3 Effective Ways To Catch Your Breath Before Life Gets Any Harder
Africa images | Canva You don’t always need a pill to calm down and chill. Agitated nerves crave a soothing touch, a few moments of serenity, and some feel-good mind-body tricks. The best part is that calming yourself down doesn't require fancy equipment or hours of free time. These three simple techniques work fast and actually feel good while you're doing them, which means you'll actually want to use them when stress hits.
Here are three effective ways to catch your breath before life gets any harder:
1. Meditate on a flower, a snowflake, or even a blade of grass
Even in winter, get outdoors and sit comfortably. Then gaze softly at a small element of nature, noticing every little detail ... the sepals of the blossom, the drop of dew quivering on the tip of the grass. Within a few minutes, you will feel yourself relaxing.
Research shows that focused attention meditation produces significant stress reduction by keeping your attention on a single target. Just a few minutes of this practice can help calm anxious feelings and improve your ability to focus.
The beauty of using nature as your meditation anchor is that it engages your senses without demanding anything from you. A flower doesn't require performance or productivity. It just exists, and in observing it closely, you permit yourself to simply exist too.
The practice works partly because nature offers what researchers call "soft fascination." Unlike your phone or computer screen, which demands constant mental engagement, natural elements gently capture your attention.
2. Press the webbing of your hand
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The webbing is the fleshy area between your thumb and forefinger. Press both sides of one hand with your other thumb, slowly making small circles. Acupressure experts say it brings relief from headaches in less than a minute. I just find that it eases my nerves.
A 2021 study on servicemen and women with anxiety found the LI4 point in the webbing between the thumb and forefinger effectively reduces anxiety and stress. This simple technique requires no specialist training and works as an accessible way to calm your nerves anywhere.
What makes this technique particularly valuable is its discreteness. You can practice it during a tense meeting, while waiting in line, or sitting in traffic without anyone noticing. Traditional Chinese Medicine considers this point a gateway for releasing tension that accumulates throughout the body.
3. Imagine putting away your tensions in a box
The mind can be a powerful ally in your efforts to quell stress. If you have had a hard day, imagine that you have put all the day’s stress-causing factors into a bag and set the bag outside your bedroom.
Or, get outdoors and slowly exhale, imagining that you are blowing out your tensions with each exiting breath. These visualization techniques may seem too simple to work, but they do. To experience the truth of this for yourself, try this, even if just for a few minutes.
Research found that mental imagery activates many of the same neural pathways as actual experiences. You might feel a little silly the first time you try this. That's completely normal. Your brain doesn't really distinguish between vividly imagined scenarios and real ones, especially when you engage multiple senses.
Shubhra Krishan is a former contributor to Care2 and an editor for Travel Secrets magazine.
