Max Lafser, a popular California  Minister tells a story about a woman in Galveston, Texas who uses a canister vacuum cleaner to clean out her parakeet cage and accidentally sucks the always cheerfully singing bird up the hose. She retrieves it and it’s still alive but very dirty so she takes it to the sink and runs ice cold tap water over it to wash all the dust off. The bird is “soaked through” so she gets a hair drier and with VERY “warm” air, blow dries it, very dry. A newspaper reporter hears of the incident and locates the woman for a story. He asks her how the bird is doing. She replies “He’s doing “fine” but he never moves or sings anymore; just sits and stares at the wall.” “FINE” for some stands for Frozen, Irritable, Numb and Empty.

The bird story is not really funny, it is tragic. But it is so tragic that we laugh at the ridiculousness of the way the situation was handled and the laughter helps release the anguish or sadness the situation has instilled in us. Laughter is breathing more. So is crying. It often releases tensions that invite an easier more natural breathing.

“I now understand that in times of extreme stress and confusion, I can always go back to my breath.”
– Lee Glickstein, Public Speaking Coach

Unless you are maybe a little like that poor canary and have been scared out of it. 

Many breathing blocks become permanent unless you remove them.

“UNDERSTANDING” STRESS DOESN’T HANDLE IT
     In Conscious Breathing, Gay Hendricks recounts where another personal growth leader named Ram Dass shared with him how he had spent 10 years in psychoanalysis concerning his anxiety. During the 10 years Ram Dass grew to understand it; but he still had it. It wasn’t significantly reduced until he practiced a simple breathing exercise.

     Grade school children are often stressed out and it seems they are uncontrollable, neurotic, abused, evil or whatever society decides to label that which it cannot understand or wisely manage. A first grade teacher and I joined forces to teach 16 sick with colds, frenetic and energetic Oakland California 6- and 7-year-olds “how to breathe better”. We made a game of it. After the teacher got the handle of it he continued on his own. The breathing exercise is working a lot like a meditation; without the dogma, jargon and new age “fluff” associated with “meditation”. See calming classroom chaos.

     I was privileged to assist several members of the Inmate Services staff at a local county jail. I taught my Learn How To Breathe Better for stress management approach which was used as a container for ways to help control anger, drug and alcohol cravings. Both maximum and minimum security inmate groups were very receptive and willing to do ongoing breathing exercises. Inmate Services personnel were delighted with the results.

     Some believe prison and jail should be for education. Some for punishment. I look forward to a positive response to my proposal to any jail facility to train the inmate Services Staff in my approach to one’s internal “energy control and management”. I want to train other prison staff members as well as public school teachers, and am looking for contacts that understand and appreciate the power of the breath.

     A word of caution. There are many breathing exercises that can calm. The extended exhale for instance. Some can actually level-out one person and over-amp another. But in the long run most will suppress the effortless in-breaths that are the gateway to deepest peace within.

MORE STRESS?
     The Japanese now have karishi, or time urgency. They are actually hiring people to act as emotional surrogates for friends and family. God help us all.

     We encounter emotional, physical, mental, and environmental stresses daily. They can be exhilarating, strengthening, and clarifying, or damaging and destructive. Burnout, fatigue, shame, guilt, lack of control and helplessness, epidemic-scale autoimmune disease, food allergies, chemical hypersensitivity’s, mental weakness, and confusion plague our society. How you breathe impacts all of these.

“During a breathing session with Mike, I received more release of tension and a stronger sense of inner peace than I ever dreamed possible.” – Ellen Heathcote., Retired former manager of a California State Agency

     Responding, rather than reacting, is a primary goal of Optimal Breathing™. Strategies for handling distress often tempt us to rely on cognitive or thinking processes. When we try to substitute information for experience and intuition, we can become overloaded with choices and separated from our inner selves.

     Breathing in spirit – inspirating – really is the link to body-mind-spirit integration.

STRESS RELIEF
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water?" answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."
"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. "In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes  increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on." "As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.  When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can." "Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.  Life is short Enjoy it!

STRESS RELIEF TECHNIQUE

Almost any stressful situation, including panic attacks and quite possibly heart fibrillation, can be aided by

1. Extending the exhale to three to ten times the length of a natural inhale and then letting a deeper longer natural breathing reflex inhale occur effortlessly. Most exercises neglect the latter reflexive portion and lacking it over time can cause muscular constriction and eventual loss or inhibition of optimal deeper natural reflexive breathing.

2. Another way is to take a deep breath in your belly, if you can sense that in the first place and a lot of people can not. This is the one most commonly taught by stress management specialists. It subdues many (but not all) nervous reactions including aspects of asthma but does not account for severe blocks in ones breathing nor give one the insight in how to go in to the deepest possible state of relaxation and internal nervous system balance and breathing  coordination.

I much prefer number 1., the extended exhale precipitating (hopefully) the large easy reflexive in-breath. It is training one to be more like the natural in-breath we take during sleep (again hopefully) which is needed to re-balance the nervous system thousands of times each 24 hour period. Take the free breathing tests at and you will get a better sense of what I am saying. The longer the attained number in test #3, generally the deeper easier the in-breath will be able to be.

To reduce anxiety or panic, try this exercise: The Squeeze and Breathe.

This is a TEMPORARY approach but has saved lives and relationships. For a permanent solution one must change the way they breathe, even during sleep.