Dylan Werner's 4 Breathing Exercises to Immediately Reduce Stress
By Dylan Werner
It's vital to understand that the breath is a powerful tool that has the capabilities to improve almost every aspect of our lives. But it is still only a tool, and although it can help tremendously, it cannot fix the underlying issues that are the root of our problems. To find true relief from stress and anxiety, we must address what is causing our distress.
Understanding Stress and Anxiety
Life can be arduous. We are constantly challenged, tested, and pushed to our limits. Stress might come from work or financial difficulties, or contention with a friend, family member, or loved one. Sometimes the feeling is more than stress; it’s something that arises from within us, causing anguish and suffering that we can’t seem to shake. When we face stressful situations, we might take that stress upon ourselves, but generally, as the situation changes or dissipates, the feelings that accompany it also leave. But if the feeling is coming from inside, changing external circumstances will not liberate us from the darkness.
Stress is caused by external factors and, if left unchecked, can cause serious health problems, weaken the immune system, and lead to overeating, undereating, muscle pain, insomnia, depression, and anxiety. Stress also affects how we act, react, and treat people. When we’re under high levels of stress, we can be very emotional, irritable, angry, fearful, and insecure and react in ways that are not normal for us. If chronic stress is not rectified, then even when the external stress-causing factors are removed, the internal affliction can remain.
Anxiety is slightly different. Although it is often a result of stress, it comes from within. Anxiety can be caused by genetics, altered brain chemistry, or severe life-changing events. It can create all the physical and mental health problems that we get from stress and develop into more severe conditions such as panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, and social anxiety. If you already suffer from an anxiety disorder, then you are well aware of the foreboding feelings that accompany it.
Breath practices can immediately improve how we feel and diminish stress and anxiety. While breathing exercises might not provide an immediate cure to chronic anxiety disorders, they can definitely help, especially when accompanied by meditation and therapy.
Stress should subside when we leave behind the situation that is causing stress. However, we can physically leave but mentally and emotionally carry the stress with us. We see this when we bring our work problems home and allow work stress to affect our personal life. If our stress is generated from something like financial problems, relationship problems, or an event from the past, then we might not be able to leave or change our situation. Still, we can choose how we see the situation, how we let the situation affect us, and how we view ourselves as a part of that situation.
After I returned from fighting in the Iraq War at the end of 2003, I developed PTSD. I had nightmares and difficulty sleeping. I felt super anxious and was always on guard. I would have occasional panic attacks, which I hadn’t experienced since I was a child. The worst part was that I felt numb and disconnected from my friends and family. My more severe symptoms faded with time, and whatever was left, I pushed down and buried deep inside me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get rid of it; I just hid it. I ended up carrying my past trauma with me much longer than I realized, and it continued to affect me long after I thought it was gone.
When I developed a meditation and yoga practice, I was able to recognize the deep pain that I had been carrying, not just from my experience in the war but also from my childhood and everything else. My practice helped me to see the truth: that I was not my past, and my present life was beautiful. I was able to find gratitude for my past, how it led me here, and how those situations formed who I am. I had a new story, and I was a different person. My past life could not control who my future self would be.
If we make dough and bake it into bread, the bread will never be dough again; it is something completely different. Bread doesn’t go around thinking that it’s dough just because it used to be dough, and we don’t need to live in the past just because we came from our past. Our breath is a constant reminder to be present and a powerful tool to let go of anything that is causing stress or anxiety.
Note: The breath is fantastic for releasing feelings of stress and anxiety, but if your symptoms are chronic and debilitating, then I encourage you to seek professional help. Anxiety-related disorders are highly treatable, yet few people who suffer from them seek professional help.
4 Breathing Exercises to Reduce Your Stress
1. Sama Vritti – Equal Ratio Breathing
Sama Vritti is a breathing pattern in which the inhalation and exhalation are equal in duration as well as intensity. We use a ratio of 1:1 to match the length of the inhalation and exhalation. For example, if the inhalation is four seconds, the exhalation is also four seconds. We can add Ujjayi pranayama to help slow and regulate the breath count, which is helpful especially when we lengthen the inhalation and exhalation.
Sama in Sanskrit means “equal,” and vritti refers to fluctuations or modifications. Naturally, the exhalation is slightly longer than the inhalation, which gives the breath its natural variations. The mind can be turbulent like an ocean; the ancient yogis believed that if we smoothed the fluctuations of the breath, then the thoughts would follow in equanimity and settle the waves of the mind. Creating equality in the breath is a powerful way to regulate energy, either bringing excessive energy down or raising low energy levels to facilitate a balanced, more sattvic state. This balancing of energy works on our emotions to help calm and regulate mood swings or episodes of manic depression.
Sama Vritti balances physical energy to ease agitation and restlessness or lift us out of lethargy, sluggishness, and fatigue, and it creates a sense of equanimity that moves us into a sattvic state. Sattva is the guna that expresses harmony and balance in the body, mind, and spirit. From a Western standpoint, we see sattva as the body’s condition of homeostasis, where all the systems are in equilibrium. Having high heart rate variability (HRV) shows a healthy and balanced autonomic nervous system, good cardiovascular health, and a high ability to handle stress. High HRV is also an indication of our ability to switch gears quickly, either into more energetic activity or to slow down, rest, and recover. Low HRV is usually associated with chronic stress and poor health. Sama Vritti has been shown to increase HRV. It’s amazing that even a slight variation of our breathing can create noticeable physiological changes. A breath ratio of 5:5 has shown greater improvement in HRV as compared to a ratio of 4:6.1
My favorite way to use Sama Vritti is to ramp it up or down, although this is not a traditional yogic application of the practice. By ramping up or down the breathing, ratios allow us to slowly titrate the effects of the breath practice and use it to gently increase or decrease energy.
To practice Sama Vritti, come into a good posture that supports your breathing and is easy to maintain. Think of something you are grateful for and hold that gratitude in your heart as you breathe. Gratitude is one of the most powerful practices for overcoming stress and anxiety. Breathe naturally for a few rounds. You can start with a breath ratio of 5:5 and increase by 1:1 every round until you reach 10:10, and then go back down by 1:1, finishing where you started. With the same effort of your natural inhalation, inhale for five seconds, and then exhale for five seconds. You can add a soft ujjayi breath to help regulate the length of the breath. Inhale for six seconds, exhale for six seconds, inhale for seven seconds, and exhale for seven seconds. As the breath count gets longer, expand the depth and fullness of the breath, increasing the effort. Continue adding by 1:1 until you reach 10 seconds, and then work your way back down to a 5:5 ratio.
Practice Sama Vritti breath with Dylan in his Breath Sequence: Stress & Anxiety Relief class.
2. Breath of Fire with Inner Retention
Breath of Fire is a soft, rapid breath practice and a fundamental pranayama technique used in Kundalini yoga and is a foundational part of many different kundalini kriyas (exercises). The effort of breathing is balanced between the belly and solar plexus area. The breath is smooth and shallow, approximately two to three breaths per second. It should feel like you are moving the air from the upper respiratory system rather than deep in the lungs. The power of the breath comes more from the movement of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles and less from the stomach muscles. The belly should remain soft and relaxed during the practice. Each breath should move about the same amount of air or even a little less than normal breathing, roughly 500 milliliters. There is an audible breath through the nose during the respirations, which should sound smooth and even on the inhalation and exhalation. Because there is not a focus on the forceful contraction of the core, many people starting this practice do paradoxical breathing, where the belly draws in on the inhalation and out on the exhalation. With Breath of Fire, we want to maintain healthy breathing habits, allowing the ribs to rise on the inhalation without lifting the shoulders or collarbones and the belly to expand like we would if breathing normally. The stomach should pull in slightly as it follows the movement of the chest.
We can use Breath of Fire to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system without provoking the fight-or-flight response that we often feel when we are stressed. Breath of Fire is a rapid, smooth, shallow, almost effortless practice, which is different from the type of hyperventilation that often accompanies an anxiety attack, where the breath is rapid, deep, effortful, and uncontrollable.
For this exercise, do 15 quick Breath of Fire respirations, followed by a deep inhalation with a five-second hold and an open-mouth exhalation. Repeat this cycle five times. Keeping the rounds of Breath of Fire short and following them with breath retention limits the effects of hypocapnia that might be invoked by a sustained Breath of Fire practice or a pranayama technique such as Kapalabhati or Bhastrika, which requires more effort and expels more carbon dioxide.
The rapid breathing stimulates our rajas guna, giving us an energetic boost and loosening areas of tension. Since any fast breathing can feel similar to what we experience when we feel panic, this technique quickly interrupts the rapid breath with a deep inhalation and brief hold to establish a sense of control and give a feeling of relief. The breath-hold is followed by an open-mouth exhalation that allows us to release all the built-up stress and anxiety that we might be carrying. This technique strengthens the autonomic nervous system to be more resilient against a stress-induced response. By establishing control and alleviating built-up tension, we can transition the sympathetic nervous system from an unsafe response that triggers fight-or-flight to a safe response that supports interaction and connection.
3. The 4-7-8 Breath
The 4-7-8 Breath is commonly employed by therapists to help patients relax. The ratio of inhalation to exhalation is 1:2, which cultivates tamasic (calming) energy and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. The breath retention and slow respiratory rate of three breaths per minute slowly build up carbon dioxide levels, which slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and relaxes the mind and body. What makes this practice unique is the pursed-lip exhalation. Pursed-lip breathing is something that emphysema patients do to increase the pressure inside their lungs and keep the alveolar sacs from collapsing due to the lack of surfactant caused by the disease. By doing the same thing, we can expand into the deeper areas of the lungs and push more oxygen into the cells. Pursed-lip breathing also stimulates the vagus nerve, the largest component of the parasympathetic nervous system. Studies have shown that pursed-lip breathing encourages relaxation and, through stimulation of the autonomic nervous system, improves cardiorespiratory physiological functions.2
The 4-7-8 Breath is easy to do and can be done as a stand-alone practice anytime you feel stressed and need to relax. Start with a four-second inhalation through the nose, and then hold the breath for seven seconds, followed by an eight-second pursed-lip exhalation. When you exhale, make your mouth small like you are whistling or holding a straw in your lips. The exhalation should be strong enough that you feel the increased pressure in your chest but not so strong that it feels forced — like blowing on hot soup, not like blowing out birthday candles. Repeat this exercise for five cycles or until you feel relaxed.
Practice 4-7-8 Breath with Dylan in his Breath Sequence: Stress & Anxiety Relief class.
4. The 10:10:2 – 2:10:10 Breath
The 10:10:2 – 2:10:10 is a two-part-ratio breath practice that alternates between emphasizing the inhalation and the exhalation. This practice intends to create a balanced, harmonious sattvic state by varying the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. Stress and anxiety can push us toward feelings of agitation and restlessness or feelings of depression and weakness. It doesn’t matter whether we activate the sympathetic nervous system or the parasympathetic nervous system if it is coming from a place of unease. Both sides are creating a negative stress response, either fight-or-flight or freeze. Here, we use the breath to establish a sense of safety and care. Then, by strengthening both sides of the autonomic nervous system separately while creating balance, we can move out of both negative states into a place of tranquility.
The breath practice alternates between breath rates of 10:10:2 and 2:10:10. The first part of the sequence brings the focus to the inhalation and is more sympathetic. The second part brings attention to the exhalation and is more parasympathetic. We start with a 10-second inhalation, a 10-second inner retention, and a two-second full exhalation, followed by a two-second full inhalation, a 10-second inner retention, and a 10-second exhalation. After the first breath, the transition between the first exhalation and the second inhalation feels very quick. However, when we get to the third breath, we are following a long exhalation with another long inhalation. The long breaths give us a feeling of relaxation, and the short breaths give us a feeling of relief and ease, dissolving any pressure or worry.
Practice the 10:10:2 – 2:10:10 Breath with Dylan in his Breath Sequence: Stress & Anxiety Relief class.
Want to practice Breathwork with Dylan Werner? Check out The Breath Sequence classes on Alo Moves free with a 14-day trial. To dive deeper into breathwork, check out his book “The Illuminated Breath.”
I. M. Lin, L. Y. Tai, and S. Y. Fan, “Breathing at a Rate of 5.5 Breaths Per Minute with Equal Inhalation-to-Exhalation Ratio Increases Heart Rate Variability,” International Journal of Psychophysiology 91, no. 3 (2014): 206–11.
S. Sakhaei et al., “The impact of pursed-lips breathing maneuver on cardiac, respiratory, and oxygenation parameters in COPD patients,” Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences
6, no. 10 (2018): 1851–6, doi:10.3889/oamjms.2018.407.