Breath Work for Anxiety - From Panic to Peace
My Experience with Breathwork and Anxiety
Anxiety has been a constant companion of mine for as long as I can remember. It would often creep up on me when I least expected it, leaving me feeling paralysed and overwhelmed. It lurked beneath the surface, a persistent hum of unease that intensified in moments of stress or uncertainty. I tried everything to manage it - exercise, therapy, supplements - but nothing seemed to offer lasting relief or seemed to work consistently.
That is, until I discovered the power of breathwork for anxiety. At first, it seemed too simple to be effective. How could something as basic as breathing possibly calm my racing thoughts and soothe my anxious body? But as I delved deeper into the practice I started to notice a profound shift in my mind and body.
Through a daily self practice of pranayama, I learned to regulate my nervous system and find a sense of calm amidst the chaos. Over time, breathwork became an integral part of my self-care routine, helping me manage my anxiety in a way that felt sustainable and empowering.
I found that breathwork was a profound tool for managing my anxiety, transforming it from a constant companion to a passing visitor.
Whether you're someone who struggles with anxiety or simply looking for new tools to support your mental health, I hope this information will inspire you to explore the power of your own breath.
Here's is how I learned to breathe my way to peace.
How does your breathing relate to stress?
The link between breath and emotions is complex and multifaceted. The connection is closely linked through the Autonomic Nervous System, which controls involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing.
When we experience emotions such as anxiety, fear, or anger, the Sympathetic Nervous System (stress response) is activated, causing changes in breathing patterns such as rapid, short or sharp breathing.
Our bodies react instantly and you can sense it in the breath. When your Sympathetic Nervous System is always activated through continued stress and anxiety, then shallow breathing can become a habit.
What makes it even harder is that this type of breathing can further exacerbate feelings of anxiety and stress! Short breathing creates a feedback loop that can be difficult to break and further perpetuate feelings of anxiety and stress.
We can break the cycle of anxiety and shallow breathing by activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System and promoting a sense of calm and relaxation through different breathing techniques. These techniques have been found to be an effective tool for managing symptoms of anxiety disorders.
The (basic) Science of Breathing
This is where we get a bit technical- you don’t need to know this to breathe well, but some people love the science side of breathing!
The process of breathing involves the inhalation and exhalation of air, allowing oxygen to enter the body and carbon dioxide to be expelled. It is primarily controlled by the respiratory centres located in the brainstem, specifically the medulla oblongata and the pons.
When you breathe in, the diaphragm and the muscles between your ribs contract, expanding the chest cavity and creating a vacuum effect. This expansion lowers the air pressure in the lungs, causing air to rush in through the nose or mouth. Oxygen is then absorbed into the bloodstream through the alveoli in the lungs.
Conversely, during exhalation, the diaphragm and the intercostal muscles relax, reducing the volume of the chest cavity. This increases the air pressure in the lungs, and carbon dioxide, a waste product of cellular respiration, is expelled from the body through the nose or mouth.
This all happens without us thinking about it, 22,000 times a day! What’s amazing is that even it’s all automated through the Autonomic Nervous System.
* if you want more details join our course Embodied Breathwork here.
What is anxiety breathing?
Anxiety breathing typically involves rapid, shallow breaths that originate from the chest and feel short, sharp and shallow.
When we experience stress, our body releases cortisol and adrenaline, two hormones that prepare the body for fight or flight- basically getting you ready to Run Really Fast away from that Sabre Tooth Tiger! Only today there are no tigers, rather it’s a stressful email inbox that activates stress in us. These modern stressors still cause our breath to become short shallow and sharp, however for most people there is no conscious realisation of what is happening.
When this type of breathing becomes really chronic it can feel as if you are not getting enough air or as if you are unable to take a deep breath. Anxiety breathing can be distressing and can exacerbate the symptoms of anxiety. It may also lead to a cycle where the individual becomes more anxious due to their breathing, which further intensifies the breathing difficulties.
Sometimes it can also lead to people also unconsciously holding their breath throughout the day, (see more on this below) which creates even more stress signals in the body and mind.
This is the key: the mind creates changes in body functions and the breath under stress, but the breath also feeds information to the mind. So if you are chronically breathing in an ‘anxiety pattern’ all day every day, you may always feel a sense of underlying stress, even when nothing stressful is happening.
What research has found is that there are many individuals who find themselves stuck in habituated breathing patterns that are stress patterns.
One of the key ways that breathwork can regulate emotions is by activating the vagus nerve, which is a major nerve that connects the brain to the body. Activation of the vagus nerve can help to switch your body from the state of fight or flight to a state of rest and digest, promoting relaxation and reducing anxiety.
What causes anxiety breathing?
1. Stress: So obviously stressful situations, or situations when we need to move quickly. It’s a natural function of the body to put us in a state of readiness in case we need to jump out of the way of a car! Or pull a child’s hand away from a fire! Basically to move quickly we need to breathe quickly, so it’s not a bad thing in the right situation, just when it becomes chronic!
2. Asthma/ Fear/ Trauma: When your body is in a state of fear or trauma, or there is specific fears around breathing and being able to take a breath in, the body responds by make the breath short, sharp and shallow.
3. The Brain. The amygdala in the brain governs not only fear and emotions, but also how we breathe. Breathwork researcher Justin Furnstein found that many people with anxiety have a neurological disconnection in the amygdala, which causes them to unconsciously hold their breath and create panic in the body.
Take a moment: how are you breathing right now?
So let’s learn how to breathe together- in just 2 steps!
Step 1- Breathe through your Nose!
As James Nestor describes in he is book “Breath” (link) the golden rule for breathing which is to always breathe through your nose. Some of the reasons include
Nasal breathing helps filter, warm, and humidify the air we breathe, improving its quality before it reaches the lungs.
It promotes the production of nitric oxide, a gas that plays a vital role in various physiological functions, including expanding blood vessels, enhancing oxygen uptake in the blood, and supporting immune function.
Learning to breathe through the nose during sleep means a huge reduction in snoring, sleep apnea and a better nights sleep!
Step 2- Start a Breathwork Practice
breathing exercises for anxiety
What is breath work and pranayama?
Pranayama is the ancient science of breathwork that comes from the yoga tradition in India. It is the most comprehensive system of breath work that exists in the world today.
Much modern breath work is drawn from these traditional and ancient techniques, often the name is changed, or the practice simplified or marketed in new ways. But most modern breath work has its roots in pranayama.
There is no need to practice for long stretches at a time, even just 10 minutes a day will help.
When we do a breath work or pranayama practice we are disrupting an habitual patterns of breathing and are learning to breathe in a new and different way.
There are so many different practices of breathing, each having different effects. For example there are practices for:
Belly breathing
Deeper breaths
Calming you down
Making you feel high
Helping you sleep
Connecting you to God
If you can think of a state of mind you would like to have, there is breath technique that will get you there!
What happens in a pranayama practice?
When you start a breath work practice, a range of things can happen:
You can quickly (and what seems miraculously) shift out of stress, anxiety or a mood you don’t want to be in.
You start to be conscious of your breath. You notice if you are holding you breath throughout the day, or breathing in an anxiety pattern and you can consciously change it.
With time and regular practice (and hence disruption) even your spontaneous breath changes, so that anxiety breathing stops being the norm.
In this way you start to take control not only of your breath, but your state of mind and begin to choose how you feel.
The four components of the breath
Most of the time we breathe involuntarily and unconsciously. When we start breathing practices we become aware of the 4 components possible in every breath:
The inhale,
The inhale retention,
The exhale
The exhale retention
Every single breath work practice is playing around with these 4 components!
They might be fast or slow, or skip a component or make it through the nose or mouth, but basically we are always exploring these 4 components.
Breathing & the creative force
The breath has billions of biological functions, but the ancient yogis also understood the more subtle aspect behind the breath. That it was the key to our prana or life force. The more breath and prana we draw in to the body the more awake and alive with positivity we are in our life.
In yogic philosophy, you are not a tiny insignificant being on a huge planet floating in space.
Rather, the whole Universe has conspired for you to be here in this moment. Everything that every existed has been created so that you could be here now.
Yoga doesn’t believe in the accidental cause of humanity, rather that there is a creative intelligence at work in the entire cosmos, conspiring for life and consciousness to expand, and this intelligence also floods through your body.
The air pressure of the planet and your lungs is so precisely synchronised, that every inhale you take isn’t a breath being pulled in by your force, instead, it is being pushed in to you by the atmospheric pressure. The world, the cosmos wants you to be breathing, wants you to draw in life.
"The breath is the animating force of the body, through it we draw in life. The life of the Universe. When we take in a breath we are saying YES to life”.
breathing exercises for anxiety
Here are the best breathing techniques for anxiety that I discovered over the last 10 years of practice.
3 Part Breath
Also known as Yogic Breath, this is a practice we can use to create a fuller deeper breath. This is probably one of my favourites when I’m feeling extremely anxious.
Begin by lying over a bolster or pillow to completely open up through the abdomen and chest
Inhale first to expand into the belly, then into the ribs, then up into the collarbones.
Exhale to release first from the collarbones, then from the ribs, then allow the belly to drop last.
Continue for at least 3 minutes and really allow yourself to drop into a slow rhythm of breath
Samavrtti Pranayama or Box Breathing for Anxiety
Sama Vrtti refers to equal action, this breathing technique is used to calm and ground.
Begin to breathe deeply
Start to count each inhale and exhale, try to make them the same length
You can begin with a breath count of 4 and if you feel comfortable build up the count to 6 or more.
Start to pause at the end of the inhale and the end of the exhale.
Eventually make the pauses the same length as the inhale or exhale.
Now you are breathing for the same count on the inhale, inhale retention, exhale and exhale retention.
You can image the breath almost like the shape of a box, all 4 sides of the breath even.
Continue for 5 minutes.
Sighing breath
Recent research has shown that one of the most effective tools for anxiety and stress is a signing breath. When we take deeper breaths it stops you from breathing through your mouth.
Take a strong inhale through the nose
Sigh it out of the mouth
Feel the vibration and hum from the sigh
Continue for as many rounds as feels good
Nadi Shodana / Alternate Nostril Breathing
In yogic texts this practice is described as an energy channel purification, one that can be used to cleanse a clear the nadis- the energy channels that run throughout the body.
Left hand comes into Jnana Mudra.
Use the thumb and the ring finger of the right hand to block off the nostrils.
Peace fingers can be tucked in to the base of the thumb.
Inhale through the left nostril, exhale through the right.
Inhale through right nostril exhale through left.
Keep the inhale and the exhale even in count.
Start with the count of 4 and slowly build up.
Once students reach 10 they can incorporate an inhale retention of 10.
Continue with this pattern of breathing and finish, balancing, by exhaling on the left side to keep the balance of the breath.
So what about breathing exercises for Panic Attacks?
Panic attacks are relatively common, and many people experience them at some point in their lives. According to research, approximately 2-3% of the population will experience panic attacks in a given year. During a panic attack the person tends to inhale more than exhale, which can quickly create a build up of the carbon dioxide and a stress response in the brain and body!
So how does the breath help with a panic attack?
Ever seen in the movies when someone is having a panic attack they are given a paper bag to breathe into? There’s nothing magical about the paper bag to cure you, all it’s doing is ensuring the patient is taking, slower, even breaths.
During a panic attack, the body's stress response is activated, leading to a surge of adrenaline and other stress hormones. This triggers rapid, shallow breathing known as hyperventilation. Hyperventilation disrupts the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body, leading to physical symptoms such as dizziness, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and a sense of impending doom. The physiological changes associated with hyperventilation can further intensify the panic attack, creating a vicious cycle. Breathing techniques such as deep diaphragmatic breathing or paced breathing are often recommended to manage panic attacks. These techniques aim to restore a balanced oxygen-carbon dioxide ratio, activate the body's relaxation response, and help regulate the autonomic nervous system, thereby reducing the intensity of panic attack symptoms.
The Long exhale Practice
Breathwork Practice for Panic Attacks
Take yourself somewhere you feel safe and that is calm and quiet.
Begin by taking even length breaths, for example inhale for 3, exhale for 3.
Slowly, with each round, start to length the exhale.
Eventually you can double the exhale length, creating a ration of 1:2 , for example inhale for 3, exhale for 6.
Keep breathing like this until the nervous system begins to regulate.
Incorporating Breathwork into Daily Life
What happens when you start a regular breathing practice?
Breathing exercises provide us with flexibility to release from stressful breathing habits.
Having a regular, daily breath practice allows you to become conscious of your breath, and how it impacts your state of mind.
With time, you realise you can start to choose how you feel, you can affect quick change on your body and mind and you can start to take control of your anxiety.
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