One of the most important things that you can do for yourself as a favor if you want to live a long and healthy life is to try and steer clear of all forms of stress. There are things that people do so as to try and reduce the amount of stress that they have. They may meditate or take yoga sessions in the mornings or evenings or just get some massage therapy.

One thing however that is right in front of them that they can use to relieve their stress however is not being seen by a majority of these people.

Due to the fact that breathing is something that occurs naturally and completely involuntarily, a lot of people disregard it as a stress busting technique. Little do people know that one of the simplest ways to get into a state of relaxation is breathing. It works for everybody anytime and the only requirement is a working pair of lungs.

To be able to use breathing to get rid of your stress, you will have to get accustomed to breathing exercises. These require that you maintain a moderately slow rhythm of breathing that mainly uses the diaphragm. It sounds very easy to do but in reality it actually requires a lot of practice before one can be doing it subconsciously. Starting with a routine practice of once a day is a good way to get a hang of it.

To know that you are doing it properly, you will have to put one of your hands on your chest and the other one just a bit above your belly button. Take a deep breath slowly counting to seven in your mind before exhaling slowly. The whole point of the hands is to tell if you are doing it the right way. The hand on the chest should not rise further out than the one on your abdomen.

When it comes to exhaling, it has to be very slowly through the mouth while you are contracting your abs at the same time. This is to make sure that all the air is expelled from your lungs. Then count this time while exhaling will have to be one second longer than the seven for inhaling so that you can push out all the spent air.

Do this cycle for a minimum of five times. Having some words to focus on while you do the exercise can be a big help. Have a positive word like peace for when you inhale and think of a negative word like stress when you exhale. - 39969