Anxiety and breathing has a give and take relationship, learning easy breathing techniques for anxiety is mediating and eventually stopping the flow of paranoid thought. It also keep you away from the dark vacuum of anxiousness that sucks every thought in and divulges you from the obsessive nature of anxiety and its preceding panic attack which normally leads to unpleasant situations.
You see, breathing directly affects the state of awareness both internally and externally. As the ancient sage analogy suggests, “the mind is like the surface of calm water, breathing is like stones thrown on the water. When you throw more stones onto it, it becomes disturbed and agitated. The lesser you stone you throw onto it, the calmer it is” Thus, the lesser and deeper breathing, the calmer the mind will be.
Normally, an average person breathes 13-17 times per minute, a pretty bad breathing frequency (that’s a busy individual with a hectic schedule). During a state of anxiousness, thoughts flow rapidly and randomly, in usual cases they are one whole universe of negative thoughts enqueued in a disorderly manner waiting to rush in and alter the normal state of mental awareness and modifying the normal processes of the body. Once you get totally sucked in, you lose awareness, get detached from reality (derealization), lose control, escape from yourself (depersonalization), and in some cases fear that you might die at that moment.
The truth is, you just need breathing! Here are some things you can do during such moments:
- Sit back straight, if possible do not lean
- Put your hands on your lap
- Close your eyes and breathe as slowly, discreetly, and deeply as you can (5-7 seconds or more during inhalation and exhalation)
- Breathe in through the nose and exhale through the mouth
- As you inhale, gradually push out your abdomen to allow more air to come in
- As you breathe out, focus on the air coming out and visualize the worries coming out of your body as well
- During the entire process, it’s good to withdraw from your senses as much as possible, the lesser the sensory stimulation, the higher your concentration is
The simple rule is, the lesser the breathing, the higher the concentration, the more physically and mentally relaxed you are otherwise its nothing more than invoking a more intense agitation.
Because of the fact that most people developed bad breathing habits due to bad past habits, its not startling that when during anxiety, particular people find it hard to breathe. Giving importance to overall health, learning to breathe better is a start off and learning the suggested easy breathing techniques will certainly aid you in times of crisis.
