Tips for doing breathing and relaxation exercises

There are many breathing and relaxation exercises you can do to relieve stress and anxiety, and relax your body and mind.

Over time, these exercises may become something you do automatically if you’re tense or stressed. This can help you become more relaxed.

You’ll get the most benefit if you do breathing exercises regularly as part of your daily routine.

Where to practice

Breathing exercises only take a few minutes. You can do them anywhere, including:

• standing up
• sitting in a chair that supports your back
• lying on a bed
• lying on a yoga mat on the floor

Tips for getting started

Before you begin practicing a breathing exercise, it might help to:

1. Find a place where you won’t be disturbed.
2. Make yourself as comfortable as possible.
3. Loosen any clothes that restrict your breathing and take off your shoes, if you like.
4. If you’re lying down, place your arms a little bit away from your body with your palms up. Straighten you legs or bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor.
5. If you’re sitting, place your arms on the chair arms and put both feet flat on the ground.
6. Put your feet roughly hip-width apart.

When you first start practicing these exercises, try to do them when you’re feeling calm. This means you’ll be able to focus on and learn the techniques. If you’re already angry or upset, try using the controlled breathing exercise first.

Don’t worry if you can’t relax immediately. Thoughts might pop into your mind but don’t focus on them. Just let them pass through.

You could make a note of how relaxed you were before and after the exercises to see if it’s helped.

How often should you practice?

It can take time and practice to feel the benefit of doing these exercises, so it’s important to do them regularly.

You should try to set aside 30 minutes, 2 or 3 times each day to practice breathing and relaxation exercises. The more you practice, the better you’ll get and the more effective they’ll be.

The differences can feel very small at first, but as time goes on you’ll notice an improvement in your mood and ability to stay calm in stressful situations.

What to do after a breathing exercise

Don’t rush to get up after relaxation exercises. Sit or lie with your eyes closed for a few minutes to avoid feeling dizzy.

Open your eyes and make sure you feel all right before standing up.

Cued relaxation

Once you can do relaxation exercises, you can use them whenever, and wherever, you need to throughout the day.

To do this you can use a ‘cue’. This is something that’ll catch your eye and remind you to:

• drop your shoulders
• check your breathing
• relax the muscles in your body

An example of a ‘cue’ could be a small coloured dot on your watch, or a room in your home. This will act as your reminder.

Breathing and relaxation playlist

The Steps for Stress breathing and relaxation playlist is an audio guide. It aims to help you control stress and understand where it comes from.

The first 2 tracks will help you understand more about how and why breathing exercises work.

You can download this playlist to listen to it anywhere.

The audio is also available in BSL.

Steps to deal with stress leaflet

The steps to deal with stress leaflet has advice on relaxation and relieving stress.

Download the steps to deal with stress leaflet