By In the fast rhythms of life, we quite often experience stress and anxiety. Making the quest for inner peace even more difficult. However, if we are consciously making some changes in our daily routine, we might find some peace.
One such technique is breathing exercises for anxiety. This is done by adding short, easy and extremely helpful exercises to your everyday ritual.
Exercises like deep belly breathing, alternate nostril breathing and box breathing, can help reduce your brain’s business of brain.
In the guide below, we would go through 5 types of breathing exercises that can help uncover inner peace and reduce anxiety as well. The beginning of your journey towards a relaxed mind and an inner peace is near.
Understanding Anxiety: A Wall against Peacefulness
Before we talk about breathing exercises for anxiety, let’s understand where everything originates from.
Anxiety surpasses being tense or fretting. Those are common issues almost every human being goes through.
Anxiety on the other hand is different. It is a mood disorder that can be a link keeping us from having tranquility and free hours.
While an anxious person is herself under no threat, the body reacts as it would in the cause of a threat. Anxiety triggers are mostly internal, caused from constant overthinking. This leads to the brain to believe that it is causing the ‘fight or flight’ response.
This can activate the sympathetic nervous system which responds to stress by increasing heart rate, deep breathing and a mind bombarded with racing thoughts.
That’s not all, the symptoms also include a feeling of unease and hindrance of thinking and focus. Acknowledging the effect of how anxiety works on your thoughts and body is the first step to coping with it.
Especially when we realize that with the use of breathing exercises for anxiety, we can fight it better. Our minds become peaceful and our lives serene.
Breathing Exercises for Anxiety -The Power of Breathing
Among all the self-care for anxiety practices, breathing always comes first!
Breathing is a reflex but when we can harness it, it becomes a mindful activity. We can slow down our breathing rhythm to have a cooling effect on the body.
This deep and thoughtful breathing triggers the part of the nervous system that is responsible for the relaxation response (rest, digest).
This, in turn, changes the the ‘fight or flight’ reaction, forcing your body to think peace.
It is quite phenomenal that something as fundamental as breathing is all we need to feel peace. Yes, your breathing abilities come in handy letting us move from anxious disturbance to balance.
As a result, with every deep breath, we allow our heart rate to lower. Plus, this also allows our muscles to relax and our brain to get rid of the clatter and stop it from feedbacking. The constant feedbacking is what causes you to sprial into a fit of overhtinking.
With this easy yet amazing experience we are pulled back to the current moment, and away from chaos.
Breathing Exercises For Anxiety The First Step
Before we begin our breathing exercises for anxiety, let us learn to just observe it. This includes we should carefully following our natural breathing rhythm without disturbing it.
The awareness of breathing allows us to notice the characteristic patterns of respiration, especially the changes that take place when we are feeling anxious.
You can track changes in our breathing patterns from slower, deeper breaths to faster and shallower, which may lately wake us up to high levels of anxiety.
Therefore, the key to addressing this issue is early identification of such changes and applying proven techniques to encourage slower, calmer breathing patterns.
Skills like this enhances our ability to dissect the physical experience of anxiety and helps you start begin mitigating it.
Yes, it is not an easy method to master. However, the key is to be patient with oneself, and avoid negative talk.
Box Breathing for a Resilient Mind
Whether through the armed forces or the convergence of neurosciences and wellness, we have begun to understand that box breathing works on a deeper neurological and physiological level.
Square Breathing, or 4×4 Breathing, which articulates itself from research in architecture, is scientifically we have shown to start helping with managing stress and anxiety.
The practice of this method includes having equal time of inhalation, retention and exhalation, which build or form a ‘box’ or ‘square’ pattern of breath cycle. It is achieved through deep, slow breaths and holding breath.
This activates the vagus nerve which extends from the head to the abdomen via the neck. Once the flag is raised, the vagus nerve sends the message to the body to lay back and stop the stress reaction.
Box Breathing: Instructional Manual
Here is a step-by-step guide to help you practice this technique:
- Sit or stand with your back straight in a comfortable position.
- Gradually empty out your lungs and with the same care, close your eyes.
- Inhale very slowly, clinching your nose to a count of four, making your lungs fully filled.
- In another count of four, hold your breath.
- Draw up your abdomen and pull in your belly button toward your spine for a count of four, then release your breath with your mouth open through four counts.
- Hold on your breath one last time for another count to four before vibrating.
Repeat the pattern of box for several minutes. Mark the time via the rhythm of the heartbeat and the sensation of each inhalation and exhalation. This can help induce mental calm as well as calm your body as the lines draw your attention away from your anxious thoughts.
4-7-8 Breathing in Anxiety Management
The usefulness of 4-7-8 breathing technique, which is known as the “relaxing breath” exercise for reducing anxiety cannot be overstated. The intended breathing rhythm will take your body to the state of deep peaceful rest.
The technique calls for inhaling through the nose slowly, and then holding the breath in for exactly 7 seconds, and finally exhaling as forcefully as possible through the mouth for 8 seconds. While this long exhale is part of how the method works. It works on stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which contributes to the relaxation of the whole body.
Practicing 4-7-8 Breathing: An Easy Find
- To introduce the 4-7-8 technique into your regular routine, first start by locating a suitable place where you can sit or lie down in a comfortable way.
- Now, place the tip of the tongue against the upper ridg of your mouth. Try to keep it there all the time.
- Do a belly breath, inhaling through your nose, beard full and long. Then, release the air completely through the mouth, with a “hoooo” sound.
- Close your lips and gently inhale for four counts through your nose.
- Grasp breath for seven.
- Empty out your lungs through your mouth and let a whoosh sound out for the count of eight.
This is one such way of breathing. Now, repeat the cycle consisting of inhaling and exhaling three more times for four rounded breaths. The mantra says use it 2 times a day. Eventually, this breathing exercise can prove useful as a tool to alleviate anxiety and help maintain a calm mental state.
Diaphragmatic Breathing as a Technique for Deep Relaxation
Using diaphragmatic breathing, which is also known as deep belly breathing, is a very good way to trigger soothing responses from the body and to reduce anxiety.
As opposed to shallow breaths from the chest, the lung signal you send to your brain is the one triggering relaxation and calmness. This signal helps in these cases to compensate for the harmful effect of anxiety on your body. This is the main culprit which provokes a stress response.
When practicing diaphragm type breathing, the vagus nerve gets stimulated and, being the one who controls the relaxation response through the parasympathetic nervous system, the body has a good chance for entering the relaxation process.
With the aid of your diaphragm your lungs are filled up more, giving you the ability to keep the air exchange rate high.
Learning Diaphragmatic Breathing: Holistic Approach
Learning diaphragmatic breathing involves a few clear steps that can guide you to effectively using your diaphragm and experiencing deep relaxation:
- Begin by laying face down on the ground or by sitting up but bending knees slightly and resting your head.
- Place one hand on the upper part of your chest and another slightly lower, over your ribcage. This will be so that you feel how your diaphragm shakes as you breathe.
- Besides exhaling out through your mouth, inhale slowly through your nose in such a manner that your stomach expands slowly against your hand. The hand on your chest should be as steady as a rock.
- Draw your belly-button inwards into your back; smile with your mouth open as you breathe out through pursed lips. Hand at your chest level must be as unstressed as possible.
Do this technique for 5 to 10 minutes, three to four times a day, to make it an unconscious part of your daily life.
The process by itself may seem to be difficult at first, but through practice, you will master it, and this can lead you to breathe deeply and calmly, reducing anxiety, and promoting a feeling of well-being.
Lion’s Breath to Release Tension
In our finally, breathing exercises for anxiety, we have talk about this.
Lion’s Breath or Simhasana, a stimulating pranayama, can be amazingly effective in battling nervousness. Otherwise expressed, it implies pushing out air forcefully that relaxes both the stress and tension in the body.
I recall in the case of Lion’s Breath the motion of pushing the tongue out and roaring, and it offers a cathartic release. It comes from the inside of the emotional tension buildup.
In addition, this breathing exercise has also a positive effect on the muscles of the face and neck, which are typical areas where tension commonly forms.
Doing Lion’s breath all out, we enhance the exercise, and the tension gets spread over the entire body and leads to relaxation. This activity can help us detoxify emotionally and release the tensions we carry within us.
How to Perform the Lion’s Breath
- It is a simple yet powerful exercise that can you either at a seated or kneeling posture. Here’s how to do it:
- Sit comfortably upright with a straight backbone. Prepare by breathing deeply for a couple of moments.
- Breathe in through the nose allowing the air to fill your lungs completely.
- Put your mouth wide; reach your tongue out as far as possible to the bottom of your chin.
- Try to unevenly deflate your lungs and push the last bit out and say “ha” with it, as if you would see a mirror fogging up before you. Let the air go surfing on the back of your throat
- Breathe out slowly while you lift your eye towards the middle of your forehead or the tip of your nose.
- Relax your face and take a steady breath for a few moments and then repeat the exercise.
- Ensure to do the Lion’s Breath two or three times to relieve you of your stress. This head massager can be especially suitable for reducing stress on the facial muscles and the neck.
Additionally, the force applied by the head massager is more effective in releasing negative energy or tension.
Alternate Nostril Breathing to Establish Balance
Alternate nostril breathing, a traditional yogic breathing technique called Nadi Shodhana, has come to be known for its balancing and harmonious effect on the body.
It is most effective in the case of managing anxiety because balanced brain hemispheres as left and right hemispheres result in the balanced emotional and mental states.
The breath circulates through both nostrils alternately and alternately, reason for which alternate nostril breathing leads to the improve.
Moreover, it facilitates a centering on breathing and a bid adieu to worries-generating villains in your mind.
Breathing Exercises for Anxiety – Designing a Regular Breathing Exercise Schedule
Putting consistency into practice when practicing breathing exercises is very important. To fully benefit from this exercise, you need to dedicate some of your time regularly to its implementation.
Firstly, schedule one activity for learning each day. Rather than all individuals being the same, numerous people would love to get into deep breathing either at dawn or right before sinking to sleep since these moments are peaceful and alleviate distractions to focus.
As the beginner, try at least five minutes in the session with these breathing exercises for anxiety. It is followed by an increased duration of the session as you become familiar with the exercise. Set a reminder or an alarm on your phone for those days that you may forget to exercise regularly.
Incorporate the breathing exercises into an already existing activities, like during the drive or after a workout, to turn those into a routine. Regular practice should yield reduced anxiety and increased calmness and an overall feeling of well-being.
Hopefully this article gives you a good idea on the different breathing exercise for anxiety. How was your experience? Let us know in the comment section below.
If anxiety is still something you deal with, why not try other mindful practices like grounding exercises for anxiety, and essential oils for anxiety
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