Breathing and relaxation techniques can have huge long-term benefits for your health -- physical, mental, and emotional. They also make you feel better right now by relieving the misery of anxiety and stress. You might call them "instant relaxation exercises."

Breathing for relaxation is effective and simple to learn, and you can do it any time, anywhere.

How to Breathe for Relaxation

1. If you can, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth.

2. Breathe deeply -- all the way down into the lower third of your lungs. Your belly should expand when you breathe in and flatten when you breathe out. Place your hands flat on your belly to make sure that it expands as you inhale and contracts as you exhale. Breathe deeply, slowly, and comfortably for several breaths.

   Breathing like this -- deeply, into the lower third of your lungs so that your belly rises and falls -- is called diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, or belly breathing.

3. Even your breathing out. Count during your breaths and try to make the inbreaths the same as the outbreaths. This further relaxes you and helps you feel grounded. Breathe smoothly like this for several breaths.

4. Now slow down your exhale in comparison to your inhale, to super-charge the relaxation response. Breathe in for a certain number of counts, say 6 (or whatever is comfortable for you), then breathe out for approximately twice as many counts. Long exhalations communicate with your nervous system, underscoring the message that it's OK to relax. Do this for approximately one minute.

Note: If at any time you start to feel dizzy or faint, you can either return to your normal breathing for a while, slow down your exhale, or lengthen the natural pause between your inhale and your exhale.

A wonderful resource for helping you learn to breathe optimally is "The Breathing Box: Four Weeks to Healthy Breathing" by Gay Hendricks. It's a "kit" that includes a CD, a 90-minute DVD, and illustrated cards. There's a wealth of health-promoting information and training in these excellent materials. (The link will take you to a great company, Sounds True, where you can buy the Breathing Box. If you do, it won't cost you any extra, but I get a small commission, which helps me keep informational pages like this one going.)

The FDA now approves breath training as a treatment for hypertension and more than 1,000 studies show its effectiveness in relieving anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, and more.

You can learn more about how breathing and relaxation techniques benefit your body here.