Breathe Easy: 3 Breathing Exercises to Help Reduce Anxiety

When a feeling of panic fear can appear at any moment, even if there is no apparent reason for it, it ruins life. A sudden feeling of horror can grip a person at home, on the street or at work. There are several ways to suppress panic attacks. The main and most effective of them is breathing exercises.

When should you do breathing exercises?

You need to start breathing correctly in advance, as soon as you feel that a panic attack is approaching. But how to recognize it? What are its symptoms? Experts identify several signs of the onset of a panic attack:

nausea;
dizziness;
feeling of lack of air;
sense of anxiety;
excitement;
confusion of thoughts and consciousness;
a person ceases to control his actions;
sensation of goosebumps under the skin;
heavy sweating;
rapid pulse;
rapid heartbeat;
dyspnea;
the appearance of a lump in the throat;
rapid rapid breathing.

Very often, it is difficult for a person who suffers from this illness to recognize the onset of a panic attack. Most people cease to understand what is happening around them when a feeling of fear arises.

Breathing and emotions

Breathing is a barometer of our internal state. Emotional turmoil increases muscle tension, accelerates heart rate and increases blood pressure. Excitement takes your breath away and makes it intermittent, anxiety causes suffocation, surprise takes your breath away, grief causes sobs, depression is expressed in sighs. When we suppress fear or anger, the rhythm of our breathing changes and we do not breathe deeply enough. The diaphragm, the most important muscle of respiratory function, often becomes blocked at such moments.

“When I’m anxious, my stomach tightens, I even feel like I can’t breathe,” admits Adele.

The breathing of an alarmed person is rapid, intermittent, and inadequate. Some people believe they can control their emotions by blocking their chest and abdominal muscles. These tactics can lead to increased feelings of insecurity. Alexander Lowen sees in this abdominal tension a lack of fullness of life, which he associates with inner emptiness. If the abdominal muscles are constantly tense, breathing becomes shallow and compresses the diaphragm. This leads to an imbalance between the lower and upper body. Lack of oxygen becomes a favorable environment for the development of numerous disorders, both physical and psychological.

“I’m depressed by the family situation, I’m just suffocating at home, my mother is constantly watching me,” explains Christelle, who suffers from constantly recurring asthma attacks.

Diseases such as allergic asthma, chronic bronchitis or hyperventilation are related to breathing. An asthma attack is accompanied by a feeling of tightness in the chest and wheezing when breathing. According to F.B. Michel, in most cases it is about “words or suffering that are looking for a way out; this respiratory syndrome may mean a suffocating connection with the mother or an inability to separate oneself from her.”

Spasmophilia, a feeling of a lump in the throat accompanied by agitation, are symptoms of hyperventilation, which is caused by fear and anxiety. All these disorders begin to subside after the first sessions of teaching breathing techniques. With proper breathing, the body very quickly receives the necessary energy. Focusing on the breath leads to a state of altered consciousness that reduces anxiety and promotes greater relaxation, both physical and mental.

Full breathing makes speech more free and relaxed. With the help of breathing, you can soften speech defects or change the timbre of your voice. The voice can also evoke emotions. The deeper the breath, the brighter the feeling expressed. To make a word sound more convincing, breathing when pronouncing it should begin in the abdomen. In this way, opera singers and singers work on their breathing.

Breathing means releasing your emotions. The breath of life is the search for inner balance. A serene, relaxed state is accompanied by calm breathing. Our breathing rhythm slows down when we are engrossed in a task that requires thinking. And when we sleep, it calms down naturally.

Proper breathing is the key to good health

Breathing regulates our vital needs and restores the entire body. Deep and full breathing is a beneficial source of energy for our body. When inhaling, the diaphragm lowers, massaging the internal organs: liver, spleen, stomach, intestines. Exhalation promotes additional blood flow to the organs of the digestive system, toning them. The liver naturally warms up from the constant movement of the diaphragm. The relaxing effect of deep breathing massages the gallbladder, improving digestion. By influencing metabolism as a whole, deep breathing allows you to avoid accumulating fat and even burn existing ones. Indeed, if the lungs receive enough oxygen, they destroy by burning 10% of the fats contained in the blood, and toxins are better eliminated. Thus, breathing performs the function of cleansing, strengthens the immune system and relieves fatigue. Deep breathing also has a good effect on cells, activating the mental process, improving memory and attention. This way we activate the work of the right hemisphere, which is responsible for creativity. Lengthening your breathing calms your heart rate and reduces stress. Energy circulation is restored and sexuality is activated.

Human breathing has a unique property: it is both conscious and unconscious. Conscious control of breathing quickly produces a state of relaxation. By paying attention to our breathing, we can regulate and improve the quality of our incoming air to relieve tension and live in a state of emotional balance. Breathing is a combination of two movements: tension as you inhale and relaxation as you exhale. As we inhale, the breath opens us to the outside world; as we exhale, it opens us up to ourselves and allows us to explore our body language.

Consciously directed air fills the body with vigor and enthusiasm, gives stability to the body, and also strengthens our confidence in ourselves and in life. By learning to control your breathing, you can increase your control over it and increase its effectiveness in various activities. Walking, singing, playing sports, speaking in public are all activities whose success depends on our ability to use our breath.

Breathing techniques

There are several techniques that can help you calm down and overcome a panic attack. There are five main methods:

Belly breathing. To perform this exercise, you must take a sitting or lying position. Next you need to calm down, you can imagine something that relaxes you. You should then place your hand on the upper abdomen to feel the rise and fall of the anterior abdominal wall. As you inhale, you need to raise your stomach as much as possible by filling your lungs with air. As you exhale, you need to pull your stomach in as much as possible. You need to breathe measuredly, slowly.
4/4. In this technique you also need to take a comfortable position. You need to exhale and inhale in 4 counts. This technique will help set the rhythm that will suppress a panic attack, calm you down, and also nourish the brain with oxygen.
Slow and deep breathing. This exercise can be performed anywhere. You need to straighten your shoulders and take slow, measured inhalations and exhalations. The technique will help restore your former balance and suppress a panic attack.
Holding your breath. This technique helps when shallow inhalations and exhalations occur. In order to normalize breathing, you need to hold it for 6-10 seconds. Then you need to take a deep breath and exhale.
Synchronization of rhythms. The exercise is similar to the 4/4 technique. Only for this technique you need to feel the pulse, inhale for the first four beats, and exhale for the second.

How to properly perform calming breathing during a panic attack

1. Calming = relaxed . The most common and basic mistake is active exhalation. You are trying to forcefully “blow” the air out of yourself, but this is not correct. The exhalation should be relaxed, and the air should come out on its own, without effort on your part.

How to do it?

Remember when you did some physical work for a long time or solved a difficult problem. After a job is finished, or a difficult task is solved, you usually involuntarily take a deep breath, and then exhale a sigh of relief, saying something like:

“Pffff... Well, finally!”

This very “Pfft...” is exactly the Correct Relaxing Exhalation . And this is how you should exhale when doing calming breathing, and not puff like a steam locomotive. In this case, the stomach must be relaxed, not retracted. It is important!

The author of the so-called “sobbing breath” Yuri Vilunas suggests something similar:

2. The sooner, the more effective . You shouldn’t wait until the panic attack reaches its peak state, and you will be lying on the couch, rolling your eyes, drooling, drenched in cold sweat and no longer understanding anything. It is clear that at such a moment you will not be able to really do anything.

Therefore, as soon as you feel the approach of PA, immediately begin to perform calming breathing. The sooner you start, the more guarantees that breathing will work. Sometimes 5–6 cycles of calming breathing are enough to stop an attack in its infancy.

The following logically follows from this point:

3. Forewarned = forearmed . You should not wait for new attacks of PA to try using calming breathing. Learn to do it in advance.

Many people get caught just like this. Like: “Oh, I read it, maybe I’ll try it sometime next time.”

No! It definitely won't work that way. Don't be lazy to spend time training. This will not only help you actually cope with an attack of PA, but will also give you self-confidence. But you really lack confidence.

Why is this effective?

When a panic attack occurs, breathing becomes difficult and begins to quicken. At rest, breathing is slow. By performing the above exercise techniques, a person activates the areas of the brain that are responsible for sleep, rest and relaxation of the body. This helps you calm down and gain control over your body.

And to avoid panic attacks in the future, it is worth visiting an experienced doctor. Best psychotherapist I.G. Gernet will help you at any time!

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The meaning of breathing

Breathing is an integral part of many cults, rituals and religions. It represents the basis of life, enlivening it and causing it to vibrate. The Latin word "spiritus" means "breath, air, spirit." This means that breathing is a spirit that is constantly in motion. Some traditional cultures see the breath as a direct manifestation of spirit, a transcendent force with which we can consciously connect.

Many rituals use it as a means of purification. In Sanskrit, Atman, the creator of the Universe, manifests itself in man through the breath, which, like prana in Indian religion, represents the inhalation, the spirit. As a symbol of the spiritual world, the breath has the ability to open the doors of the mind and heart. In major traditional teachings such as Zen, which came from China in the 12th century, it is at the center of the search for the inner path, since abdominal breathing helps to learn meditation. From time immemorial, Buddhist monks have used it to achieve a higher mental and spiritual level. Concentration on breathing is carried out through the nadis, the human energy channels. The ability to center and control their mental and physical consciousness is the key to complete control over their body and mind.

For Hindus, the air we breathe contains prana, the life energy that nourishes us. It is concentrated in the hara, located in the center of the human body: two fingers below the navel. Hara is a spiritual concept that guides a person along the path of inner development. Eastern teachings place their entire consciousness in it, drawing strength and self-control.

The Japanese view the stomach as the center of vital energy. Having learned to control breathing, they found that it was possible to consciously change other body functions (heart rate, blood circulation, emotional and physical balance). They discovered that the mind is able to control and direct the flow of energy created by proper breathing. Thus, mental awareness, interacting with breathing, can affect physical health and the immune system as a whole. Endorphins sent to the cells restore the free movement of energy and relieve all types of muscle tension. The entire body reacts to these beneficial vibrations created by the breath.

From childhood we are forced to suck in our stomachs. While eastern teachings, on the contrary, call for relaxing the lower abdomen. Since it is at the same time the most powerful and most unconscious part of our body, in which our anxieties, suppressed outbursts of anger, fears expressed by abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, colitis and other disorders crystallize. “If you feel good in the hara area, then everything is fine with you, and it will be difficult to shake your peace of mind,” says Karlfried Graf Durkheim. (Durkheim, Karlfried Count. “The Use of Pleasures,” 2004.)

A person focused on the hara is balanced, calm, and feels comfortable in his body and in life in general.

Inhale-exhale

Anxiety and panic attacks can cause your body to react as if you are facing an immediate threat.
If you are living with an anxiety disorder, you may have experienced hyperventilation (excessive breathing), which can be overwhelming and have a significant physiological impact.

If you hyperventilate, you may experience symptoms such as:

Blurred vision
dyspnea
Confusion
Dizziness
Heavy sweating
Increased heart rate
Numbness in the limbs

Because breathing is a physiological system that is under involuntary (autonomous) and voluntary control, breathing exercises are an excellent therapy for relieving stress or anxiety.
You can use breathing exercises to help you focus on counteracting the nervous system arousal associated with chronic anxiety. Even if you don't have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, these exercises can be used as a relaxation technique during stressful situations.

For people with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD), breathing exercises can be used as coping mechanisms when anxiety or stressful events trigger an anxious response.

Breathing exercises can teach you how to reduce shallow chest breathing caused by chronic hyperventilation. When you learn to breathe properly using these specific techniques, you can also naturally induce a state of relaxation and a sense of self-control.

Breathing practice in sophrology

Many people have never paid much attention to their breathing. Already at the first sessions of sophrology, they realize that their breathing is incomplete, superficial, since they only use the capacity of their lungs by a third. Breath control is at the core of sophrology training: by engaging the whole body, it can access and release repressed emotions.

Full breathing is a tool necessary to achieve relaxation and well-being. To find a state of inner harmony, any sophrology session begins with relaxing the abdominal muscles. However, most breathing techniques begin with the need to be aware of the breath. This is the first step to control your body and mind. Our health, state of mind, and creative potential depend on the amount of oxygen supplied by breathing. Breathing through your belly helps you stand firmly on the ground. By directing our energized breath to certain parts of the body, we can activate, revitalize or calm them.

Train yourself, for example, to take several deep breaths through your nose throughout the day (dirt particles from the air can enter your body through your mouth), placing the palm of your left hand on your diaphragm and your right hand on your stomach: this exercise has a good effect on all organs of your body. bodies.

Focus your breathing and consciousness at the level of your stomach several times a day - this will strengthen your self-control and reduce the damage from stress.

Sophrology recommends performing alternating breathing (for a description in the “Practice” section) to calm the nervous system and improve attention and memory, affecting various functions of the left and right hemispheres. Himalayan yogis claim that such breathing is fundamental. According to them, it corresponds to a natural cycle that uses each nostril for specific purposes: breathing from the right nostril stimulates the desire for action and fighting spirit, while breathing from the left nostril promotes a calm, contemplative state.

Breathing is much more than a physiological reflex; it helps us thrive and build inner strength. Mental balance largely depends on this smooth and harmonious movement of air.