Breathing and relaxation

When you feel stressed, scared, worried or nervous, many changes can happen in your body. For most people these include faster breathing and heart rate, tight muscles, butterflies in the stomach, and increased sweating.

Most of us experience situations and activities each day that cue our bodies stress response (for example, a test at school, an athletic competition, a fight with your brother or sister). However, for most of us, there are not nearly as many experiences that cue us to relax throughout the day. The effect on many people is that the part of the nervous system that is turned on by stress (called the sympathetic nervous system or SNS) ends up being turned on too much of the time. This excess SNS activity can then overpower the other side of the nervous system (called the parasympathetic nervous system or PNS), which is responsible for keeping the body in what is called homeostasis – our body's more stable, balanced resting pattern. With too much SNS activity all the time, our bodies can respond with problems such as headache, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, recurrent abdominal pain, and sleep disturbance. It can also increase feelings of pain, anxiety, and nausea.

Stress response (fight or flight)

• Breathing is fast and shallow
• Heart rate is fast
• Muscles are tense
• Hands are cold
• Digestion decreases
• Elimination increases
• Goosebumps on skin
• Hard to think

Relaxation response (rest and digest)

• Breathing is slow and easy
• Heart is slow and regular
• Muscles are loose
• Hands are dry
• Hands are warm
• Normal digestion
• Elimination is normal
• Easy to imagine

Even though these changes seem to occur automatically, you can actually learn to control them in ways that are helpful. Learning how to control your breathing can improve your ability to relax and help control the body’s response to stress. Many kids and teenagers find that learning ways to control breathing can help to reduce symptoms like pain and nausea, as well as help them to fall asleep more easily, feel less scared, and get their body into the best balance for health and healing! Practice the tips on the following page for 5 to 10 minutes once or twice daily. Remember, the more you practice, the better you get!

Practice tips for breathing to relax

The purpose of breathing is to get oxygen into the body and carbon dioxide out of the body. The diaphragm, which is the major muscle for breathing, is located right underneath your lungs, between your chest and your abdomen. As you breathe in and your lungs fill with air, the diaphragm moves down and when you breathe out it moves back up. When your body is relaxed, you can notice that as the diaphragm moves with breathing, your stomach moves too. As you inhale, the lungs fill up with air and your stomach will move out. As you exhale, the lungs empty, the diaphragm moves up, and your stomach flattens out again. Many people notice that when they are stressed, scared, angry, or in pain, they breathe with lots of movement in their shoulders and chest and don’t have much movement in their stomach.

Here’s how to relax using diaphragmatic/belly breathing:

(you may want to try this while lying down)

To help yourself relax even more, you can try adding these:

1. As you breathe in say to yourself “ I am”; as you breathe out say, “ relaxed".
2. With each slow deep breath, let the feeling of relaxation spread down through every part of your body from your head to your toes. Imagine the breath filling every part of your body.
3. Try “square breathing”: inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4, repeat.
4. Notice your breathing in different situations at home and school and with friends. Are you breathing slow or fast? Is your stomach or chest moving more? How does it feel to take 5 to 10 belly breaths several times a day?

Questions?

This information is not specific to your child but provides general information. If you have any questions, please call your clinic or health care professional.

Reviewed 6/2016

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