Using Focused Breathing to Decrease Stress

Curriculum	Transforming Conflict, p. 79
Lesson Name	Using Focused Breathing to Decrease Stress
Grade Band	Middle School (6-8) High School (9-12)

Curriculum

Transforming Conflict, p. 79

Lesson Name

Using Focused Breathing to Decrease Stress

Grade Band

Middle School (6-8)

High School (9-12)

Required Material/s	Handout 1: Focused Breathing Techniques
Standards / Competencies	CASEL Core Competencies Relationship skills Responsible decision-making Self-awareness Self-management Social awareness Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards Listening and speaking  Writing NCSS Social Studies Themes Individual development and identity Global connections Individuals, groups, and institutions
Recommended Time	40 minutes

Required Material/s

Handout 1: Focused Breathing Techniques

Standards / Competencies

CASEL Core Competencies

Relationship skills
Responsible decision-making
Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness

Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards

Listening and speaking 
Writing

NCSS Social Studies Themes

Individual development and identity
Global connections
Individuals, groups, and institutions

Recommended Time

40 minutes

Essential Question	How can we use breathing to transform stress reactions?
Learning Objectives	Students will: Learn about different breathing techniques. Identify situations when using a focused breathing technique can help reduce stress. Recognize the benefits of practicing a variety of breathing techniques.
Important Vocabulary	Focused Breathing

Essential Question

How can we use breathing to transform stress reactions?

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Learn about different breathing techniques.
Identify situations when using a focused breathing technique can help reduce stress.
Recognize the benefits of practicing a variety of breathing techniques.

Important Vocabulary

Focused Breathing

Activating Prior Knowledge	Ask: What are some things you’ve experienced that have caused you to feel stress? Say: Sometimes stress presents roadblocks to motivation, with feelings of being “stuck.” Other times, stress can be motivating, like when aiming to meet a deadline or engaging in an academic or athletic competition. Ask: What does it feel like when you are stressed? Do your muscles become tense? Do you sit straight up in your chair, or do you slump? Are you fidgety or calm? Encourage students to think beyond common examples like increased heart rate or sweaty palms. Record student answers. Say: Let’s take a few moments to reflect silently on ways we have personally learned about, or used, activities to reduce stress in our own lives. You are welcome to jot down notes or just think. Either way, be prepared to share with a partner one or two ways you know about that are good for managing stress. Ask volunteers to share their experiences from their partner sharing session. Encourage students to reflect on what they learned from their partners and any commonalities or differences they noticed in the stress reduction techniques they shared.
Core Instruction	Ask: How many of you have heard someone say, “take a deep breath?” to cope with a stressful moment? Why do you think people give that advice? Say: When we examined anger, we learned when we react to someone or to a situation, our reaction is made up of what we think, what we feel emotionally, and what we experience physically. Encountering stress is similar, as reactions can be very diverse depending on what we know, what we think, and what we are experiencing physically. Say: Today we are going to learn about breathing techniques, sometimes called focused breathing, and learn how to use four different specific techniques as a way to lower stress. It is important to remember as we explore each technique that individuals may find different breathing techniques more or less helpful than others. Read the handout together, pausing to model each style of breathing. Ask a student volunteer to serve as an educational model by following your step-by-step instructions per the handout so the class can observe each technique as it is explained and demonstrated. Explain that after reviewing as a class, students will return to their partner groups to experience teaching and practicing the specific steps of each technique. Explain that, for each breathing activity, one partner’s role will be to ensure the other person understands and practices the described steps with comfort. After a few minutes in each role, partners will switch roles.
Wrap-up	Taking Informed Action Write an advice column for your peers in which you explain why they should learn to use focused breathing techniques to help decrease stress. Pick one of the techniques described on the handout and teach the steps in your column. These quotes are samples from the Six-Word Memoirs website. Consider them as inspiration for writing your own short story or reflection on how you might personally use a focused breathing technique to bring calm to a moment of stress. What will you write in six words? “Adjusting my breathing to the tides…” (Ksan for Six Word Memoirs) “Breathing in dreams, exhaling the fears” (skatelHS5 for Six-Word Memoirs)

Activating Prior Knowledge

Ask: What are some things you’ve experienced that have caused
you to feel stress?

Say: Sometimes stress presents roadblocks to motivation, with
feelings of being “stuck.” Other times, stress can be motivating, like
when aiming to meet a deadline or engaging in an academic or athletic
competition.

Ask: What does it feel like when you are stressed? Do your
muscles become tense? Do you sit straight up in your chair, or do you
slump? Are you fidgety or calm? Encourage students to think beyond common examples like increased heart rate or sweaty palms. Record student answers.

Say: Let’s take a few moments to reflect silently on ways we have
personally learned about, or used, activities to reduce stress in our
own lives. You are welcome to jot down notes or just think. Either way,
be prepared to share with a partner one or two ways you know about that
are good for managing stress.

Ask volunteers to share their experiences from their partner sharing session. Encourage students to reflect on what they learned from their partners and any commonalities or differences they noticed in the stress reduction techniques they shared.

Core Instruction

Ask: How many of you have heard someone say, “take a deep
breath?” to cope with a stressful moment? Why do you think people give
that advice?

Say: When we examined anger, we learned when we react to someone
or to a situation, our reaction is made up of what we think, what we
feel emotionally, and what we experience physically. Encountering stress
is similar, as reactions can be very diverse depending on what we know,
what we think, and what we are experiencing physically.

Say: Today we are going to learn about breathing techniques,
sometimes called focused breathing, and learn how to use four different
specific techniques as a way to lower stress. It is important to
remember as we explore each technique that individuals may find
different breathing techniques more or less helpful than
others.

Read the handout together, pausing to model each style of breathing. Ask a student volunteer to serve as an educational model by following your step-by-step instructions per the handout so the class can observe each technique as it is explained and demonstrated. Explain that after reviewing as a class, students will return to their partner groups to experience teaching and practicing the specific steps of each technique. Explain that, for each breathing activity, one partner’s role will be to ensure the other person understands and practices the described steps with comfort. After a few minutes in each role, partners will switch roles.

Wrap-up

Taking Informed Action

Write an advice column for your peers in which you explain why they should learn to use focused breathing techniques to help decrease stress. Pick one of the techniques described on the handout and teach the steps in your column.
These quotes are samples from the Six-Word Memoirs website. Consider them as inspiration for writing your own short story or reflection on how you might personally use a focused breathing technique to bring calm to a moment of stress. What will you write in six words?

“Adjusting my breathing to the tides…” (Ksan for Six Word Memoirs)
“Breathing in dreams, exhaling the fears” (skatelHS5 for Six-Word Memoirs)

Download this lesson to access handouts.

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