Learn Hardcore Russian: Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, напряжение постепенно уходит. - When I take a pause and focus on my breathing, the tension gradually goes away.

Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, напряжение постепенно уходит.

When I take a pause and focus on my breathing, the tension gradually goes away.

Breakdown of Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, напряжение постепенно уходит.

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Questions & Answers about Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, напряжение постепенно уходит.

Why is делаю in the present tense? In English I would say “When I take a pause…” (which can refer to the future too).

In Russian, the present tense with когда often describes regular, typical situations, including in the future.

Когда я делаю паузу… = Whenever I take a pause / When I take a pause (in general).

So делаю is present, imperfective, expressing a habitual / repeated action, not a single specific future event.

If you wanted a one‑time future situation, you could say:

Когда я сделаю паузу, напряжение уйдёт.
When I (will) take a pause (that specific time), the tension will go away.

Here сделаю and уйдёт are future forms, talking about one concrete future case.

Why do we say делаю паузу literally “do a pause”? Can I say беру паузу or останавливаюсь instead?

Делать паузу is a standard collocation meaning to take a pause / to pause. It’s very natural in both spoken and written Russian.

Alternatives, with nuances:

Брать паузу – also possible, but a bit more idiomatic in contexts like:
- Мне нужно взять паузу в отношениях. – I need to take a break in the relationship. It can sound more intentional or “strategic”.
Останавливаться – to stop (oneself):
- Когда я останавливаюсь и концентрируюсь на дыхании… – When I stop and focus on my breathing… This shifts the focus from “a pause” as a thing to the act of stopping.

In your sentence, делаю паузу is the most neutral and common choice for “I pause”.

Why is it концентрируюсь, not концентрирую? What does the -сь ending do?

The -сь / -ся ending makes the verb reflexive.

концентрировать – to concentrate (something) (transitive)
концентрироваться – to concentrate / to focus (oneself) (intransitive, reflexive)

In this sentence, you’re focusing your own attention, so Russian uses the reflexive form:

я концентрируюсь (на дыхании) – I focus (on my breathing).

Without -сь, you’d need an object:

концентрирую внимание на дыхании – I concentrate (my) attention on my breathing.

So концентрируюсь already includes the idea of “myself”.

Why is it на дыхании and not на дыхание after концентрируюсь?

The verb концентрироваться takes на + prepositional case:

концентрироваться на чём? – to concentrate/focus on what?

So:

дыхание (nominative) → на дыхании (prepositional)

Compare:

концентрируюсь на задаче – I focus on the task.
концентрируюсь на музыке – I focus on the music.

Using на дыхание would sound ungrammatical here, because the case is wrong for this verb–preposition pattern.

In English we say “focus on my breathing”. Why doesn’t Russian say на моём дыхании?

Russian often omits possessive pronouns when it’s obvious whose body, actions, or feelings are meant. With parts of your own body or your own actions, мой / моя / моё is usually unnecessary:

Я закрыл глаза. – I closed my eyes.
Я размышляю о будущем. – I’m thinking about my future.
Я концентрируюсь на дыхании. – I focus on my breathing.

You can say на моём дыхании, but it sounds heavier and is rarely needed unless you want to contrast it with someone else’s breathing.

What is the difference between концентрироваться and сосредотачиваться? Could I say сосредотачиваюсь на дыхании?

Both verbs can mean to focus / to concentrate and are often interchangeable.

концентрироваться на дыхании
сосредотачиваться на дыхании

Both are correct.

Nuances (very subtle and often ignored in everyday speech):

концентрироваться can feel slightly more technical or formal (e.g. in scientific or business contexts: концентрироваться на задаче).
сосредотачиваться is very common in everyday speech and maybe feels a bit more “mental / inner focus”.

In your sentence, концентрируюсь на дыхании and сосредотачиваюсь на дыхании are both natural.

Why is напряжение in the nominative case, not in some other case?

Напряжение is the subject of the second clause:

напряжение постепенно уходит
the tension gradually goes away

In Russian, the subject is in the nominative case. The verb уходит agrees with it:

Что уходит? – напряжение.

So напряжение must be nominative here.

What does постепенно add? Could I leave it out?

Постепенно means gradually, little by little.

напряжение уходит – the tension goes away (no information about how fast)
напряжение постепенно уходит – the tension gradually goes away

You can leave it out grammatically, but the sentence will lose the nuance that the process is slow or smooth rather than instant.

Why is уходит in the present tense, not past (ушло) or future (уйдёт)?

Like делаю and концентрируюсь, уходит here is present, imperfective, describing what typically happens whenever you do this:

Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, (обычно) напряжение постепенно уходит.
When(ever) I pause and focus…, (usually) the tension gradually goes away.

If you wanted a specific, one-time future event:

Когда я сделаю паузу и сконцентрируюсь на дыхании, напряжение уйдёт.
When I have paused and focused on my breathing, the tension will go away (that time).

So the tense/aspect matches the meaning: general habit vs. one-time result.

What aspect is делаю / концентрируюсь / уходит, and is there a reason they’re all imperfective?

All three verbs here are imperfective in the present tense:

делать → делаю – imperfective
концентрироваться → концентрируюсь – imperfective
уходить → уходит – imperfective

Imperfective is used for:

ongoing processes: I am focusing
repeated/habitual actions: when I (usually) do X, Y happens

The sentence describes a typical, repeatable situation: every time you pause and focus, tension gradually goes away. That’s exactly the natural use of the imperfective.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say Напряжение постепенно уходит, когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании?

Yes, that word order is also correct:

Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, напряжение постепенно уходит.
Напряжение постепенно уходит, когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании.

Both are grammatical and mean the same thing. The difference is in focus:

Starting with Когда… emphasizes the condition (what you do first).
Starting with Напряжение… emphasizes the result (what happens to the tension).

Russian word order is relatively flexible; you mostly need to keep logical connections clear and not separate tightly-bound words.

Why is there a comma after дыхании?

You have a subordinate clause introduced by когда:

Когда я делаю паузу и концентрируюсь на дыхании, – subordinate clause (condition)
напряжение постепенно уходит. – main clause (result)

In Russian, a comma is required between the subordinate clause and the main clause, regardless of whether the subordinate clause comes first or second:

Когда я делаю паузу…, напряжение уходит.
Напряжение уходит, когда я делаю паузу…

So the comma is mandatory here.

What’s the difference between напряжение and стресс? Could I say стресс постепенно уходит instead?

You can say стресс постепенно уходит, but напряжение and стресс are not identical:

напряжение – tension (physical or mental), tightness, strain.
- мышечное напряжение – muscle tension
- нервное напряжение – nervous tension
стресс – stress in the more psychological or life-situation sense:
- я испытываю стресс на работе – I’m experiencing stress at work.

In this sentence, напряжение highlights the bodily/inner feeling of tightness. Стресс would shift it more toward “stress as a state” rather than the tension itself, but it’s still understandable and acceptable.