Breathing is a very useful tool and you have your breath with you all the time. You can either observe your breathing (e.g., as part of a mindfulness practice) or you can change it (e.g. slowing down and deepening your breaths to calm down in the moment).

There are many resources available to help you learn to observe your breath as part of mindfulness or meditation training, including Headspace, Waking up, Calm and Insight timer, below.

Techniques to modify your breath, with further links to explanations, include:
- The physiological sigh: breathing in twice then exhaling completely.
- Box breathing: where you breathe in for e.g. 4, hold for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4.
- Diaphragmatic breathing: put one hand on your chest and one on your tummy and breathe into the tummy rather than the chest.
- Exhale emphasised breathing: breathe out for twice as long as you breathe in.
- 4-7-8 breathing: breathe in for 4, hold for 7 and out for 8.

Breathwork practitioners can help you to work through exercises in person, or you may enjoy apps like Breathwrk, below. 

Always be mindful of doing breathwork exercises safely. There are certain medical conditions where it may be dangerous so always seek the advice of your healthcare provider, and never do breathing exercises near water or while driving machinery.

Mindfulness involves noticing your internal state (thoughts, physical feelings, emotions) and the world around you in the present moment, without judgement. 

It can be a useful tool to develop to feelings of calm, space around stressful circumstances, and choice around how we respond. Particularly when practised regularly, it has been associated with increased parasympathetic tone and executive function, and can also help in developing the ability to sustain focused attention.[1,2,3]

Mindfulness practices can take many forms. You can be mindful doing literally anything: eating your food, taking a shower, cycling to work, or you can cultivate specific mindfulness practices. 

Seated mindfulness meditation can be a good place to start and below are various resources to try including Headspace, Waking up, Insight Timer and Calm, below. 

Some people prefer moving meditation, walking in nature or exercising. Some apps, such as Headspace, have guided audio for this, or you can find a walking meditation script here, to read or pre-record. 

Other mindfulness options available to you anytime are: 

The 5-4-3-2-1 technique, where you work through your senses and notice and name: 
5 things you can see, 
4 things you can feel, 
3 things you can hear, 
2 things you can smell and 
1 thing you can taste. 

For 10 seconds or so (or as long as you want), notice your breathing - the movement of your chest or stomach, or the feeling of the air passing over your top lip, for example... or try rubbing your fingertips together and really notice the rete ridges passing each other... or the feeling of your feet in your shoes.

[1] Jerath R, et al. Front Hum Neurosci. 2012;6:1-4
[2] Lebares CC, et al. Ann Surg. 2021;273(3):424-432
[3] Semple RJ. Mindfulness 2010;1:121–130

When we are in a sympathetic state, we are primed to run or fight. Physically, we often experience this as a state of tension. When stressed, people often find that their fists are clenched, their neck and shoulders are hunched for action, with a tight abdominal wall and that they are taking shallower, faster breaths. 

Just as, if we change our breathing to deeper and slower to reflect a relaxed state it helps us to calm down, opening our posture from a closed, 'contracted' one to a more 'expansive', relaxed one can help us feel calmer.[1]

Mild-moderate movement such as walking or doing some stretching or yoga, can also help reduce tension and increase parasympathetic tone.[2]

Particularly if you are able to do this outside, exposure to natural surroundings seems to further enhance the regulating impact of exercise through processes such as optic flow (moving forward through the world), soft fascination, psychological distancing, and exposure to fractals (repeating patterns in nature) and the colours blue and green, which are relatively relaxing for our brains to process.[3]

[1] Elkjaer E, et al. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2022;17(1):276-304

[2] Zou L et al. J Clin Med. 2018;7:404

[3] Boere, K et al. Sci Rep 2023;13:1140

Depending on where you are, and what you’re up to, you may be able to take a nap or non-sleep deep rest. Naps can be very restorative, support performance and help reduce feelings of stress. 

Because we sleep in 90 minutes cycles, it is advised to try to keep naps less than 30 minutes (according to NASA, the optimum length for a nap is 26 minutes), to avoid sleep inertia (where you feel groggy on wakening, also known as sleep drunkenness) from waking half way through a cycle. 

For those who don't like naps, can't nod off, or who struggle to sleep at night after having one, other options include  ’non-sleep deep rest’, yoga nidra (e.g. on InsightTimer) or progressive muscle relaxation techniques. Please find some links, below.

If you can't take a nap, an accessible option to tap out is to claim your lunch break. Laura Archer explains in her video here that the humble lunchbreaks equates to 6 weeks of extra annual leave! Try going outside, turning off your devices if safe to do so, choosing who you spend it with, and eating a nourishing meal, ideally pre-prepared to maximise your time out, rather than spending it in the queue at the canteen or hospital cafe!

The sympathetic state is one of action, and is enrolled by calls to action. Conversely, we engage our parasympathetic nervous system when we feel that there is nothing that we feel we need to do to keep us, our world, or the people in it, safe. 

Intentionally cultivating feelings of 'enoughness' can help reassure us that we can relax...

One way to do this is to practise gratitude, which many people incorporate into their morning or evening routine, and which is associated with decreased stress and increased positive emotions.[1]

A 'gratitude practice' sounds complicated but can be as simple as considering three things that you are grateful for at one end or other of your day, and can be practised alone, internalised or journalled, or shared with someone else. There are also many formal gratitude resources, some of which I have included below.

Some other ways to give our brains regulating signals is spend time in nature, connecting with loved ones, talking and laughing, playing, and enjoying things that we love to do.

[1] Henning M et al. Front Psych. 2017;8:868