Good work: Simply breathing deeply can reduce stress and anxiety

(AP Illustration/Annie Ng)

NEW YORK — Every staff meeting at Myosin Marketing begins with a simple, unusual ritual. Once everyone has gathered on Zoom, and before they get to the meat of the agenda, CEO Sean Clayton leads his team through a deep breathing exercise.

The practice sets the tone for the meeting and helps its employees, most of whom work remotely, feel safe, grounded and willing to take creative risks, he said.

“At first they thought it was very strange, like: ‘What are we doing?'” said Clayton. “There were a lot of cameras turned off and I’m sure a lot of people were saying, ‘This is awkward.'” But after a few weeks a change took place. Employees of the Austin, Texas-based company said, “This feels good,” he said.

Research shows that deep breathing can be an effective way to reduce stress at work. But while working, many people do not think about how they breathe in and out.

Office workers sitting at a computer tend to breathe shallowly as their shoulders roll up. Employees who are on their feet all day in retail or healthcare settings may be too busy to focus on their breathing.

But there’s good reason to remember to pause to take deep breaths. Chronic, unmanaged stress, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, can be as damaging to our health as secondhand smoke, according to the American Heart Association. Research suggests that deep breathing exercises can lower a person’s blood pressure and reduce anxiety.

Other benefits: deep breathing is free, can be done anywhere and you don’t have to meditate for half an hour. Just a minute or two of deep breathing can help calm racing thoughts, experts say.

“It relaxes my mind. It makes my mind so relaxed,’ Lisa Marie Deleveaux, a marketing professional and mother of five, said. “It brings you back to the present moment.”

Deleveaux was fired several months ago and is struggling to find a new job. She wakes up most mornings at 4 or 5 a.m., before the kids, to do breathing exercises. One is a technique known as alternate nostril breathing, a yoga exercise in which you inhale through one nostril and exhale through the other, using your thumb or index finger to keep one nostril closed at a time.

“If you set a priority for yourself, you can make time for it,” said Delevaux.

Focus on breathing for one to five minutes “can help you clean the slate and erase all these things from your mind… and allow you to refocus on that one thing you want to achieve,” said cardiologist Glenn Levine, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The best analogy is turning off your computer when you have 37 programs (open) and it freezes.”

A good way to practice deep breathing exercises is while sitting outside on a bench, Levine said. If that’s not an option, it also works at a desk.

“Turn off your screen or just put something blank on the screen so people think you’re still working,” Levine said. “Instead of focusing on the screen or on work, just focus on your breathing. Close your eyes if possible.”

There are other ways to incorporate breathing exercises. To beat the anxiety before a day of cold calls, sales associate Lindsay Carlisle does breathing exercises with her 7-year-old daughter on the drive to school. They inhale for a count of seven, hold their breath for a count of five, exhale for a count of seven, and then repeat the cycle several times.

“During that process, my shoulders naturally start to drop, and it’s really soothing,” Carlisle, who lives in Flint, Michigan, said. “I am not a yoga instructor. I don’t know what I’m doing, but it works.”

Suze Yalof Schwartz was an overworked fashion editor when her mother-in-law taught her a three-minute meditation technique that she says changed her life. She gave up her fashion career and founded Unplug Meditation, a company in Santa Monica, California, with a meditation studio, an app and programs for corporate clients.

“When we slow down our breathing, we send a signal to our brain that everything is fine, even when it isn’t,” she said.

A 16-second breathing technique she has taught to firefighters, police officers, doctors and others is called the box breathing technique. You inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts and hold for four counts.

“It’s the best thing you can do at work before you have a meeting, before you send an email you wish you hadn’t sent, before you have a difficult conversation, because it just calms you down, takes your mind off your worries your negative energy,” said Yalof Schwartz.

Employers such as Coca-Cola, Mattel and Netflix have hired Unplug Meditation to provide breathing or meditation classes.

It is not always easy for employees to find space for deep breathing exercises. For example, in retail jobs, employees often mingle with customers. Yalof Schwartz recommends doing breathing exercises when closing a sale or folding clothes. You can also take a deep breath right before walking through a door.

Office workers can set a timer on their phone to remind themselves to breathe deeply. That’s what Carlisle, the sales representative, does. She also keeps a post-it note on her monitor with the text on it “To breathe.”

‘The fear will always be there’ Carlisle said. “But at least I know I have one little tool. … It sounds so simple and silly, but it works.”