If you have ever been to therapy, you might have noticed that your therapist teaches you different breathing techniques to help manage challenges with stress and anxiety. But why do we do this? How are these breathing exercises different from normal breathing? And why does it work?
First, we need to understand that one way our autonomic nervous system regulates itself is through breath:
Our “normal” breath at rest is usually pretty steady, and we don’t typically think about it since it’s automatic. If you were to observe your normal breath, you would notice that you feel it in both your chest and belly.
When we get stressed, our breathing automatically becomes fast and shallow and is felt most in the chest; this is why many people complain about feeling their chest tighten when they feel anxious! This is part of sympathetic nervous system activation, also known as the fight-or-flight response.
Calm breathing, on the other hand, is deeper and slower than both stressed and normal breathing and can be felt deep in the belly. This response is automatic when we are entering any type of resting state, for example, after eating or during sleep.
This system for regulating our breath evolved to allow for whole-body coordination that allowed our ancestors to use energy based on the demands of their environment, whether that meant fighting off a threat or resting after surviving the threat.
In the present day, however, we are not fighting off threats the way we used to; however, our biology remains unchanged. This is why, when you are anxious about more abstract stressors like negative events you see in the news, your body perceives it as a threat akin to a tiger in the wild. We end up overestimating danger and ignoring the cues that tell us we are actually safe. One of the ways in which our body responds is with rapid, shallow breathing when a threat (big or small) is perceived. When you practice intentional deep, slow breathing when under stress, what you are doing is calming down the body’s automatic stress response and teaching your brain and body that you are actually safe.
The next time you are anxious, you can attempt to slow your breath using one of the following simple strategies:
Box Breathing: Follow a pattern of inhale > hold > exhale > hold… for four seconds each. You can visualize tracing four sides of a square as you do this. Do this for at least four cycles, or until you feel yourself relax.
4-7-8: Inhale through your nose for four counts. Hold your breath for seven counts. Exhale through your mouth for eight counts. Repeat this cycle four times, or until you feel yourself relax.
Note: If you feel dizzy/lightheaded, short of breath, chest pain, or start to feel confused, stop the exercise immediately. If you are pregnant or have a heart or lung condition, check with a healthcare provider before practising exercises that involve holding your breath.