Breathing Exercises to Reduce Anxiety
Knowing how to breathe correctly is essential to reducing anxiety. Breathing is not something we do, it is something we allow. When feeling anxious, most people start breathing shallowly. This can increase the anxiety that you feel.
Fortunately, spending five to ten minutes a day on breathing exercises will help you breathe deeply from the abdomen.
Although breathing is natural, learning to breathe correctly can take some time. Do not become discouraged if you find the breathing exercises difficult. Keep doing them on a daily basis. Adding yoga or qigong can also help with breathing exercises.
There are many benefits to abdominal breathing. With abdominal breathing, you will increase your oxygen supply, stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system which promotes calmness, rid toxins through the lungs more efficiently, and quiet your mind. Choose a time of day to practice breathing exercises. When abdominal breathing becomes a habit, you’ll be able to use it in anxious situations.
First take note of your current level of tension. Place one hand on your abdomen below the rib cage. Breathe in through your nose. Move the breath as deep into your lungs as possible. If you are doing it correctly, your hand will rise while your chest will only move slightly. After you have inhaled, pause for a moment.
When you exhale, you can exhale through either your nose or your mouth. While you do so, allow your body to go loose and limp. Imagine that you have been carrying a heavy load and you have just set it down.
Do this slow breathing for ten times in a row. To make sure you are not gulping air, count up to four while you inhale. While you exhale, you can combine a word with your muscle relaxation. Choose a word such as “relax” or “let go.
If you do this daily for at least two weeks, you will find that abdominal breathing becomes standard. Use this technique whenever you notice yourself feeling anxious and falling back on shallow breathing or hyperventilating.
