Decrease Anxiety through deep breathing

Everyone experiences anxiety. There are many ways to appropriately manage symptoms related to anxiety. One way to quickly “feel better” is to stop and focus on your breathing.  The following is a simple and straightforward method for focusing on how your breath may be increasing your anxiety.

For this exercise, place one hand on your chest, and one hand on your stomach. Take a breath, which hand moved? Your top hand? Or your bottom hand? The answer should be the bottom hand, the one located on your stomach. When we breathe out of our chest (the top hand), we may actually be increasing our anxiety due to shallow breathing. However, when we take deep breaths, we are decreasing anxiety because oxygen is reaching our diaphragm.

Lets Practice. Keeping your hands on your chest and stomach, take 5 deep breaths, and challenge yourself to only move the bottom hand. While breathing in, count to 5. While breathing out, count to 5. Keep your breath nice and slow. Practice this once a day to help manage and prevent symptoms of anxiety.