Changing how you breathe can profoundly impact how you feel. Visual breathing exercises are a good way to relax and reduce stress. Such exercises require you to literally visualize your breathing or focus on an object or scene in a way that helps improve your breathing and ultimately allows you to achieve a more relaxed state.
Stomach Breathing
Stomach breathing is one type of visual breathing exercise that reduces stress. The technique aims to improve your breathing by using the stomach muscles rather than the chest to draw in breath. This helps create deeper breathing, which in turn improves oxygenation to the body and overall relaxation.
One way to practice stomach breathing is to stand in front of a mirror and expand your stomach outward with each inhalation, visualizing your stomach muscles expanding. It is also helpful to place a hand on your abdomen to feel your stomach expand with each breath taken in. A stomach breathing routine should encompass inhaling for five seconds, holding your breath for another five seconds, exhaling for five seconds, then holding for two seconds.
Object Focus
Another type of visual breathing exercise requires focusing on a specific object slightly above head level. Once you've identified an object, you can begin stomach breathing while gradually expanding your field of vision to notice objects in your peripheral vision. As you become aware of your surroundings out of the corners of your eyes, your breathing will grow slower and deeper. This technique is especially effective when you allow your mind to simply be aware of your surroundings, as opposed to being actively engaged in thinking.
Visual Imagery
Closing your eyes and visualizing a scene in your mind in combination with either of the two previous breathing exercises is in itself an effective visual breathing technique. Such imagery consists of picturing a favorite scene from nature, for instance, and visualizing every aspect of that scene while employing the breathing exercise. A quiet place is usually best for this type of exercise to prevent distraction. If a quiet place is not accessible, you can still perform the exercise by closing your eyes and trying to block out your active surroundings while breathing and visualizing the scene. Ten to 20 minutes of visual imagery can produce a significant release of tension.
