3 Anti-Stress Breathing Techniques Everyone In Your Family Can Use

Learning how to breathe fully is a great self-healing technique — not just by releasing toxins, but also regulating your emotions. It can calm you almost instantly, helping you to think clearly in times of stress if applied properly.

That's why deep breathing is a growing trend among parents (it's hard to find anyone more stressed out on a regular basis), and more are teaching it to their children to help them cope with high-stress situations like studying for exams.

There's more. Researchers have discovered that regular deep breathing exercises can activate the genes associated with moderating the body’s energy and insulin levels while decreasing those associated with inflammation and stress. 

So how do we get started? Here are three breathing techniques you can memorise and teach your kids to use at a moment's notice.

Box breathing

Consciously breathing slowly and deeply keeps us calm. US Navy Seals are taught a technique called box breathing specifically to reduce stress and panic. It's pretty easy to do, so even your kids can learn  - this technique can be very useful before a big exam!

Breathing properly helps us to destress by soothing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, the two subsystems of the autonomic nervous system in the body.

When the sympathetic nervous system is activated, the body goes into “fight, flight, or freeze” mode, preparing itself to “fight” for survival by releasing cortisol, a stress hormone. Deep breathing causes the body to enter the parasympathetic or “rest and digest” mode, which helps calm it down.

The name box breathing comes from the fact that you divide your breathing into four steps as if you are moving along four edges of a box. It's easy to remember, which is why we recommend starting with this one for the kids.

The Technique

• Set a timer for five minutes.
• Sit with a straight spine on the floor or in a chair with your feet flat on the floor.
• Close your eyes and inhale for a count of four.
• Hold your breath for a count of four.
• Exhale for a count of four.
• Hold for a count of four.
• Repeat until the alarm sounds.

Tactical breathing

If you feel exhausted and burnt out by long hours and stressful conditions at work, you're not alone.  A new study reveals Singapore is the most overworked country in the world, with a shocking seven in 10 employees saying they are unhappy at work — beating China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The study compared average working hours, annual leave, and workplace happiness to determine which APAC countries have the strongest culture of overworking. Singapore comes out on top — something that we shouldn't be proud of, unfortunately. In addition, Google searches for "overworking" in Singapore have increased by 74 per cent since before the pandemic, and searches for  “burnout symptoms” are up 53 per cent.

But if quitting your job is not possible right now, you need an alternative way to find more energy — and what’s called tactical breathing can help. This technique uses a longer exhale time than box breathing, which forces your mind and heart rate to slow down.

The Technique 

• Place one hand on your stomach and exhale heavily.
• Slowly draw your breath upward from your tummy to your upper chest by inhaling through your nostrils.
• Exhale slowly, beginning at your chest and working your way down to the air in your tummy.
• Imagine your tummy button is in contact with your spine, moving in and out as you breathe. This helps you take deeper breaths.
• Once you're comfortable with a full, deep breath, do it again, but this time exhale twice as long as you inhale.
• Breathe to the count of four, pause briefly, and exhale to the count of eight.
• Repeat at least three times.

Alternate nostril breathing

Alternate nostril breathing is a good way to quieten your mind, distract you from your frantic thoughts and reduce stress. Alternate nostril breathing is a yogic breath control practice. In Sanskrit and yoga, it’s known as nadi shodhana pranayama. This translates as “subtle energy clearing breathing technique.”

This type of breathwork can be done as part of a yoga or meditation practice. But you do not have to do yoga - alternate nostril breathing can also be done on its own, when you want to quiet your mind. One of the main benefits of alternate nostril breathing is that it may lower stress. A 2018 study found that men who practised alternate nostril breathing for 30 minutes daily had lower stress levels after three months of regular practice.

Another 2020 study assessed the cardiovascular benefits of alternate nostril breathing in 100 healthy medical students. After four weeks of practice, the participants showed improvement in pulse and blood pressure biomarkers Together, these studies suggest that alternate nostril breathing could potentially help reduce some risk factors associated with heart health. 

The Technique

• Sit in a comfortable position. Place your left hand on your left knee.
• Lift right hand up toward nose.
• Exhale completely and then use your right thumb to close the right nostril - do it gently. You’re just touching, not mashing your nose shut.
• Inhale through the left nostril and then close the left nostril with your fingers.
• Open the right nostril and exhale through this side.
• Inhale through the right nostril and then close this nostril.
• Open the left nostril and exhale through the left side.
• This is one cycle.
• Repeat for up to 5 minutes.
• Yoga practitioners aim to finish with an exhale on the left side.

Bauer Syndication/ ARE Media. Additional reporting by Tara Barker and Melody Bay. Last updated by The Singapore Women's Weekly on 4 October 2023.