4 breathwork techniques for quick stress & anxiety management

Breathwork is a process of conscious, deep, rhytmic breathing. There’s a variety of different breathing techniques for different purposes, which all work as tools for improved emotional, physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. Breathwork is based on the notion that the body is a self healing machine if we give it the right environment to re-gain balance and thrive. Through breathwork we can access this state of self-healing. Intuitively this makes sense - we literally have to breathe to live - so naturally by moving from shallow to deep, conscious breathing, we allow for the body to enter a state of recovery and healing.

I find breathwork particularly useful for stress relief and management as it moves us out of the stress response (fight or flight, sympathetic nervous system) into rest and digest (parasympathetic nervous system), AND anyone has access to it anytime, anywhere. One breathwork session can also be anywhere from a few minutes to hours, meaning that they can be fully tailored to different situations from a quick grounding moment to a full journey.

Below you’ll see four breathwork techniques that can be used to pull the brakes on stress and anxiety in the middle of a busy day, whenever you want to calm down or to increase energy levels. All of these can be done whilst you’re sitting on your desk, in a meeting room or in the worst case on the toilet, so they’re perfect for a quick little grounding moment or pick-me-up. There’s no rule for how long the breathing exercises should last. Generally I’d recommend going until you feel an improvement in your state, which could require anything from a few breaths to a few minutes.

1. 5-5 breathing

Five counts inhale through the nose deep into the belly, five counts exhale through the mouth.

2. Box breathing

Four counts inhale through the nose, hold for four counts, four counts exhale through the mouth.

3. 4-7-8 breathing

Four counts inhale through the nose, hold for seven counts, eight counts exhale through the mouth.

4. Alternate nostril breathing

Close right nostril with your thumb and breathe in deeply through the left nostril. Close left nostril with ring finger and exhale through the right nostril. Repeat for as many rounds as needed.

I also organise longer in-person breathwork journeys in Helsinki & you can find more information on these on the events page <3