14 Breathing Exercises to relieve Anxiety

Breathing exercises are often used to help people deal with stress or avoid panic attacks. These breathing exercises are important because people who experience anxiety attacks tend to take rapid, shallow breaths from the chest. This type of breathing pattern may disrupt the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels which remain balanced during normal breathing.

During an anxiety attack, rapid breaths can lead to tachycardia, dizziness, muscle tension, and other symptoms. The breathing exercises for stress, anxiety and panic take just a few minutes and can be done anywhere. One needs to do them regularly in comfortable clothes.

Symptoms of anxiety

• Full of tension
• Feeling nervous
• Hyperventilating or rapid breathing
• Insomnia or sleeplessness
• Restless
• Sweating profusely
• Shivering due to fear 
• Worrying unnecessarily

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Breathing exercises to relieve anxiety:

Deep Breathing-

It relieves muscle stiffness and gives the day a good, calm start. Deep breathing is a simple exercise but very effective. One can do it anywhere while sitting, standing up, or lying down.

Teddy Bear Breathing- good for children &teens

One needs to lie on the back, place a hand on the chest, and place a teddy bear on the belly button. Then close your eyes and relax your entire body. This calms the mind.

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4-7-8 Breathing-

This helps in sleeping without stress. In this, a person needs to sit down with the back straight and the tip of their tongue on the back of their upper front teeth.

Mindful Breathing-

It improves sleep by getting rid of insomnia by slowing the rate of breathing. To practice mindful breathing, people need to sit or lie in a comfortable position with their eyes open or closed.

 Diaphragmatic Breathing-

This is also known as belly breathing helps to lower the breathing rate &lowers the demand of oxygen and reduces stress.

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Slow Breathing-

The slow, deep breathing eases the symptoms of depression and anxiety. It helps in relieving insomnia.

Pursed-Lip Breathing -

This breathing exercise is meant to make breathing more effective. Pursed-lips breathing has helped people with anxiety associated with lung diseases.

Resonance Breathing-

This breathing exercise is also called coherent breathing. This exercise can help a person avoid an anxiety attack by putting him in a calm, relaxed state.

Yoga Breathing-

Control of breath through a practice called pranayama, used by ancient yogis to alter their state of mind.The exercise makes breathing slow and regular through the control of the parasympathetic nervous system which helps in calming the mind.

This  Alternate Nostril Breathing-

Calms the mind. This nostril breathing (Nadi shodhana) involves blocking off one nostril at a time as one breathes through the other, alternating between nostrils in a regular pattern. This exercise should be practised in a sitting position.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation-

Relaxes a person physically and mentally.

Lion’s breath or simhasana-

Sticking out your tongue and roaring like a lion relaxes your face and jaw muscles and releases stress.

Quieting response-

This is a kind of deep breathing with visualization to help reduce stress and anxiety. A person needs to first relax all the face and shoulder and imagine having holes in the soles of the feet. This will calm the mind.

Box breathing-

This is also called four-square breathing is very simple to learn and practice. One inhales and exhales like one does to the rhythm of a song.