Deep breathing (diaphragmatic or belly breathing)
When you experience stress and anxiety, you move away from deep breathing (or diaphragmatic or belly breathing) to shallow or chest breathing. Shallow breathing is when you take in a limited amount of air into your lungs using your chest rather than your diaphragm. Most people who breathe with their chests do so throughout the day and are generally unaware of the way that they’re breathing and the effects it can have on them. When you continue breathing shallowly, your body stays in a constant state of stress – stress results in shallow breathing and shallow breathing results in stress, reinforcing the habit of being and feeling stressed.
Instead of shallow breathing, what you want to breathe deeply. Deep breathing is when you breathe using your diaphragm which pulls air into your lungs. In contrast to shallow breathing where our chests rise and fall, with deep breathing, it’s your belly that pushes out when you breathe in and falls when you breathe out. At first, it can be a bit hard to retrain your breathing but once you get the hang of it, you’ll notice the difference in your overall health. Practice for around 5 minutes every day, a couple of times a day and you should begin to feel an improvement in your overall stress and anxiety levels.
The basic steps of deep breathing:
Make yourself comfortable. You can lie down or sit down for this exercise
Notice any tension in your body and relax the tense parts
Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach, right above your belly button
As you take a slow, deep breath through your nose for 3 seconds, you should feel your stomach move out while your chest stays still. Don’t try to force or push your stomach outward (note: when you’re anxious, panicky or stressed, you can’t keep an accurate track of time so use a count of 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-100 or 1-elephant, 2-elephant, 3-elephant, or your watch, to count the seconds.)
Slightly purse your lips together and as you take a slow, deep breath out through your mouth, let your belly relax and you should feel the hand on your belly fall and again. The hand on your chest should be almost still. Similarly to breathing in, you want to be counting 3 seconds out (or even longer if you can manage it, this helps slow the stress response further)
Repeat this breathing pattern until you feel a sense of calm