Anxiety Breathing Exercise GIF

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First off, it isn’t an obvious breathing technique. You can do this on the train or in the middle of class and no one will even notice. The other is that focusing on the specific numbers and trying to “follow the rules” of the exercise can be really helpful for those who get anxious without specific instructions. Now, as you continue to breathe along here, I want to talk a bit about breathing for relaxation and how you can make this exercise work for you. If you have anxiety, stress, or even panic attacks, keep reading.

Anxiety cannot physically hurt you. You hear that? You are not in true danger. However, your brain makes it feel as if you are in danger. That’s because your asshole of a brain is jumpstarting your fight or flight response and throwing your sympathetic nervous system into a tizzy. As a result, you can feel like you are short of breath, like your heart is pounding, and like the whole world is closing in around you. Deep breathing is a way to hack your brain into relaxation by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which comes in and clean up the mess that your fight or flight response leaves behind. This process is called the relaxation response.