A Natural Anxiety Treatment - Breathing Exercises For Anxiety And Panic
Slow and controlled breathing exercises in proper fashion often proves a very effective
means of reducing and controlling symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks.
I. Reasons Why Breathing Matters for Anxiety and Panic
Feelings of heightened anxiety in the face of real and imminent danger increases stress hormones like adrenalin, raises heartbeat and breathing rate, and enables the bodily exertion needed for fight or flight response. Panic attacks in many ways mimic the conditions of reasonable heightened anxiety, but without the clear and present danger to fight or to avoid. In the absence of a real threat, the fear-induced bodily reactions become counter-productive.
More rapid breathing, as one effect of heightened anxiety, can supply the muscles and organs with the extra oxygen needed to respond to a real danger. But in the case of panic and irrational anxiety, it alters the appropriate oxygen/carbon dioxide ratio in the brain, which then causes greater anxiety.
Hyperventilation has the effect of deceasing the diameter of blood vessels and hence blood flow. Decreased blood flow causes dizziness, a numb feeling in the extremities, and a sense of unreality. These effects of over-breathing typically further contribute to the rising spiral of fear and panic.
And typically, self-conscious slowing of breathing during an attack helps improve the oxygen/carbon dioxide ratio, thus reducing symptoms that increase anxiety level. And slow and controlled breathing distracts the mind from anxiety-inducing "what if" and morbid thoughts.
Between panic attacks, sufferers often exist in a heightened state of anxiety and hyperventilation, less anxiety and hyperventilation than during an attack, but enough to make the switch to panic easier and more likely than normal.
II. Methods of Breathing to Reduce Anxiety and Panic
Exercises useful in reducing breathing rate and feelings of fear are simple and easy, although over time they require focus and discipline both for habit-forming practice and for use during an anxiety attack.
Those with heightened anxiety levels, like those suffering from a wide variety of health-related stresses, often breathe through the mouth. Mouth breathing makes hyperventilation easier and decreases the efficiency of oxygen/carbon dioxide flow in comparison to nasal breathing. Often mouth breathing is the method to which the person has become most accustomed, and so a bit of retraining become necessary with exercises self-consciously practiced regularly over a period of time.
Another typical poor practice is shallow breathing emphasizing the portion of the lungs in the upper rib cage. This is common especially for people with sedentary lifestyles who, for example, sit for many hours of most days of the week in a classroom, library, or business office. Much of the lungs is not well used.
Below the lungs on both sides lies a thin muscular sheath called the "diaphragm." Someone using the diaphragm to breathe has his or her stomach area rise and fall with each inhalation and exhalation--like a baby does. Breathing this way uses the whole lung capacity from top to bottom.
Nasal breathing from the diaphragm discourages hyperventilation and increases efficiency with respect to mouth breathing. One can breath slower and feel less or no dizziness or numbness.
III. A Routine for Teaching Oneself Proper Breathing
A simple plan of breathing exercises to reduce anxiety level can thus be outlined as follows.
1) Schedule five minutes at least once each morning and once each evening. Four or more times is preferable, but it is better to be consistent with fewer times than inconsistent with more. Write the times on your calendar for the same times each day. This will help one be consistent and develop a habit.
2) Get comfortable in a quiet place. Let the phone ring. Don't answer text messages. Unplug from your iPad, iPhone, iPod, MP3 player, DVD player, whatever. Stay off the internet. Turn off radio and TV, or at least park yourself in a place where distractions are minimal. Don't think about what you have to do or what you did that day. Relax your shoulder muscles.
You may hold a time piece handy that can be used to count seconds.
3) In the beginning, one must take care to know one is breathing using the diaphragm. This can be verified by holding hands over the abdomen, below the rib cage. The abdomen should rise when inhaling and fall when exhaling. If the rise and fall stops, one has started to breathe improperly from the upper rib cage again.
4) Inhale through the nose from the diaphragm slowly, counting slowly to three or four from the beginning to the end of the inhaling cycle--counting "one, one thousand, two, one thousand" and so on to approximate seconds. Or breathe in over a three of four second interval using a time piece.
5) Pause briefly before exhaling. Exhale slowly over a three or four second interval parallel to the inhale cycle. Pause briefly and repeat.
6) Keep going for four or five minutes.
7) Repeat the process twice a day, morning and evening as noted for five or six weeks to develop a habit and to begin training oneself so as to make slow, controlled breathing almost second nature when one undergoes a panic attack or when one feels anxiety levels rising.
Notice any difference? Remember and celebrate your victories. Reinforce success.
Copyright (c) 2010 Peter Rubel
by: Peter Rubel
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