Breathing exercises for anxiety
Breathing exercises for anxiety are very important and highly effective. The use of Breathing exercises for anxiety helps to avoid panic attacks and recover from the episode of discomfort. It is unbelievable, but yes, only Breathing exercises for anxiety can give you the answer on how to stop an anxiety attack
Scrolling through social media, amidst the crazy posts on COVID-19 policy and cases, you may have stumbled upon a friend or two who reminded everyone to “just breathe.”
But can breathing exercises for anxiety really make a difference?
In his new book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, journalist James Nestor argues that modern humans have gotten very bad at this most basic act of life. We breathe through the mouth and into the chest and we do it too fast. There is even a phenomenon named “email apnea” in which office workers that forced to multi-tasking breathe intermittently and superficially – or even hold their breath – for 30 seconds or more while being stuck to their computers.
In addition to all the worrying health problems it can cause, which Nestor details in his book, our respiratory inability can have another major consequence – contributing to our anxiety and other mental health problems.
“The speed and depth at which we breathe is a determining factor in our mental state,” explains Victor Tsan, medical director at Philadelphia Holistic Clinic.
Researchers like Tsan are exploring how using different techniques Breathing exercises for anxiety – some new, some old – can help people to understand how to stop an anxiety attack. What they find is that breathing could be an overlooked key to finding more stillness and peace.
How Breathing exercises for anxiety can calm us down and show how to stop an anxiety attack.
We often try to tame fear by changing our thoughts – by questioning the worst scenarios in our minds, interrupting the rumination with some sort of distraction, or going to therapy. However, breathing exercises for anxiety offers a different approach that bypasses the complexities of the mind and speaks directly to the body. Instead of trying not to feel anxious, you can do something specific – breathe slowly or quickly, in a rhythm, or through one nostril – and sometimes find immediate relief.
In a 2017 study, very anxious people were asked to perform a breathing anxiety exercise by taking a diaphragmatic breathing class and they practiced at home twice a day. Diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing involves breathing deeply into your abdomen instead of breathing shallowly into your chest. After eight weeks, they said they felt less anxious than a group that did not receive the training. They also showed physical signs of decreased anxiety, including lower heart rate, slower breathing, and lower skin conductivity.
Practice breathing anxiety exercises regularly
Thus, regular practice of breathing anxiety exercise can help you feel calmer in your daily life. But other studies suggest that focusing on your breathing during times of acute stress may also be helpful and this is the answer on how to stop an anxiety attack.
In an older study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers brought participants into the lab and told them they were going to receive electric shocks. Some of the participants practiced breathing slowly before the shocks (which were actually never delivered), while others focused on breathing at a normal rate or not regulating their breathing at all. Slow ventilators – breathing about eight breaths per minute – not only reported feeling less anxious while anticipating pain, but they also showed lower physical anxiety, as measured by sweat and blood flow to the fingers.
Another study followed up on this research and tested three different rhythms of breathing: rapid inhalation with slow exhalation; inhale slowly with exhale quickly, or breathing in and out evenly. This is where the rapid inhalation with the slow exhalation (2 seconds in, 8 seconds out) was most effective in relieving both the physical and mental experience of anxiety.
Roots of breathing exercises for anxiety found in Yoga and other forms of Oriental traditional medicine
Of course, Breathing exercises for anxiety are a major part of many meditations and Buddhist mindfulness practices, and it can be a major reason why they work. In a small 2017 study, researchers asked people with an anxiety disorder to try either alternate nasal breathing or mindful breathing awareness for 10 minutes for two days in a row. They found that practicing alternate nasal breathing was about three times as effective at reducing people’s feelings of anxiety.
Another study followed up on this research and tested three different rhythms of breathing: rapid inhalation with slow exhalation; inhale slowly with exhale quickly, or breathing in and out evenly. This is where the rapid inhalation with the slow exhalation (2 seconds in, 8 seconds out) was most effective in relieving both the physical and mental experience of anxiety.
These benefits were felt by participants in a small 12-week yoga breathing class in the UK. According to researchers at the University of Southampton:
Participants described a feeling of “more control”, noting that “anxiety is no longer debilitating.” One participant reported marked increases in confidence, mindfulness, and spirituality; as well as a great ability to relax … Three participants returned to paid work, another was able to get a long-awaited job, and another was able to think about returning to work because he could not do it for many years.
Different forms of breathing exercises for anxiety
The way we breathe can trigger a cascade of physical changes in the body that contribute to stress or relaxation.
“If we breathe really shallow and fast, it makes our nervous system more regulated, and we feel tension and anxiety,” says Tsan. “Slow breathing actually triggers an anti-stress response.”
Technically, breathing influences the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) branches of our nervous system, and certain techniques can promote more calm and parasympathetic relaxation. Some Breathing exercises for anxiety can also cause us to release hormones like prolactin and possibly oxytocin, the hormone of love and unity.
“Breathing anxiety exercises are allowing you to take conscious control of your breathing so you can take control of your nervous system so you can control your anxiety,” says Nestor. “As soon as we breathe in a certain mode, we are transfer communications to the emotional centers of our brain to tranquil our emotions down.”
Other techniques, such as Tummum – a yogic breathing practice that involves strong or soft breathing, abdominal contractions during breath-holding and visualization – actually increase the sympathetic nervous system, increasing the stress of our body to activate deeper relaxation after, similar to straining a muscle and then letting it go works.
This is similar to the method of breathing that “Iceman” explains to his followers, a kind of breathing that Tsan is presently investigating. Hof aka “Iceman” is well-known for his apparently superhuman accomplishments, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts and changing his immune response to E. coli, which he attributes to well-adjusted control over his own physiology thanks to breathing practices and more.
Rapid breathing can be triggering for people with anxiety-causing tingling in the limbs and dizziness that often accompany panic attacks – but that’s part of the point. When you breathe fast and start experiencing symptoms that normally associated with anxiety, it can help you reinterpret those symptoms in a less threatening way. They become less worrying because they have a clear cause, just as a high heart rate during exercise does not bother us. And if you can connect anxiety with faulty breathing habits, it means that you can change the way you breathe and potentially see some improvement.
Rapid breathing can be triggering for people with anxiety-causing tingling in the limbs and dizziness that often accompany panic attacks – but that’s part of the point. When you breathe fast and start experiencing symptoms that normally associated with anxiety, it can help you reinterpret those symptoms in a less threatening way. They become less worrying because they have a clear cause, just as a high heart rate during exercise does not bother us. And if you can connect anxiety to faulty breathing habits, it means that you can change the way you breathe and potentially see some improvement.
How to breathe better and how to stop an anxiety attack
There are countless techniques you can try out if you want to practice breathing for better mental and physical health. While they should not be viewed as a substitute for therapy or a remedy for severe anxiety, they can be a free and simple tool that provides both short-term relief and long-term benefits. “Breathing techniques can be used as the first and complementary treatment for stress and anxiety,” write Ravinder Jerath and colleagues in a 2015 study.
Many of the formally researched techniques derive from pranayama, yogic breathing that dates back to ancient India:
- Ujayyi: deep breathing with a narrow throat, creating a sound similar to the ocean, generally recommended during the practice of yoga asanas.
- Bhastrika, aka “bellows breath”: gasp and breathe out compellingly.
- Nadi Sodhan and Anulom Vilom: Types of alternating breathing through the nostrils, in which air is inhaled through one nostril and exhaled through the other, sometimes with breath-holding.
There are also a variety of “box breathing” practices, derived from Sama Vritti pranayama, in which you inhale for four seconds, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four, and repeat. Additional timed methods include 4-7-8 fast repeated breathing, that recommended to help people that have difficulties falling asleep.
Just as a mindfulness practice is not just meditation, breathing as the practice is not just waking up every morning and doing 10 minutes of chest breathing. It’s also important to be aware of how you breathe in your daily life (or when checking your email). In Breath, Nestor’s guidance comes down to a shortlist of general rules, including remembering to breathe through your nose, not through your mouth, slow your breathing down (up to five or six seconds on the inhale and five or six seconds on the exhale), and extend the exhale to get even more relaxation.
So much conversation about how breathing can make you feel uneasy – or so I felt reading about all the flaws in our breathing habits. In one study, researchers noted that anxious people were skeptical at the start of the experiment and had some difficulty with exercise. But this group still felt better after 12 weeks of exercise.
All of these researches illustrate how much influence our body has on our mind. Modern life is full of concern, but as Nestor writes, not being able to breathe remains one of our deepest and most primitive anxieties. If the way we breathe is telling our brain that something is wrong, it’s no wonder we feel anxious – and it’s no wonder that all of these breathing techniques can provide such profound healing.
Conclusion
Do you want to know what is the best style of breathing for anxiety? Do you need to learn how to stop anxiety attacks by using only breathing exercises for anxiety? Are you prefer a natural approach to your anxiety instead of anti-depressants?
Contact Philadelphia Holistic Clinic (267) 284-3085 and schedule your appointment with our medical director Victor Tsan, MD. After a full evaluation and all necessary holistic tests, Dr. Tsan will propose the best treatment plan including if necessary acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnosis, meditation, Yoga, and Breathing exercises for anxiety for home use.
