4 Effective Breathing Techniques To Reduce Anxiety

Breathing techniques force us to remember that this metabolic act is much more than a physical process. Breathing well produces pleasure, relieves anxiety and allows us to live better. Therefore, it would be very useful to make breathing a much more conscious, focused and harmonious act in our daily lives.

Most people never stop to analyze the way they breathe. In fact, the question would be, why do it? Our organism is a perfect machine that performs a great number of processes automatically, guaranteeing our survival. Thanks to this, we can devote a good part of our energy to other tasks, such as reading this article, for example.

Reflecting on all this can do us a lot of good. Neglecting the body and allowing our emotions to dominate us has serious consequences. We cannot forget that an organism exhausted, dominated or controlled by excessive worries, haste or anxiety translates into faster and more abnormal breathing, in a body that performs its metabolic functions in an unbalanced and even dangerous way.

You need to breathe well to live better, and these techniques can help us.

1. Breathing techniques: diaphragmatic breathing

When we think of breathing, we instantly visualize a pair of lungs. Well, we can say that the real responsible for this process is the diaphragm. It is located below the lungs and separating the chest from the abdominal area. It moves when we breathe, and if we do it with amplitude, we will stimulate other organs such as the liver and a large amount of tissues, favoring blood circulation and even the elimination of toxins.

We must pay attention to this area of ​​our body because the diaphragm is the essential part of most breathing techniques. Let’s look at how to become aware of it and how to encourage it.

• Place one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest.
• Shoulders should be straight.
• Now breathe deeply through your nose.
• Bring the air to your diaphragm (abdomen), not your chest.
• Exhale through your mouth in a loud way.
• Ideally, take between 6 or 10 slow breaths per minute.

2. Alternating breathing through the nostrils

This is one of the best known breathing techniques. It is also ideal for reducing anxiety, relaxing and promoting better concentration in everyday life. These are the steps we should follow:

• Sit comfortably with your spine straight.
• Now, with your right thumb, press on your right nostril.
• Then, inhale air through the left nostril deeply to the maximum limit.

• Hold your breath, then press the left nostril and exhale through the right.
• Repeat the process in reverse.

It might seem complicated at first, but once we automate the steps, we’ll feel its benefits.

3. The breathing of the bright skull or kapalabhati

Kapalabhati is one of the most curious and effective breathing techniques for reducing anxiety and optimizing our respiratory system. It helps us to clear the airways and even improve lung capacity.

The term kapalabhati comes from Sanskrit and is composed of two concepts: kapala, which means “skull” and bhati, which means “brightness or cleansing”. Let’s see what it consists of:

• Sit with your back straight.
• Bring your chin to your chest.
• Close your eyes to better focus on your breathing.
• Breathe in deeply.
• Now do this: exhale quickly by contracting the muscles in your abdomen, imagining that you are touching your navel to your spine.
• As you take these exhalations, your body will automatically inhale. The ideal is to do it at least 10 to 15 times in a row. Rest for a few minutes and start over.

Briefly, this technique consists of slow, deep inhalations followed by quick, vigorous exhalations.

4. Breathing technique with visualization

Many breathing techniques include multiple visualizations to achieve deeper relaxation. However, it takes a little more experience for the whole process to benefit us and provide us with cathartic sensations capable of alleviating tension and reducing anxiety or stress.

So take note of this very original strategy.

• Lie down on the floor on a mat or even on the bed.
• Place one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest to make sure you are taking breaths through your diaphragm.
• Breathe in deeply through your nose, imagine you are on a beach and a wave is warmly covering you from your toes to your head. Feel its freshness, the bubbling of the water, the smell of the sea.
• Exhale through your mouth and visualize the same wave slowly receding, relaxing…

These simple breathing techniques can help us improve our well-being, take care of our health and untie all the tensions that, almost without realizing it, end up making us sick. Let’s find a few minutes throughout the day to breathe better, to live in harmony with our own bodies and their needs.