Anxiety and Breathing

"The complex has its roots in the simple."

-- Lau-Tzu

There are many causes of anxiety: food additives, sugar, adrenal dysfunction and other internally consumed substances, but improper breathing can also cause anxiety...big time.

Generally, the first line of defense is to remove the negative stimulus. I.e., if there is a snake in the area, remove the snake, or leave the area.

If this is impractical, (your boss is the "snake," or he/she is just so exciting that you just cannot sit still, the caffeine you ingested is driving you up the wall), you can immediately address your reaction to it with the way you breathe.

External stress and pressure as well as internal emotional conflict trigger anxiety, and our body reacts by tightening the chest and stomach muscles. We hold our breath in an attempt to stay in control. This further restricts respiration and produces shallow, rapid breathing. Shallow breathing numbs our feelings and traps the anxiety inside, which in turn triggers more physiological arousal, sending us up the anxiety escalator and then possibly down into depression or malaise.

One of the best ways to handle any episode of emotional stress is simply to feel the feelings and keep breathing. Breathing naturally (though many do not know what that really feels or looks like) and fully allows us to feel our feelings and address the anxiety.

The entire autonomic nervous system (and through it, our internal organs and glands) takes its cue from our breathing patterns. By changing our breathing, we can influence millions of biochemical reactions in our body, producing more relaxing substances such as endorphins and fewer anxiety-producing ones such as adrenaline and higher blood acidity. Mindfulness of the breath is so effective that it is common to all meditative and prayer traditions. Our word "spirit" comes from the Latin word for breath.

Modern life has resulted in vast numbers of people who are afflicted by the respiratory equivalent of anorexia. Most people today simply do not breathe in sufficient oxygen for their body's optimal functioning. 1. Reducing Anxiety NOW using the way you breathe.

Extreme forms of emotion are often immobilizing, limiting and dangerous to one's health and well-being. Some are deadly. Anxiety can harm and even kill.

The way we breathe either lessens or worsens the emotional/fear response.

Try the following breathing exercise to reduce or eliminate anxiety.

"Certainly in the midline and to the left, the heart and pericardium fill the space and the pleura and lung are more lateral. Posterior the lungs extend nearly to the midline. With lung expansion, the space of the pericardium and heart is well-maintained with expansion posterior, laterally and inferiorly."

-- Dr. Eddie Erlandson
Thoraccic Surgeon and core faculty member
Center for Professional Breathing and Movement

For Breathing That Is Quieting, Calming, Centering AND Energizing

Supported by a small round pillow as above or a Nada-Chair from Relax the Back stores nationwide, sit out near the edge of a fairly hard-surfaced chair, stool or arm of a couch with feet flat on the floor, or stand. Both of these positions need an erect but not stiff posture. Be "tallest" with your chin slightly above the horizon. If you stand, bend your knees slightly so as to unlock them.

Let your tongue lightly touch the roof or your mouth and your jaw relax. Relax your belly. Let it hang down. Let go of any fear of having a "pot belly" or not having "washboard abs."

1. Place your thumbs over your kidneys (below your back ribs and above your pelvis). Wrap your fingers around your sides, towards your belly button.

2. Squeeze gently as you nose breathe long slow deep breaths into your squeezed fingers, forcing them apart with your in-breath in your belly back and sides against their will. Simultaneously take four deep in-and-out breaths while trying to match the breathing cycle of the animated logo for a timing reference. Make sure the exhale is twice as long as the inhale. It may work better for you to use silent number counting (one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.) to gauge that. Again, just make sure the exhale is twice as long or even more than twice as long as the inhale.
   Breathing Rate #1:
   1. How did that feel? Relaxing. Energizing? Good? If it did, then do it five more times in a row.

      Dizziness, spaceyness or otherwise confusion means you should stop and continue your day or stop and recommence in a minute or two after the energy has subsided or integrated within you.

   2. A little anxiety (or a lot)?

      If you felt anxious, it was probably too fast for you, or you did not squeeze in the right place or strongly enough and then breathe into the squeezed thumb and fingers to separate them against their will.

Try it again. This time following this breathing pattern:

1. Place your thumbs over your kidneys (below your back ribs and above your pelvis). Wrap your fingers around your sides, towards your belly button.

2. Squeeze gently as you nose breathe long slow deep breaths into your squeezed fingers, forcing them apart with your in-breath in your belly back and sides against their will. Simultaneously take four deep in-and-out breaths while trying to match the breathing cycle of the animated logo for a timing reference. Make sure the exhale is twice as long as the inhale. It may work better for you to use silent number counting (one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.) to gauge that. Again, just make sure the exhale is twice as long or even more than twice as long as the inhale.
   Breathing Rate #2:

3. Now look at your thoughts, feelings, emotions and body sensations that are passing by as you would observe clouds in the sky. Just observe what is happening. Meanwhile you are breathing deeply and slowly.

   Feel better? Calmer? Energized? Calm and energized at the same time?

In any event, try the next one remembering to coordinate it with the squeezing. Squeeze gently and breathe in through the nose, long slow deep breaths, breathing into your squeezed fingers and thumbs, widening them with your breath slightly against their will. If it feels good, then do it five times more.

If that is not the right feel or timing, then go on to the next one.

1. Place your thumbs over your kidneys (below your back ribs and above your pelvis). Wrap your fingers around your sides, towards your belly button.

2. Squeeze gently as you nose breathe long slow deep breaths into your squeezed fingers, forcing them apart with your in-breath in your belly back and sides against their will. Simultaneously take four deep in-and-out breaths while trying to match the breathing cycle of the animated logo for a timing reference. Make sure the exhale is twice as long as the inhale. It may work better for you to use silent number counting (one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.) to gauge that. Again, just make sure the exhale is twice as long or even more than twice as long as the inhale.
   Breathing Rate #3:

3. Now look at your thoughts, feelings, emotions and body sensations that are passing by as you would observe clouds in the sky. Just observe what is happening. Meanwhile you are breathing deeply and slowly.

If the above helped you get or stay calm even just a little bit, there are a few great ways of addressing anxiety, and they are included in our video/audio program at #177 Rapid Breathing Development, Shortness of Breath.

Columbia University has released a study showing a strong relationship between anxiety and poor memory -- The relationship is particularly strong in young boys at risk for delinquency. Pine, et al. (1999). Journal of American Academy of child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Vol. 38(3). 1024-1031.