“People who are anxious and people who have asthma traditionally will be mouth breathers and will traditionally be breathing way too much. And by breathing way too much, you’re increasing your heart rate. You’re causing inflammation. You’re putting yourself in a in a really stressful state, which is not good. It just makes you more anxious.
Instead, when you’re feeling anxious, James says the trick is to aim to slow down your breathing and breathe through your nose.
The wonderful thing about breathing is that you can use it to stimulate a restful and relaxed state that parasympathetic side of your nervous system. And so one of the most helpful breathing techniques that I learned that they use for people with anxiety, asthma, depression, even people who have chronic lung inflammation and other problems is to breathe in at a pace of about five to six seconds. Don’t stress out of your half a second off or whatever. And breathe out at that same pace. Now, if you’re breathing this way right now, what’s happening is you are allowing your body to work at peak efficiency. You’re increasing the oxygen to your brain. You’re increasing circulation to your extremities and your heart rate is going to go down. And your blood pressure. I’ve found my blood pressure can go down 10 to 15 points just after a couple minutes of breathing this way.
James warns that because of the relaxed state this can put you in, it’s probably best not to practice it in situations where you need to be very alert, such as while driving or before an important meeting. But if you’re in a safe place and really need to calm down, you can take this simple practice a step further.”
View the whole story here: https://lifehacker.com/tame-your-anxiety-with-a-simple-breathing-exercise-1844518758