Deep breathing exercises is the key to keep anxiety symptoms under control.  When anxious, the body goes into overdrive and a sense of helplessness and panic takes over.  Here are a few obvious indications that a person may have anxiety:
 

  • Hyperventilating
  • Panic attacks
  • Palpitations
  • Sweats
  • Shakes
  • Light headiness
  • Fatigue
  • Chest pain

 

Breathing Trouble

A majority of these symptoms are interlinked.

What Is Hyperventilation?

Hyperventilating and the feeling of losing control may cause a panic attack.  When hyperventilating there is too much oxygen in the body, yet there is a feeling of gasping for air.  A sense of suffocation and panic takes over, leaving the body exhausted, trying to figure out how to gain back control.  A person may break into a sweat, experience palpitations and their body may even shake. With too much oxygen in the body, it needs to be dispersed.  To use this oxygen, the body needs to produce the right amount of carbon dioxide, which is difficult when a hyperventilating.

How to Recover from Hyperventilation:

To restore the correct balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen, there needs to be a control of breath.  With deep breathing exercises, the production of the stress hormones like cortisol and adrenalin can be controlled, resulting in a feeling of control, without any panic.
 

Benefits Of Deep Breathing Exercises

There are numerous benefits of perfecting a “deep breathing” technique, including:

  • Slows breathing down
  • Controls the symptoms of anxiety
  • Lowers blood pressure
  • Metabolism decreases
  • Nitric oxide (helps information travel from the nerve cells to the brain) levels are increased.

 

Just Relax: Deep Breathing Exercises For Anxiety

Calm The Mind

How To Deep Breath Properly

 
Deep breathing practice, also known as “diaphragmatic breathing”, aids mind and body control, which helps with stress and anxiety.  Deep breathing includes the expansion of the belly, and the intensifying of the inhalation and exhalation.  These techniques, decrease the breathing regularity but raise the blood gases, producing a calm and controlled feeling.  The breathing technique is often carried out in exercise regimes like Tai Chi and Yoga, to enable the person to focus, retain balance and composition.  Taking a class in either discipline will help master deep breathing and relax the body and mind.  If for whatever reason, attending a class is not practical, then practicing these techniques at least twice a day will help the body find a new rhythm and control.
 

  1. Place one hand just below the collar bone and the other hand on the diaphragm, which is just below the ribs and just above the belly button.
  2. Close the mouth
  3. Inhale through the nose for the count of 4
  4. Exhale through the mouth for 8
  5. Repeat this exercise three times

 

What To Do

If consumed with the feeling of stress or anxiety, lay down, to steady the body and try this deep breathing exercise (if in public, find a seat):  Place a hand on the belly and feel it rise and fall in rhythmic pattern, with no pause between breaths.  The inhale and exhale should be counted as one breath, making sure the exhale is twice as long as the inhale.  When the deep breathing technique is perfected, it can be performed anywhere, even standing up.  It’s bets not to take in quick blasts of air because it will hit the back of the throat and may in itself, cause anxiety.  These exercises may be practiced morning and evening, and soon the body will find a new and calm way of deep breathing and will begin to switch the anxiety off.
 
To find out more about “deep breathing and its benefits, visit www.getthrive.com
 

Just Relax: Deep Breathing Exercises For Anxiety

Calm The Body


 
RESOURCES
There are a number of useful apps that help you focus and deep breath.
Breathe2Relax
Breathing Zone
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health