Anxiety - Deep breathing - the holy grail of mental health
by Mary Blues, 29th January, 2023
You want to let go of that anxiety... It feels so scary, like a rollercoaster, maybe escalating into a panic attack. Such feelings can be frightening and that everything is out of your control. If left to its own devices, it can cause serious havoc in your life and can even lead to agoraphobia.
How can you heal and eradicate anxiety? You need to understand quite simply that its cause is very simple.
When people become stressed and anxious it is usually because of one or more of the following: workload stress, the birth of a new baby, divorce, childhood trauma or other trauma (accidents or sudden changes in life), the death of a loved one, and loneliness. There are many more causes, but these are a few of the main ones.
When people experience the kinds of events as above, their fight-or-flight response kicks in and ups the stress hormones, and these excess hormones leave the body in a state of high emotional arousal.
Additionally, human beings have basic emotional needs which when we get these needs met, keep us in balance and help us cope with the normal challenges of daily life. In effect, when we get our needs met our glass is half full. However, when even one or two needs start to go unmet, this places a burden on our nervous system as we are not getting what we need. When this happens, the result is high emotional arousal, which leads to anxiety and further stressful effects on our nervous system such as insomnia. Things then can start to feel as if we have no control over our life, and because we do not understand what is happening, this can cause fear and escalate the problem further.
So how do we manage such conditions as anxiety and panic attacks? It is really quite simple. Everything, and every condition in the human body is related to the breath, and when we breathe correctly and focus on our breath we give ourselves back the key to the kingdom.
When we are in a state of high emotional arousal, we cannot think straight and so fear can kick in and make things worse. What we need to do is lower this high emotional arousal.
How we do this, is by breathing correctly as follows:
Place your hand on your abdomen, and push the stomach out. Whilst the stomach is pushed out, breathe in for a count of 7..... 1.... 2..... 3.... 4.... 5.... 6.... 7.... Let go....
Now, Breathe out for a count of 11, relaxing the abdomen..... 1.... 2... 3.... 4.... 5.... 6.... 7.... 8.... 9.... 10.... 11....
So its breathe in for 7 and out for 11
When you experience a panic attack, do this numerous times repeatedly until you start to feel calm and relaxed. This brings the nervous system back into homeostasis and resets everything.
This can be done for almost any condition. People who suffer from depression can do this too. Depression is one of these conditions where the client may seem lethargic. However, when a person is depressed, this is actually a state of high emotional arousal due to excessive rumination. Many depressed clients suffer from insomnia and this is because they spend too much time in the REM state of sleep which exhausts the mind. People who are depressed, ruminate excessively and such thoughts build up. However, only so many of these thoughts are discharged during the day. These thoughts are like unmet expectations which, when we sleep are acted out during the dream state. Due to this dreaming is excessive and so the person wakes up feeling exhausted.
Therefore to calm the mind, and bring the body back into a state of homeostasis, deep breathing, as above is what will also help with depression.
Breathe deeply. Always be conscious of the breath. Feel the calmness that exists deep inside your being. This is true peace and you can feel this every single moment of your day. TRUST.
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