Experiment for yourself with a new Swiss app: Can you easily relieve work stress?

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Stress is one of the biggest problems in business: More than 43 percent of employees feel stressed frequently, and this trend is increasing. This is what a study conducted by the Bern University of Applied Sciences on behalf of the employee umbrella organization Travailsuisse says. In the long run, this can lead to serious consequences such as burnout, anxiety or depression, as well as lack of motivation, decreased productivity and even turnover.

Swiss healthcare provider Virtusan wants to address this with a breathing challenge that aims to specifically improve employees’ breathing through simple but effective exercises (see box). “Breathing is one of the most important levers in the fight against stress,” says Virtusan Chief Revenue Officer Marc Hautle. «In stressful and hectic situations, we breathe faster, shorter and more superficially. On the other hand, if we breathe slowly and regularly, we stop the release of stress hormones and calm our autonomic nervous system again. According to Hautle, it doesn’t take much for these effects to occur. “Noticeable effects can be achieved with just 5 to 10 minutes of training per day.”

Trial day with breathing application

The exercises included in the Virtusan breathing challenge, which participants complete every day for four weeks, only take a few minutes. I want to at least get a taste of it and try the Virtusan Breathing app (download: 4 francs).

Then it begins: First, I am advised to test my breathing capacity. To do this, I need to take three deep breaths in an upright position. The level of breathing exercises is then determined by the length of my exhalation. It looks like I actually have some work to do on this topic: I’m classified as a beginner at about 4 seconds.

Now various exercises await. Each one is aimed at a different phase of the day; in the morning, between meals, after lunch and in the evening. I start right away on Monday morning. Admittedly, it’s not my favorite time. It then takes me a very long time to find my way into the day, or even better, the week. Will the “mindfulness” morning exercise help me here? In this way, it is aimed to increase attention and awareness after waking up and to calm the mind. The exercise involves breathing in and out repeatedly for several minutes and holding your breath briefly in between. You can choose the duration of the exercise yourself, from 1 to a maximum of 30 minutes. I take three minutes, but they still seem too long at first glance. Until I managed to actually concentrate on breathing and stopped paying attention to time. I complete a total of 20 breaths and then I actually feel like I’m more present and not so sleepy.

The fastest exercise against acute stress

It doesn’t take long for the first stage of stress to arrive in the office: At the same time, a copy edit and an important clarification need to be made, and the deadline is approaching. I can literally feel my breathing becoming shallow. In such a situation, Virtusan recommends resorting to “stress reduction” exercise or “physiological sighing”. The latter was developed by renowned US neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and promises instant calm in acutely stressful situations. The method works as follows; First you take a long, long, deep breath through your nose, then you try to take a little more air into your lungs by giving a second, very short exhale through your nose. Then exhale very slowly through your mouth until your lungs are empty. Huberman recommends doing one to three such sighs: “This is the fastest exercise to calm yourself down,” he explains in his training video on the Virtusan app. And it works: I feel more focused afterward. Exercise also has long-term benefits, including greater resilience to stress and deeper sleep, Huberman says.

Enough breath for meeting after food coma

After lunch, I would most like to dive into the latter: After a rather tiring morning, I treated myself to soul food in the form of a burger and fries. Result: Food coma begins after eating. I needed to be ready for an important client meeting right after the break. For such situations, Virtusan offers the “Focus and Energy” exercise, which helps restore energy, concentration and alertness to a sufficient level after lunch. In the app, I set a time period of two minutes and concentrate: first I breathe in, then I hold my breath, then I exhale for a long time and hold my breath again. I repeat everything ten times. Focusing on breathing once again helps me get through this little temporary low.

A very busy working day is coming to an end. To recover well, the Virtusan app recommends the “Rest and Sleep” exercise. It helps you calm down again and can be used immediately after arriving home or just before going to sleep. In principle, it works the same as exercises at other times of the day; there are longer inhalation and exhalation phases and a short breath hold in between. But at the end of the day, I experience a slight lack of concentration: the app reminds me to follow the prescribed breathing rhythm exactly. After ten more concentrated breaths, the day’s work is completed. I can constantly check my progress in the app: after a day of consistent use of Virtusan mini-programs, I’m still 60 breaths away from the next level.

Solution: Of course, a “trial day” like the one I experienced is not as meaningful as having completed the entire four-week breathing challenge. However, my awareness of better breathing has already increased and I intend to use Virtusan exercises regularly in the future. Since these are really simple and all have a pretty similar structure, they’re easy to remember and call when needed. Because I’ve learned this: Even a short break to breathe can defuse a stressful situation.

Source : Blick