Contrary to popular belief, it is not heavy workloads, multi-tasking, time constraints et al that is causing stress at work. When you feel pressure from any source, stress builds up in the muscles of the body. A major muscle group surrounding the chest contract, forcing your to breathe shorter, sharper and shallower.

Consistent shallow breathing has been found to cause fatigue, poor work performance, emotional tension, reduced memory and concentration, and even illness.

Rapid and shallow breathing further increases neck and shoulder tension, raising the risk of hyperventilation.

Research has found that cells starved of up to 60% oxygen requirements, become cancerous. Further studies covering thousands of participants over a 30-year period demonstrated the most significant factor in peak health and long life is how well you breathe.

Proper breathing habits are essential to good health, stress relief and energy management. These three elements are tightly linked. The key to stress relief is creating internal calm. And deep breathing is the most effective method of creating this state.

Your breathing habits control how you deal with people, communications, workload and task management. Your habits control your body physically, mentally and emotionally.

Eastern cultures have long recognised, breath as the 'essence of life' and healing, and have effective wellness treatments 'Qi' [chi], 'prana', or 'life force'.

And it's not just Yoga gurus who have trained themselves to control their breathing rate to the point where they are able to slow their heart rate down, reduce their blood pressure, change their body temperature, and control pain. My own father who was initially extremely sceptical of alternative medicine used these techniques extremely effectively in dealing with his cancer. He also found reducing ones heart rate, sufficiently to set of monitor alarms, an extremely effective technique to getting attention for nursing staff when their response to his call was unanswered!

Prenatal classes also teach pregnant women the art of controlled breathing to control pain during childbirth – I can attest that it works…..and extremely well if you have the mental toughness to focus on and trust the method.

Increasing Your Energy Levels With Breathing

The rate, depth and quality of your breathing can increase your energy levels.

Depth - Allow your abdomen to move out as you breathe in, and in as you breathe out. This helps your diaphragm [the horizontal muscle between your chest cavity and abdominal cavity] to expand your breathing area deeply into the abdominal area, instead of being constrained to shallow breathing in your chest.

Sitting for long periods at a computer often tenses the abdomen muscles, reducing the depth of each breath.

Position – watch that stooped, hunched posture. This also tenses the stomach and chest muscles. Maintain an upright posture to keep the muscle free to move, and relaxed. Try it now - deliberately sit up straight and notice the difference your body position can make to your breathing pattern.

Frequency - longer rhythmic breaths both calm your body and help to focus your mind.
Breathe in for 4-5 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, then breathe out for 4-5 seconds.
Practice will eventually lead to unconscious habit.

If you want help in achieving this, there is a great little deep breathing assistant computer desktop tool called "Smooth" It displays a small icon that expands and contracts at a relaxed breathing rate. Try it free