Anxiety can take over at any time, filling a person with fear of the imminent danger it carries. Anxious thoughts can consume a person with an anxiety attack, a common form of intense anxiety, for hours or even days.
Traditional pharmacological interventions, which can have negative effects with prolonged use, are not the only option for preventing future episodes of severe anxiety.
Four effective breathing exercises for relieving stress and anxiety have been published on the Mental Daily and the Space Coast Daily websites. Here are the following four techniques.
Conscious breathing
This breathing technique helps to slow down the breathing rate.
Find a comfortable position and focus on your breathing without changing it. Feel the changes that accompany each deep breath; the rhythm, texture and temperature of each breath.
After that, take even deeper breaths, watching the disappearance of stress, anxiety and judgment after a few minutes of mindful breathing.
Breathing words
If you want to focus on something during your breathing exercises, this method is probably for you. This is one of my favorite techniques for reducing the intensity of psychological stress.
This exercise involves adding words to each deep breath to take the mind off worry and also convey a message.
Straighten your posture in your chair. Instead of saying the words out loud, visualize them breathing in and out as you breathe in and out. For example, breathe in the word “I”. When you inhale, you should think “am”, and when you exhale, you should think “calmly”. Start with the phrase “I’m calm” and once you’ve mastered it, switch to a phrase that makes you feel more relaxed.
Square breathing
Square breathing, also called “four square breathing”, involves counting to four while taking deep breaths.
Start by getting comfortable in a chair. Once you’re comfortable, inhale to a count of four, hold your breath to a count of four, exhale to a count of four, and then take a short break to a count of four. Repeat this physical activity for four minutes.
If this technique works for you, you can increase its effectiveness by visualizing it during breathing exercises. Imagine that every time you count to four, you draw a four-sided box. This will prevent the appearance of unwanted thoughts.
Balloon breaths
This is perhaps the most effective method, as many people are successful with it. It involves deep diaphragmatic breathing, which can quickly induce a state of relaxation.
You start by sitting in a chair or lying on your back on the ground. One of the benefits of lying on the floor is increased attention to diaphragmatic breathing.
Once you have found the optimal position, place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. Watch your diaphragm inflate like a balloon as you inhale. Imagine that the balloon deflates and loses all the air as you exhale.
Do this exercise ten more times.
Aside from practicing breathing exercises techniques to relieve stress you can opt to use an anxiety breathing device. Using an anxiety breathing device can provide immediate relief from stress and anxiety by helping individuals regulate their breathing patterns. This device promotes deep, slow breathing, which activates the body’s relaxation response and lowers physiological symptoms of anxiety. Regular use of an anxiety breathing device can also improve overall respiratory health and increase mindfulness, leading to better management of stress in the long run.
Jose Florez, better known by his pseudonym Joey Florez, is an applied psychology graduate. He founded Mental Daily and Online Mental Health Services. His writing has been featured in HuffPost, Good Men Project, IBTimes and Reader’s Digest, among others. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin to find out more.