You just need to breathe to relax

Once I was allowed to visit a breathing expert, who connected me to a tangle of wires to see if I was a bit good at breathing. What could go wrong, you might think. Well, a whole lot. It seems we have unlearned how to breathe properly.

Stress causes a shallow breathing and we feel increasingly stressed. By not breathing properly in stressful situations, the stress worsens again and voilà: you become a victim of your own poor breathing.

What can go wrong with breathing? A lot. You might be breathing shallowly, your breathing might be too fast and high, or you might be breathing through your mouth, for example. And while a calm inhalation into your belly and longer exhalation is essential for health. The first signal is usually that you are tired or have trouble with your airways, but in the worst case, it can even disrupt your nervous system.

Good breathing lowers your heart rate within a minute, which helps your body to relax and reduces physical expressions of stress. When people are tense, they usually shrug their shoulders. This creates too little space in the chest to breathe properly, causing you to breathe higher.

Sometimes I take a very deep breath because I feel like I need more oxygen. This is also a signal of poor breathing. By the way, it can all be learned, which is literally and figuratively a relief. By doing breathing exercises, you train your muscles to do their job correctly. Exhaling is just as important as inhaling. When inhaling, your navel should go out, and exhaling should take a little longer than inhaling. It's that simple.

Tip: download The Breathing App. This is an app without frills, which is all about breathing. You can easily set the time and your breathing and then simply inhale on the high tone and exhale on the low tone.

Another tip: this feature in WhatsApp also leads to less stress.