Anxiety Stress: Deep Breathing Exercise

Anxiety affects almost every person I have talked to at some point in their life. Even back in medical school, I went head on with anxiety before my exams and presentations. Everyone gets a little anxiety once on a while. More and more people are coming down with the tell tale symptoms with the current financial and mortgage mess.

A few symptoms are but not limited to; heavy and irregular breathing, shortness of breath, an sudden overwhelming feeling of fear. These feelings are all related to the flight or fight response in your nervous system. One of the best things to do in a situation where you find yourself in a state is to breath. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well it is. No pills to take, no schedules to follow, just breathe. There are however, a few techniques that prove very useful.


The first it to take a deep breath. Around 10 or so should really help. The actual technique is how deep you breathe. You have to first make sure you're breathing all the through your diaphragm. Most people are shallow breathers, meaning they don't use all of their lung capacity. When you breathe deeply, taking in a much air as possible, you get more oxygen. It is recommended that these 10 breathes be taken in through the nose and out through the mouth. Also be sure to place yourself in a comfortable position.

The second technique, comes from yoga. It is also a breathing technique, but with one slight difference. Your place one finger over either the left or right nostril while taking in air. With the next breath in, switch nostrils. You repeat, switching the closed off nostril until you feel calmed down. It may take a while but soon enough you will notice a huge difference and feel much better. There are many more tehcniques but I really hope that you can do some research and see for yourself which one will work out.