We’ve all had those days, where stress creeps up on us and it can feel unbearable. You notice your breath getting shallower, your shoulders hunching up, and a general feeling of unease or even anxiety.
Stress is a part of our modern life, but we don’t have to live with too much of it day in and day out. There’s a one-minute breathing hack that can stop stress in its tracks!
Tip #15 – One-Minute Breathing Hack to Stop Stress.
Take a deep breath in and raise your arms over your head. As you exhale, float your arms out to your sides, taking up as much space as you can. Repeat this 3 times and feel your stress literally melt away!
When stress gets the best of us, our bodies tense up and we even crunch our bodies up to take up less space (this is where the shallow breathing and hunched shoulders come in!). But crunching our bodies inwards makes our stress feel even worse as we internalize it.
By expanding your chest and taking up space, along with deep breathing, this helps the stress pass through your body. Using the large arm movements physically helps to open the chest and create even more space for your lungs to fill with air.
So give this simple trick a try the next time you’re feeling stressed. As soon as you feel the familiar constricting feeling, stop stress in its tracks and focus on expanding your chest! It’s so easy yet so effective!! Try to live a stress-free life in 2017!
