There is a saying for deep breathing:  A healthy mind has an easy breath.  

Intro:  When school, friends, sports and family can become stressful, I like using deep breathing exercises to calm me down.

The key to using deep breathing is when you need energy or want to feel calm.  If we breathe to fast, or hyperventilate, this can expel carbon dioxide from our body too quickly.  This has many bad effects on our physical and emotional health. When our breathing is deep, however, this involves the respiratory muscles of the chest, belly, lower ribcage, and lower back help our breathing slow down.  This deep breathing helps us to harmonize the nervous system, and reduce the amount of stress in our lives.

The cue to using deep breathing is when we’re stressed out and the natural flow of our breathe is broken up.

When we are born, we already have the knowledge of how to breathe. If you watch a baby breathe, she automatically fills up her entire abdomen and ribs like a balloon.  Her breathing doesn’t only come from the upper chest in short, rapid gasps. 

Exercise:  Focus on the image of a balloon inflating from your abdomen and into your ribs, or like a wave of air filling from abdomen up through the ribs and into the chest. It becomes all about controlling the breath: inhale, hold, and exhale. It is suggested that we count as we inhale (10 counts), hold for 5 to 10 counts, and exhale slowly (another 10 counts).