Many people ask me about breathing exercises I use to help manage anxiety and panic attacks.
Most of us breathe wrong. We as a society have become shallow breathers. We take quick, shallow breaths throughout the day, rushing one breathe so we can get to the next one. Never fully appreciating the process of sitting and taking a slow, mindful breathe of air.
Managing anxiety and panic is all about slowing things down. Giving permission to your self to be calm and relaxed. Learning to let go of the fear of the future so that you can better live in the present moment.
But until you reach that state of relaxed nirvana, what can you do when you feel an anxiety or panic attack coming on? How can you use breathing to calm down when your body has already started the process of ramping itself up?
A great exercise I recommend is called the 4-7-8 breathing exercise.
Here’s how you do it:
- Take a deep breathe in through your nose. As you inhale count to four.
- Hold that breathe in and count to seven.
- Exhale through your mouth for a count of eight. As you exhale relax your muscles and feel your body sink.
- Repeat this pattern four times.
This exercise helps calm your nervous system and relax your body. It also helps focus your thoughts away from the idea of having an anxiety or panic attack.
Now that you feel more relaxed, focus your attention on that feeling. Keep your awareness on your relaxed body and mind. This will help to retrain your brain to recognize this feeling.
Doing this breathing exercise also helps to interrupt the minds response to the beginning of an anxiety attack. We train our mind and body though repetition. Each time you have an anxiety or panic attack you are practicing how to have an attack.
The reason anxiety gets worse over time is because you are actually practicing how to be anxious. The more you practice, the better you get. You need to break that mental cycle and practice more relaxed and positive actions and thoughts.
Give it a try and make sure you write in the comment section below and let me know how it worked. Comments and questions are always appreciated!
And don’t forget to share this with others. Many people suffer in silence. You never know who might benefit from this exercise.
Much love!
