Opening up the pressure valves

By SELWYN PARKER

"Breathe nose, low and slow," advises Tania Clifton-Smith, who is an expert on, yes, breathing.

Indeed, she's written a book about it called Breathe to Succeed (Penguin) and has - with Dinah Bradley Morrison, another authority on the art of exercising the lungs - established in Auckland a clinic called Breathing Works.

And it does work, especially for people in high-pressure jobs with matching levels of stress. "Breathing is one of the most fundamental tools for stress reduction," explains Clifton-Smith, who corrected faulty breathing habits principally in executives, entertainers and torture victims in London's Devonshire clinic before establishing Breathing Works here.

You probably think that breathing comes naturally. Wrong. Many of us develop sloppy breathing habits, especially when we are under pressure. Eventually, those bad habits add to stress.

It's astonishing how badly we can breathe without knowing it. "Put your phone under your chin and start typing. Go, go, go," commands Clifton-Smith. "Now stop typing. Did you notice anything?"

"Yes, I stopped breathing," I confessed.

"You tightened up your muscles and put yourself under pressure," she explained.

But what does "nose, low and slow" mean? First, for various physiological reasons, breathing through your nose is much superior to using your mouth. "Low" stands for low down in the diaphragm. And slow means just that.

Most of us apparently breathe too shallowly and breathe in too much, especially when the heat's on. "If in doubt, breathe out," says the maxim. And the causes of bad breathing are often external. Clifton-Smith regularly treats women upset by chauvinistic, belittling male bosses.

"I teach them to remain totally calm through correct breathing," she says. Thus centred, they learn to float through verbal abuse.

Often, rapid and breathless talkers are bad breathers. So are people in occupations such as singers, divers, swimmers, wind instrument players, military personnel, ballerinas and computer workers, for varying reasons.

Bad posture from slouching - or the reverse, a too rigid posture - holding in the stomach, high heels, tight clothes or belts, and corsets, all affect breathing. So can too much caffeine, nicotine, aspirin, amphetamines, cocaine, crack and Ecstasy.

Reconfiguring bad breathing habits doesn't take too long. Most people have it right after three visits, a month apart.

According to research by the Ministry of Health, many New Zealanders need help with stress.

Emotional problems account for 61 per cent of absenteeism. About 92 per cent of employees say personal problems affect their work, which clearly does nothing for productivity.

Between 80 to 90 per cent of industrial accidents have their origin in stress. And, most alarmingly, 65 to 85 per cent of employees leave or are made redundant from jobs because they cannot cope with the pressure.

Not that all pressure is damaging.

According to Auckland leadership organisation IAS, which has studied workplace stress, there is good and bad. Good stress is called eustress, which "gets the endorphins flowing and creates an environment where people are inspired, motivated and energised."

The bad kind is distress, which "limits the development and success of individuals and organisations."

The symptoms are familiar - anxiety, depression, difficulty in concentrating and muscular tension.

But there is a lot that pressured people can do to lighten their load - apart from telling the boss to stick it.

Auckland chiropractor Iain Wood, a former North Harbour rugby representative who studied in the US, says most office staff spend much too long on their butts.

"Get up and walk around every 20 minutes at least," he advises. "That exercises the big calf muscles, which pump oxygen back through the system."

Another way of exercising the lungs is laughter. "Staff who make you laugh should be paid a premium," says recruitment consultant Heather Kean.

That is because they help take the pressure off everybody else.

Exercising the body helps. Carter Holt Harvey chief executive Chris Liddell never makes appointments in his lunch hour because that is when he gets out of the office for a jog.

Getting away from it all is also therapeutic.

And sometimes there is an argument for well-disguised idleness. As Spike Milligan once joked: "Well, we can't stand around here doing nothing, people will think we are workmen."

* Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz