Please notice the date of last evaluation or replace on all articles. Alternate-nostril breathing, in which you breathe by way of one nostril at a time, is believed to help scale back stress by slowing your respiratory rhythm and forcing you to take deep, full breaths. Using a finger or thumb, shut one nostril and slowly breathe out and in via the open nostril. After about five to 10 breaths, switch and close the other nostril and repeat the respiration pattern.