With everything going on in today's world, stress is killing many people, slowly. Stress is also the biggest pain causing ingredient.

Do you get sore very easily? Do you jump when someone barely touches your neck and or shoulders? If so, you have a massive build-up of stress in your muscles. This needs to be released as soon as possible. This build-up in your muscles will cause you pain and discomfort, not to mention irritability.

It is very important to find a way to release the tension from your muscles. This might call for a massage. stretching, exercise, better nutrition, or water therapy. Muscular release is the first step towards calming the mind, because your mind cannot be calm if your muscles are tense. It will also save your energy.

It is vital that you understand that the way that you are breathing, and the amount of stress that you have go hand in hand.

As silly as this may sound, you may not even be totally aware that you have stress! Many of us just go on and on about our days, and do not even recognize the signals that our bodies are sending out to us.

Listening to your body can help save your life, not to mention make your life of much better quality. You can easily recognize your high levels of stress and anxiety when you show any of the following signs.

•Being easily upset, or more restless than usual.

•Waking throughout the night, having a disturbed sleeping pattern.

•Difficulty relaxing.

•Breathing more shallowly than usual, sighing a lot.

•Unable to concentrate for very long.

•Having an edgy feeling, easily upset at small things.

•Almost constant feeling of anxiety.

•Muscle soreness and or stiffness.

•Frequent headaches.

•Finding it harder and harder to cope with people, especially your children.

These of course are a few of the major signs of stress, but there are many more out there. Having a diseased body is many times the aftermath of living a stressful life in which you are unable to get yourself relaxed.

Cancer is a major sign of stress as well as many other awful, debilitating diseases.

It is so important to learn how to let go of the stress that you build up in a days time. By this, I mean that you must learn to let go on a daily basis. Stress is always going to be there. You have to find the best way, fit for you, to come home and release it from your body.

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There are many exercises to help improve breathing, but there is just one that has been shown in medical studies to be effective in reducing anxiety levels. This is an exercise based on traditional breathing used in yoga.

Before trying the exercise you need to take a look at your breathing 'equipment'.

Stand or sit in front of a mirror and look at your shoulders as you breathing in deeply. Do they rise towards your ears as you are breathing in - even a little? If so, you are using certain muscles which attach to your neck, and shoulders in a way that should only happen when you are running. If you are using them when all that you are doing is sitting or standing still, shows that they are being overworked, having a very negative effect on your breathing, and therefore your stress level as well.

You must retrain yourself out of this habit (it IS only a habit by the way) and help reduce the tendency it produces to hyperventilate (which will also increase your anxiety level)

You can do the following exercise.

•Sit in a chair which has arms and rest your arms on the chair.

•As you are breathing in deeply, make sure that your elbows are pressed firmly downwards, against the arms of the chair.

That's it! Since while pressing down with your elbows is impossible to use the muscles that you were using previously, you have to use the correct breathing muscles. This will help you to retrain yourself in your breathing (proper breathing).

1. Lie or sit comfortably and fully inhale while you silently count up to 2. This means that your goal is to fill your lungs with air fairly quickly. Counting during this exercise is crucial as the timing effects greatly influence your ability to relax.

2. Without pausing to hold your breath at all, fully exhale your breath taking at least 5 to 6 seconds to do so. (Again, the counting in your head silently is crucial.) When you are breathing in, this should be done through the nose only. Exhaling can be done through the nose and or mouth. The important part of breathing out is that it be slow and continuous.

3. Repeat the inhalation (2 seconds) and the exhalation. The goal is that, in time and with practice, you should make the exhalation phase last for eight seconds.

4. Repeat the inhalation and exhalation for several minutes with at least six cycles per minute. Each cycle should eventually last 10 seconds- 2 in and 8 out. Starting slowly is key as 2 or 3 in and 3 or 4 out may be all that you can manage.

By the time you have completed 10 or so cycles, your sense of anxiety should be much reduced and you will feel relaxed and peaceful. Do this exercise every hour if you are anxious. Otherwise, spend a few minutes doing it in the morning and evening, or whenever you feel the tension building up.

This can very easily be done while you are at work, and without anyone even noticing. You will come to find out that if you can manage to deliberately start your breathing exercise as soon as a stressful situation starts to arise, you will be able to handle the situation better than ever before.

When figuring your bills, do your breathing exercises.

When dealing with your children, do your breathing exercises.

When talking to someone that normally would get you upset, breathe!

It always works. It will not fail you. And you will get your life back into shape.

The way that you are breathing can be the best stress management tool at work possible, or anywhere for that matter.  I think we all know that work just tends to bring on the stress and anxiety faster than any other place.  Breathe Deep!