A Simple Breathing Practice to Lower Your Anxiety

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Breathing becomes compromised when we are under the spell of anxiety and stress. Anxiety is triggered when our brain detects a threat in our environment, actual or perceived, and the body’s natural, biological survival mechanism kicks in (Huang, 2011).

The muscles in our bodies tense up, breathing gets rapid, and controlling our body’s stress response can feel impossible. The muscles in the throat become constricted, which causes the breath to become shallow and thin.

When the body gets used to the state of physiological distress, it can be increasingly difficult to achieve a state of relaxation. 

What Is Deep Breathing?

Deep breathing is known to be one of the most effective anxiety management strategies. It is a tool we can access anytime, anyplace. It involves breathing deeply through the lungs and expanding the abdomen.

What Is Anxious Breathing?

On the other hand, anxious breathing involves expanding the chest and restricting the abdomen (Huang, 2011). While we don’t try to breathe anxiously, it is difficult to reverse this type of breathing once our bodies habituate.

Benefits of Deep Breathing

The more you practice to breathe deeply, there are countless benefits. In a research study of university students, they used a deep breathing technique that proved to improve stress, anxiety and mood states, as well as academic performance (Perciavalle et al., 2017).

Deep breathing regulates the nervous system and heart rate, and our emotional response. When you exhale deeply, it slows down the heart rate, slows down breathing and reduces the body’s stress response (Magnon et al., 2021). 

Another benefit is the more conscious control you will have over your breath, it changes the chemistry in your brain by increasing the production of endorphins, which are your body’s “happy” chemicals (Edwards, 2005).

Current research shows that all you need is just a 5-minute deep breathing practice per day to reduce your overall anxiety and stress (Magnon et al., 2021). 

Here is a simple breathing practice you can integrate in your every day life. 

Step 1: Inhale for 4 seconds.

Take a slow, intentional, deep breath in through your nose. Notice the air filling your lungs into your diaphragm. You want to feel like your belly is filling up with air, like a balloon.

Step 2: Hold for 5 seconds.

This might be tricky but try to hold your breath for the full 5 seconds. It can help slow your heart rate down easier once you’re able to master this skill. Count and hold steady. 

Step 3: Exhale for 6 seconds.

Purse your lips and exhale through your mouth, visualize yourself blowing out of a straw. This can help you conserve enough air to exhale for the full 6 seconds. This might be challenging at first, but it is so worth it! For fun, you can pretend you’re blowing out birthday candles on each exhalation. 

Step 4: Pause for 4 seconds.

This will allow you some time to prepare for the next inhalation.

Step 5: Repeat!

Try to continue this exercise for 5 minutes each day to notice better results. 

Remember, it takes practice to notice results. We cannot learn French or build enough endurance to run a marathon over night. The same concept applies to deep breathing. The brain and nervous system requires repetition to enable changes to your anxiety and stress levels, and to notice feeling the full benefits of relaxation. 

If it is too difficult to start with 5 minutes per day, start with 1 minute, and be consistent. Once you’re able to reach 1 minute a day consistently, increase it to 2, 3, 4 minutes- you get the idea.

It’s more important to be consistent at first to build the habit.

Once you are more comfortable with the exercise, try adding a slightly longer exhale to more quickly feel relaxed. I will say, it’s not easy to master right away, but once you are able to create a sense of consistency, you are well on your way to noticing results!

Sincerely,

Your CBT Therapist

© Copyright 2022 New Mindset CBT

Please note the following information is not intended to replace therapy and this resource is distributed free online solely for the purpose of psycho-education. If you are experiencing significant mental health concerns, particularly where your functioning has been impaired, it is strongly recommended you seek support in the form of appropriate psychotherapeutic treatment in your local area.

References

Edwards, S. (2005). A psychology of breathing methods. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 7(4), 30-36.

Huang, M. S. (2011). Coping with performance anxiety: College piano students' perceptions of performance anxiety and potential effectiveness of deep breathing, deep muscle relaxation, and visualization.

Magnon, V., Dutheil, F., & Vallet, G. T. (2021). Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-10.

Perciavalle, V., Blandini, M., Fecarotta, P., Buscemi, A., Di Corrado, D., Bertolo, L., ... & Coco, M. (2017). The role of deep breathing on stress. Neurological Sciences, 38(3), 451-458.