How to Use Your Breath to Control Stress

You have the most powerful anti-stress device already at your disposal, here is why it's beneficial.

Lost in the endless Google results of "how to lose weight", is a concept of health that remains one of the most crucial to longevity, resilience.

We've lost this natural state in our most basic human functions.

We have gone almost all of human history needing to be active and strong just to survive. Then, almost in an instant, we went from scarcity to abundance. Food, comfort, and medicine. All so readily available to us that we have lost our ability to be challenged by anything, and it shows.

Keep in mind, all of the things I listed above are fantastic. Our ability as humans to make them accessible to the larger population is part of the reason we have been able to thrive in the last several hundred years. However, our bodies perform best when they are challenged. This new normal has taken that away from most of us.

As an example, humans are designed to be endurance machines. We used to run for miles and hours on end hunting our food. We were successful because we could outlast the animals we hunted. Now we get tired if we have to stand for more than 30 minutes. At this point, you don’t even have to get out of your house and walk in the store to get groceries, you can have them delivered.

Because we’d rather be comfortable.

Not counting sleep, think about the last time you went longer than 6 hours without eating something. For some of you, this may have been DECADES. There are so many proteins and enzymes that our body produces in times of stress that make us healthier. Things that help fight off diseases. Things that go dormant in our bodies without the stressors needed to express them.

Because we’d rather be comfortable.

Think about the last time you were cold. Not, “I just walked 60 feet to my car this morning and I was freezing!” I mean there was no way out of it, you had to stay there, you were just cold. This isn’t a concept most of us even have to deal with anymore. We can just add a layer, or turn the thermostat up in the house. The same goes for heat. Too hot? Just turn up the AC.

Because we’d rather be comfortable.

Where has that gotten us, exactly?

It made us lazy. It made us obese. It made us sick. It made us depressed.

It made us WEAK; mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Our bodies NEED stress of all kinds. The stress I am referring to is not the chronic, low-grade stress most people deal with daily. Rather, periods of extreme stress put on our system, followed by a time of complete rest and recovery. High peaks and low valleys.

Instead we live somewhere in the middle, kind of stressed all the time.

This state is where many physiological problems arise and can lead to some dangerous things down the road. Numbing all of these things in our lives with pills, food, and more comfort does nothing but make ten other things way worse.

So we go to a gym and create fake “work” so we can have the strength and fitness that people just had from living their normal lives; not that long ago, mind you.

I come from farm country, and I know that even just 50 years ago, there were (and still are) people who are mentally and physically stronger than I will ever be. They’re outside in nature moving and lifting. They eat real food that they grow and hunt, and they continue to do so into their 80’s, and 90’s in some cases.

So, what is the type of stress that is good for us?

There are several, and the following examples are just a few of many possibilities to put your body into these “extremes.”

Take an ice cold shower, breathe, smile, and find the joy in the feeling. Go for “too long” of a run out in nature when its “too hot”. Go a day without eating and gain some perspective on actual hunger. Tired and under-caffeinated but need to get work done? Get it done anyway.

The important thing though, is to know how to control your mind and adapt to these conditions.

Learn to control your breath, and you control everything.

If you're stressed, sit there and actually FEEL it. Focus on your breathing until you are brought back to a relaxed state. You can utilize various breathing protocols to help down-regulate your body. My go-to protocol is Box Breathing, a simple and effective breathing pattern that you can do anytime you’re needing to bring yourself back to center.

How to Box Breathe:

Sit or lie down in a comfortable position.

4 second inhale

4 second hold on full lungs

4 second exhale

4 second hold on empty lungs

Repeat for 3-5 minutes, or longer if you want.

You can also extend those steps as far as you can keep the pattern consistent. You can make every step 8 seconds long if you have the lung capacity and control. It takes practice to get there, but it’s possible.

You already have the ability to control your emotions, and your response to physical and mental stressors, but you must practice.

Learn how to find discomfort, embrace it, and conquer it.

You’ll become more resilient to external forces, and by extension, much healthier.