breathing for stress relief

Next time you’re on a flight and experience turbulence, remember this solid advice from 23-year-old Rhia Kerr. She is, after all, a flight attendant.

Kerr, a flight attendant for Irish carrier group Ryanair (according to the New York Post) went viral on TikTok after sharing how you can calm yourself during turbulence.

The video shows Kerr seated mid-flight, as the words “Turbulence is a sudden shift in airflow and can be felt as jolts or vibrations inside the aircraft,” appear onscreen.

“When we experience turbulence, naturally our brains can’t comprehend being out of control and the sensation of falling can cause our brains’ fear response center to send a distress signal into our brain,” she continues.

Even though our brains don’t know how to handle the situation, Kerr attests that—despite what horror stories show up on the news about random plane malfunctions—aircrafts are “designed to withstand worse conditions” than turbulence.

Breathing Exercises for Flight Anxiety

But if trying to reason with your amygdala proves unsuccessful, Kerr suggests breathing exercises. The Calm app apparently has an entire section dedicated to this, as well as a couple of different methods listed on its website you can do before the light, or whenever mid-flight anxiety pops up. Check those out below:

Deep breathing

Deep breathing encourages full oxygen exchange, helping to slow down your heart rate and stabilize blood pressure, thereby reducing stress and anxiety.

How to practice:

• Sit or lie down in a comfortable position.
• Place one hand on your chest and another on your abdomen.
• Inhale deeply through your nose, allowing your diaphragm to expand (your abdomen should rise higher than your chest).
• Exhale slowly through your mouth.

Breath focus

Breath focus combines the benefits of deep breathing with mental concentration, creating a focal point that helps draw your attention away from the anxiety and onto something positive.

How to practice:

• Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
• As you breathe, focus on a particular word or image that brings you calm.
• Visualize that word or image as you inhale and exhale.

The 4-7-8 breathing technique

The 4-7-8 technique forces your mind to focus on counting and your breath, diverting your thoughts from anxious triggers. The longer exhale acts as a natural sedative.

How to practice:

• Close your mouth and inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.
• Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
• Exhale completely through your mouth for 8 seconds.

Alternate nostril breathing

This technique promotes balance and unity of both sides of the brain, contributing to calmness and mental clarity.

How to practice:

• Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes.
• Close off your right nostril with your right thumb.
• Inhale through your left nostril.
• Close off your left nostril with your right ring finger and release your right nostril.
• Exhale through your right nostril.
• Repeat, alternating nostrils.

Enhanced Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

This method combines physical relaxation with deep breathing, helping to reduce muscular tension that might accompany anxiety.

How to practice:

• Begin by tensing up a group of muscles as you breathe in, such as your toes or fists.
• Hold for a count of 5.
• Exhale and simultaneously release the tension in your chosen muscle group.
• Work your way up (or down) your body, focusing on each muscle group on the way.

Kerr also advises listening to calming music (binaural beats can be great for this) fastening your seatbelt and closing your eyes.

And while trying to mitigate panic is important to avoid hyperventilating (“which will make you feel worse”) , she says that you should absolutely press the call bell to get help when needed. Don't suffer alone. And it’s probably wise to notify the staff before take-off that you might need some extra assistance.

Bottom line: Turbulence is normal. It doesn't mean that “the aircraft is going to fall out of the sky” and, perhaps most importantly, “the crew onboard are trained to handle it.”

“You are in very safe hands,” Kerr concludes.

So safe in fact, that it’s worth reminding yourself that as far as statistics are concerned, the safest travel possible is 30,000 feet in the air on a commercial airplane.

And if you need one more stress relieving tool up your sleeve, there’s a lot to be said about pretending you’re in jello.