Simple Breathing Techniques to Calm Social Anxiety
Breath handling exercises-the best tools available to combat anxiety. One such breathing exercise is 4-7-8 breathing.
You can also observe how your abdomen rises and falls with the breath if you have one hand on your belly and the other over your breast.
1. Diaphragmatic breathing
The correct way to breathe is with the help of the diaphragm, which brings about improved respiratory health and reduces stress. This is the muscle in your lower abdomen responsible for respiration; let it be inhaled deeply, while its main muscle expands and contracts as air enters your lungs; when exhaled, the stomach relaxes back up for physical relaxation of ribcage.
Practice diaphragmatic breathing by: 1) sitting or lying down comfortably with one hand on your chest and the other on your belly (just below your rib cage). Your bottom hand should move as you breathe in and out while the top one remains still; when inhaling your stomach should press against this hand while on an exhale the hand should go back down; repeat this pattern for several minutes every day until your diaphragmatic breath has become second nature.
This exercise may prove difficult for people who have always relied on taking short breaths. It's best to add a few more repetitions each day until it feels comfortable for you. It might also help to lessen the exertion or change the technique so that your breathing feels much better in the event you feel a little dizzy from too much exertion or pushing at the breath.
2. Pursed Lip Breathing
Pursed Lip Breathing (PLB) is a very easy and simple technique for breathing. It consists of breathing in through the nose for two seconds and then exhaling with pursed lips for four or six seconds. This keeps the air passages open longer, thus releasing air trapped in the lungs. It can also help alleviate shortness of breath and increase lung capacity. PLB can be combined with diaphragmatic breathing or used alone.
Before one can start pursed lip breathing, proper relaxation should by then have taken effect. This can be achieved by shrugging the shoulders or closing one's eyes. Breathe through the nose for about two seconds and blow it out with lips pursed as though to extinguish a cake candle-keep track of each inhale and exhale to build up an inhale/exhale ratio of 1:2 (1:2 inhaling and exhaling).
This technique is quite easy to practice; rather easy to do, though it would take some time to get it embedded in practice for its benefits to be actually realized. Do the sitting back or lying down, but so much better at times when one feels calm and relaxed; that would probably make some significant contributions toward how well the lungs function!
It is not possible to treat COPD with this method, but it has been proven that it slowed down the breathing rate and improved the quality of life for patients who had it.
3. Breathing Resonance.
This breathing practice features intentional and slow-diaphragmatic breaths drawn to calm one's spirit and gain inner peace. You can do it anytime or anywhere-even while standing in line or driving your car!
Resonant breathing refers to the finding of the optimal breathing rate or "resonance frequency" for an individual by means of HRV biofeedback. Resonance frequency is defined as that particular mathematical term in physics denoting the condition at which an object attains the highest amplitude in its oscillation-it is also called its peak value.
Find a good flat surface on which to lie down, and select a word that makes you feel at peace, such as "safe" or "content." Your eyes will be closed. Begin with inhalation through your nose for 2 seconds and then purse your lips into a small space or tighten around the mouth for 4 seconds when you exhale. Repeat this until you feel sufficiently relaxed and at ease.
Make sure to envision that when you breathe out, any negative thoughts, feelings or behaviors that no longer serve you are leaving with it. Take this exercise further by practicing this meditation daily so you have a reservoir of peace available when needed.
4. Very Slow Breathing
Breathing very slowly into the diaphragm is a way to ease away that anxiety and make it happen. To be very effective, however, this calming breathing should be done in a sitting or lying position because quick, shallow breaths are more likely to increase anxiety. Breathe through your nose and out through your mouth making a soft "whoosh" sound with each exhalation; purse your lips slightly to slow the rate of exhalation if you suffer from lung diseases like COPD or emphysema-this may slow exhalations rates which could help calm you further reduce anxiety.
This simple breathing exercise can do wonders for a person's both mental and physical wellbeing. And even it may help reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. To extract the full benefit from this calming breathing exercise, be sure to practice it at least five minutes daily over an interval of thirty days.
Current meta-analysis indicates that slow-paced breathing brings immediate benefits to SBP, HR, and time-domain HRV (RMSSD and SDNN), but only minor benefits regarding negative affect. The long-term effects of multi-session slow-paced breathing have not yet been studied; therefore, intervention designs should be standardized in future studies while measuring cardiovascular outcomes during and after interventions to understand the multifaceted effects.
To start this calming breathing exercise, sit or lie down keeping your back straight and place your tongue against the ridge of tissue behind your upper front teeth, resting against that ridge as you breathe in and out through your nose slowly counting four-seven. Focus in keeping sense of perception to how your body fills and empties as you do this exercise as often as you would like; most people find three times to be most beneficial.
