by Kathryn O’Brien/reporter

Five South students started their May 6 presentation in an unusual way: They taught their audience how to breathe for just five times a minute.

The students presented The Psychology of Adjustment/Breathing Techniques To Reduce Stress and Anxiety.

Enrique Martinez told a short story about a turtle with no shell, explaining what stress does to one’s body.

“You’re driving down an empty road with nothing around it when you see a turtle and see that it does not have a shell as you get closer,” he said. “Now my question to you is, is the turtle naked or homeless?”

Martinez said he gave only two choices to the question because that is how the mind works. In personal situations, people first develop appraisals that provide limited solutions to problems, which in turn creates stress.

Erica Lopez discussed simple breathing techniques that can help relieve stress.

“Just clear your mind. It’s really simple,” she said while explaining coherent breathing. “Take a deep breath in and hold it for 12 seconds, and we’re going to try to do that five times within one minute.”

Following Lopez’s explanation of coherent breathing, Leo Gonzalez talked about a different technique called resistance breathing. He said it is a type of breathing that most everyone has done and that helps to calm stress and anxiety.

“Take a deep breath through your nose and exhale slowly through pursed lips, or you can inhale and exhale both through your nose,” he said. “This technique is taught in a lot of places outside of this class, such as yoga and yoganidra.”

At the end of the presentation, Trevor Hollingsworth provided several suggestions of ways to cope with stress. He listed going to the gym, seeing a counselor and visiting local denominations as places and people that someone could confide in when dealing with high stress and anxiety. Martinez suggested adding favorite music or hobbies to one’s daily routine, which can help relax the mind.

“We live in a nonstop society and we never think about what we are doing or how it will affect us,” Hollingsworth said. “The important thing to remember is that when we do that, we don’t breathe properly. And when we don’t breathe properly, we’re not getting enough oxygen. By doing that, we are deteriorating our health. But breathing properly will help counter some of those effects.”