Breathing to Reduce Anxiety

When I thought about writing a post on the benefits of breathing to reduce anxiety, I started to smile to myself as I considered the alternative – stop breathing, and that will certainly eliminate any anxious feelings. So let me add some clarity here – I’m referring to effective breathing techniques to aid in anxiety reduction!

Years ago, when I was still in my late 20s and developed anxiety and panic issues, I was referred to a psychologist who recommended biofeedback as a tool to help me learn about physical cues and hopefully parlay that into a successful cycle of recognizing when I was stressed and tense, and then implement breathing and visualization exercises in order to achieve physical and emotional peace.

Ever the cynic, I was prepared to be disappointed by biofeedback in general and its ability to help me specifically, but I was pleasantly surprised. The visual and auditory alerts to my degree of tension and anxiety – the temperature of my extremities, skin response, breathing, etc. – truly did allow me to recognize my physical state and react accordingly. In fact, for many years after, I excelled at being able to self-identify when I was tense or anxious, and I could feel my body change as I reacted by doing what I had learned – deep breathing and relaxation exercises.

As I got older and began looking for strategies to assist me with my new (or not so new) anxiety challenges, I began to research Buddhism and some of the meditations and exercises involved with clearing the head – a quiet mind. Almost all of them involved structured breathing as a component, and some actually required that you focus on breathing as a way to keep extraneous thoughts from crowding out the things you were trying to accomplish.

Anxiety Cures has an interesting piece on breathing as a way to reduce anxiety, and while it doesn’t go into detail or suggest various techniques, it is a good starting point for those who have never explored the topic. Yoga is also listed as an example of a stress-reducing path that utilizes breathing as a key factor, but my background in yoga is limited to that which I embarrassingly perform as part of my Wii Fit regimen.

That said, I’ve found enormous benefit by incorporating effective breathing techniques as part of my overall anxiety reduction program, and I heartily recommend exploring the topic in more detail if you’re looking for another tool to add to your toolbox.

Breathe Correctly and Remove Your Anxiety