my mind was completely blank.  Can you relate?

When we are in ‘flight or flight’ mode, this often happens.  All the blood flows from our heads and torso to our hands and our feet – responding to thousands of years of genetics which enabled us to run from wooly mammoths and sabre tooth tigers. When we consciously breathe from our belly we reverse this reaction by turning on our ‘rest and digest’ response.  Try this:

Simple stress relief breathing tip:

Next time you know you are going into a stressful situation see if you can calm things down before you get there (eg. in the cab on the way or in the waiting room). Close your eyes, take deep breaths from the belly, through the nose. Breathe in 10, and out 10, in 9 out 9 etc. and count slowly down from 10-1. You can do this at night too before you go to sleep if the mind is very active.