Doorway To Freedom

This week I want to share with you a simple breathing technique to stop anxiety it its tracks. Practise it and let me know how you are getting on, and please share it if you know someone could benefit from it, knowledge is all powerful!

Welcome to Doorway To Freedom. So today I want to share with you a very easy breathing technique that will help you bring down your anxiety feelings, no matter how strong they are. And even if you get panic attacks, of course, you will need to practice this, and I’ll tell you more about the practice at the end of the video.

So there are three very important characteristics to the technique that is what basically will help you with the anxiety feelings. So point number one, you will be deliberately slowing down your breathing and in doing so you will take in deeper breaths. So you need to simply take in as much air as you can put into your body, basically filling up your lungs and your belly completely until you can’t take any more air in. And then you would be releasing all of the air from your body. So you need to take time doing this, to make sure that you can’t take in any more air first and then to make sure that there’s no more air left in your body.

And the second very important point is that you pause between your in breath and your out-breath. You should aim at pausing for at least three to five seconds. You will probably build up on the length of the pause as you practice this.

And then the very last important point is that, and that’s probably the most important point, is that you become mindful of the bodily sensations connected with the breathing. That way you’re creating an anchor in your brain that shifts your awareness from the anxiety provoking thoughts to sensations of calmness.

So what I mean by bodily sensations connected to your breathing, I know you probably already know what I’m talking about, but I just want to be clear… So as you start breathing in, your awareness will be around your nose so you will pay attention to the cool air going up your nostrils, and then you will feel it down in your chest. You will feel your chest expanding. And then lastly, you will feel your belly expanding until you can’t fit in any more air.

Then you will be pausing and you will do the counting in your head to whatever amount of seconds. And then you, your awareness will be in your belly and in your chest obviously, as they start basically compressing to push out all of the air. And at the same time you will become aware of the air coming out of your nostrils and you will notice that the air temperature has become warm and also the air will be moist.

So that is what I mean by shifting your awareness from the anxiety provoking thoughts to your bodily sensations. This will take a bit of practice for some people and it will be easier for others, which is why you need to practice the technique, like everything else on this planet.

And my advice is, start practicing it when you are perfectly well, when you have no anxiety feelings and that way you will create a habit, you will be able to be mindful of the three points. And as you practice it regularly, you will basically create a habit of the deep breathing with the three characteristics, so that when you feel the anxiety coming your mind will automatically switch to deep breathing, and you will see the difference that it makes in your anxiety, how easy it is to bring down your anxiety feelings, and whatever other feelings are connected with your anxiety.

So let me know how this goes for you. Maybe let me know how it is for you the very first few times that you do it and how it is for you when you’re apply it because you are getting anxious.

And so I hope you find this video useful, please like it and share it f you think someone can benefit from it, and I hope to see you in my next video.