Chest Breathing versus Abdominal Breathing
Under tension, your breathing usually becomes shallow and rapid, and occurs high in the chest. Shallow, chest-level breathing, when rapid, can lead to hyperventilation. Hyperventilation, in turn, can cause physical symptoms associated with anxiety, such as light-headedness, dizziness, heart palpitations, or tingling sensations. When relaxed, you breathe more fully, more deeply, and from your abdomen. It’s difficult to be tense and to breathe from your abdomen at the same time. By changing your breathing pattern from up in your chest to down in your abdomen (stomach area), you can reverse the cycle and transform your breathing into a built-in tool for anxiety control.
Abdominal breathing triggers a host of physiological transactions that promote relaxation and diminish anxiety. Listed below are some of the benefits of abdominal breathing that translate into greater relaxation and lowered anxiety.
- Increased oxygen supply to the brain and musculature.
- Stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system. This branch of your autonomic nervous system promotes a state of calmness and quiescence. It works in a fashion exactly opposite to the sympathetic branch of your nervous system, which stimulates a state of motional arousal and the very physiological reactions underlying panic or anxiety.
- Greater feelings of connectedness between your mind and body. Anxiety and worry tend to keep you up in your head. A few minutes of deep abdominal breathing will help bring you down into your whole body.
- More efficient excretion of bodily toxins. Many toxic substances in the body are excreted through the lungs.
- Improved concentration. If your mind is racing, it’s difficult to focus your attention. Abdominal breathing helps to quiet your mind.
- Abdominal breathing by itself can trigger a relaxation response.
The exercises below will help you change your breathing pattern. By practicing them, you can achieve a state of deep relaxation in a short period of time. Just three minutes of practicing abdominal breathing or the calming breath exercise will usually induce a deep state of relaxation. Many people successfully use one or the other technique to abort a panic attack at its first stirrings. The techniques are also very helpful in diminishing anticipatory anxiety you may experience in advance of facing a fearful situation or in easing everyday worry.
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