Morning piece of wisdom #1 — Breathing and Anxiety

In this crazy world, nothing better than solutions to reduce anxiety.

Let’s take something that we can relate to science.
Breathing

Why does breathing reduce anxiety?
First, it’s important to specify that not all breathing reduces anxiety.
It requires a calming breath in a relaxed state.
A breath that is slow, engaged, and long.
It requires you to focus your attention.
So it’s a practice of attention first.
It can actually be pretty hard.
If you rarely took the time.
Or if you are too stressed.
Or even too distracted.

If you are too sparse, you will have difficulty centering your attention, you will need to pause, and you will also probably need to slow down, and to stay idle for a moment, in an awake but relax state. Straight but relaxed.
To relax, sit comfortably or stand still and release the weight of your body and the tension built up in your muscles and organs. As you release your grip on this energy you will be able to focus more easily on the feeling of your breath.

The more you involve belly, diaphragm, and intercostal muscles, the better.
You have to invest time to observe what is happening in those areas.
Senses come naturally when your attention is at the right place.
You can search online to have a better understanding. (Online videos)
I will talk more in detail about attention in the next article.

So, why would we want to improve breathing, again?
Oxygen is energy for the brain and it is regulated in the blood.
Increase the energy flow and you will increase the blood flow.
The more engaged your breath the more it can recycle energy.
The more energy you recycle, the faster you recover. (Accelerated recovery)
Or the better you perform if not in recovery state. (Accelerated metabolism)

Meaning that if you were to rest in order to recover, if you were to give more of your attention to your breathing, you would actually recover faster.
Sure, biological and chemical processes still have to happen in the body.
But it remains that it seems rather useful to improve this ability (or sense).

For a long time, I looked for a way to integrate the practice of breathing.
Long window, short window, weekly, daily… It can be hard to stick to it.
But definitely possible. Find the right thing for you and go progressively.
For instance increase every week or every three weeks. Small increment.

Here is my own detailed explanation of the practice:

Get comfortable if possible. Grounded ideally.
You must center your attention inside your body.
Be aware that you can move attention with patience.
This is where really taking the time gains all its meaning.
If the mind is active you bring the attention back to the body.
You want to feel more than to think so you slow down and feel.

If you feel too dense:
Try to dilate/decontract your gaze.
Then release any accumulated tension in your body.
Face muscles, shoulder, back, legs… Even butt and chest.

You also want to avoid distraction at that time to only focus on you.

Depending on your state, you might get in sync with the breath quickly.
But you might also need to be patient and keep focussing.
Take your time, you cannot rush this.

The breathing exercise
If you can: In through the nose.
Following the breathe in. Slow.
Then, out through the mouth.
Pushing out with your belly.
A mindful push.
But not forced.

Find the rhythm to restart the cycle with the breath in.
No need to hurry into the next, you should be able to hold.
The more your breath will deepen, the longer you can hold.
But this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t chain the breaths.

For a stronger breath
Before breathing in, find the right muscles.
Squeeze inside your belly or try to tuck your belly.
Squeeze also at the opening of your rib cage if possible.
Then release and follow the movement while breathing in.
Squeeze the same muscles when exhaling and push not too fast.
After some time it gets easier to keep your attention on the muscles.

From my observation of it (That’s really next level)
If you are able to manifest enough attention.
We could say that there is a front to back and back to front transition too.

Here is a more complete detail of the process:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/501w3y1kqo3my43/breathing_into_PNS_aka_breathing_properly.png?dl=0
(It’s still just a draft yet, but I need more research and observation to continue)

It is as if when breathing properly, you are constantly making a transition from the sympathetic nervous system of the body at the front, to the parasympathetic part of the body at the back. But after a while of shifting attention from one to the other, you start to get in some kind of sync, where you become in control of your full nervous system. A place where you feel more energy in your body. You choose if you are in calm or in action. And a zone where you can even potentially flow.

Using this ability we can keep calm in almost any situation.
All we need to remember is to perform a relaxed breathing.

Sometimes we will try to give attention to the breathing but since our attention is sparse we will have difficulty doing it right from the start.
The solution is to find a stable position, with a comfortable center of gravity and keep recentering attention till you feel more of your breathing.

If you cannot find a way to calm yourself and to focus on breathing, try to move your attention to your sternum first, the pulmonary plexus is behind.
If your attention reaches the pulmonary plexus, you might just have more ease to feel the breath and influence it with enough patience.

Take time to inform yourself about breathing and all its benefits, maybe it will help stick it in your mind that it’s a good tool to add to your collection.
For the good of your mental and physical health. To recover and stay calm.
_______
Look at the brain of meditators to see the impacts of mindful breathing.
Look at the process of breathing, to understand more.
Look at the science of breathing of you don’t believe me.
Look at articles about meditation to understand it or to motivate yourself.
Look at Wim hof, the “iceman” pushing the known limit of the human body.

Now, let’s answer this. “Why does breathing reduce anxiety?”
Placing attention on your body is a great way to stay grounded.
By grounded I mean present and not lost in your thoughts.
That’s useful when we tend to be stuck in our heads.
That’s also useful when our mind is too distracted.

As you slow down breathing you will slow down your heart rate.
And as the heart rate goes down, blood flow will slow down.
If blood flow slows down, energy intensity will then flatten.
If it’s less vibrating, less active, it’s also less anxiety.

For naturally anxious people:
It’s important to remember not to panic and to stay patient.
In a highly anxious situation, you can even take a moment alone.
Don’t be afraid to feel your heart, no matter how uncomfortable it is, and do not hesitate to go back to the sensation of your breath throughout the day.
Especially when you feel off, cloudy, or tired. Recenter your attention.

Keep in mind that energy does not disappear even if it’s less active though.
You might still be boiling with energy inside, but at least you will be calm.
Remember also that excitation and anxiety are two sides of the same coin.
If one is surfing the wave of energy, the other is letting it drown you.
No need to be overwhelmed by it, you can contain it. We all can.

Build up the confidence and use breathing to stay grounded and present.

This article talked about reducing anxiety, but breathing have other uses.
It can be used to maintain your flow state. To keep your concentration.
That’s a whole other topic though, I will address it later in the serie.

On this note, I wish you a great day.
I will be back next week to talk about HRV and Heart Coherence and their link to your health and wellbeing.