10 Breathing Exercises for Anxiety Relief

Breathing exercises for anxiety help to promote the body's relaxation response. When anxious, we may forget to breathe or take shallow breaths. As a result, we don't take in enough oxygen, which can exacerbate feelings of anxiety.

This article discusses breathing exercises for anxiety. It describes how conscious changes in your breathing pattern can help you control stress and anxiety. It also provides step-by-step instructions for a variety of breathing exercises.

How Do Breathing Exercises Help Anxiety?

Breathing exercises for anxiety relief promote relaxation by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. This helps bring you into the present moment and lowers stress. When we panic, our breathing tends to become rapid and shallow.

Known as thoracic (chest) breathing, it can disrupt the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels that are typically kept in balance as people breathe. This can cause symptoms like a faster heart rate, dizziness, and muscle tension, which may, in turn, leave you feeling even more anxious.

Exercises that focus on diaphragmatic breathing, an abdominal pattern that happens when people are relaxed or sleeping, have the opposite response.

Diaphragmatic or deep breathing activates the body's "relaxation response." It sends a message to your brain to relax. Your brain then directs the message to your body and reduces heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension.

Breathing exercises can be helpful for managing an anxiety attack. Practicing the following exercises before bed may also help to relieve insomnia. 

1. Deep Breathing

Deep breathing techniques are the core of many breathing exercises. To practice deep breathing:

1. Stand up and bend forward from the waist with your knees slightly bent. Let your arms dangle at your sides.
2. Inhale slowly and deeply as you return to a standing position, lifting your head last.
3. Hold your breath for a few seconds.
4. Exhale slowly as you return to the original position, bending forward from the waist.

You can start your day with this simple breathing exercise as soon as you get out of bed. It helps relieve muscle stiffness and can get your day off to a good, calm start. Repeat throughout the day and anytime you feel anxiety rising.

2. Teddy Bear Breathing

This technique can be used for children. But teens and adults can do this exercise, too:

1. Lie on your back, place a hand on your chest, and place a teddy bear on your belly button.
2. Close your eyes and relax your entire body.
3. Breathe in slowly through the nose. The teddy bear should rise, but your chest should not.
4. When you have taken a full, deep breath, hold it, count to three, and then slowly breathe out.
5. Repeat until you feel relaxed.

3. 4-7-8 Breathing

Also called the relaxing breath, the 4-7-8 exercise helps to calm the nervous system. To try it, begin by sitting with your back straight.

1. Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue behind your upper front teeth. You'll keep it there for the entire exercise.
2. Completely exhale through your mouth, making a "whoosh" sound.
3. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose as you mentally count to four.
4. Hold your breath for a count of seven.
5. Exhale completely through your mouth, making another "whoosh" sound to a count of eight.

Once you are familiar with these steps, the exercise can be performed while lying in bed, sitting upright, or standing.

4. Mindful Breathing

Mindful breathing involves breath control.

1. Choose a calming focus. Good examples are your breath, a sound like “om,” or a short prayer. You may want to use a positive focus word such as “peace” or a short phrase. If you choose a sound, repeat it aloud or silently as you breathe in and out.
2. Let go and relax. When you notice your mind wander, just take a deep breath or say to yourself “thinking, thinking.” This prompt should gently return your attention to your chosen focus.

In a study of mindful breathing among people who had trouble sleeping, the technique was found to decrease insomnia, fatigue, and depression.

5. Diaphragmatic Breathing

Diaphragmatic, or abdominal, breathing is meant to help you use your diaphragm while breathing. The diaphragm is a muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen.

Try this standing, sitting, or lying down:

1. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your abdomen should expand and your chest should rise very little.
2. Exhale slowly through your mouth. As you blow air out, slightly purse your lips but keep your jaw relaxed. You may make a soft “whoosh” sound as you exhale.
3. Repeat this breathing exercise. Do it for several minutes until you start to feel better.

Breathing into your diaphragm helps to slow your breathing rate, reduce the body's demand for oxygen, and use less effort and energy to breathe.

6. Slow Breathing

Quick, shallow, and unfocused breathing can ratchet up your anxiety. Slow breathing, on the other hand, may bring both mental and physical health benefits and help develop better control over your lungs.

A 2018 review of research on this topic found that slow, deep breathing can help ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety. It also appears to help relieve insomnia.

Experts define slow breathing as any rate from four to 10 breaths per minute. The typical respiratory rate in humans is within a range of 10 to 20 breaths per minute.

7. Pursed-Lip Breathing

Pursed-lips breathing is recommended for people with anxiety associated with lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema. This breathing technique will help make your breaths slower and more intentional.

1. Relax your neck and shoulders.
2. Inhale slowly through the nostrils for two seconds but keep your mouth closed.
3. Pucker your lips, as if giving a kiss, and exhale slowly through pursed lips for four seconds.
4. While breathing out, keep a slow and steady breath. Don’t breathe out hard.

Pursed-lips breathing can be done up to five times a day.

8. Resonance Breathing

Resonance breathing, also called coherent breathing, can help you avoid an anxiety attack by putting you in a calm, relaxed state.

1. Lie down and close your eyes.
2. Gently breathe in through your nose, mouth closed, for a count of six seconds. Don’t fill your lungs too full of air.
3. Exhale for six seconds, allowing your breath to leave your body slowly and gently. Don’t force it.
4. Continue for up to 10 minutes.
5. Take a few additional minutes to be still and focus on how your body feels.

9. Yoga Breathing

Yogic breathing can help you to achieve balance in both the body and mind.

1. Sit in a chair with your spine erect or lie on your back on the floor.
2. Put your fingertips lightly on your lower belly, just above the pubic bone. Try to direct inhalations into this space, expanding the belly each time.
3. Move your fingertips to the spaces below your collarbone. Place your pinkie tips on the sides of the sternum (breastbone) and spread the rest of your fingers out to the sides.
4. For a few inhaled breaths, see if you can gently expand the spaces you're touching.
5. Be careful to keep your throat as relaxed as possible as you do this. It will keep you from tensing it up as you inhale into the upper chest.
6. As much as you can, breathe into your body, feeling how it balloons and then deflates with each breath cycle.

10. Alternate Nostril Breathing

Alternate nostril breathing (ANB) is another breathing technique that can be done as part of a yoga or meditation practice. You can do it to help you calm your mind.

1. Sit in a comfortable position with the spine long and the hips relaxed.
2. Release any tension from your jaw and close your eyes.
3. Place your left hand on your left knee with the palm up.
4. With your right hand, place the tips of the index and middle fingers on your forehead in between the eyebrows. Put your ring and little fingers on the left nostril and the thumb on the right nostril.
5. Use the ring and little fingers to open and close the left nostril. Use the thumb for the right nostril.
6. On exhalation, close the right nostril with your thumb. Breathe out through the left nostril.
7. Breathe in through both nostrils, close the right nostril, and breathe out through the left nostril.
8. Breathe in through the left nostril and then close with the ring finger. Release the thumb on the right nostril and breathe out through the right nostril.
9. Inhale through the right nostril, close with the thumb, release the ring finger from the left side, and exhale through the left nostril.

What to Do When Breathing Exercises for Anxiety Aren’t Working

Keep in mind that some stress is normal when you're experiencing a major life change. But you may want to see a health professional for your anxiety symptoms or if you're having frequent panic attacks.

This is especially true if your anxiety interferes with daily life. It's also the case if your stress and anxiety are related to existing health issues or if you feel that they may be the cause of new ones.

Psychotherapy (known as "talk therapy") may help you better understand the cause of your stress and alleviate its symptoms. Depending on the cause of your anxiety, a healthcare provider may prescribe medication that can help, too.

Summary

Breathing exercises help relieve anxiety by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system to trigger the relaxation response.

Anxiety can cause hyperventilation, which alters the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide, causing physical symptoms that exacerbate anxiety. Taking slow, deep breaths can help you control your lungs, increase oxygen intake, and ease symptoms of anxiety.

You can use these breathing exercises anytime and anywhere. It is helpful to practice these exercises a few times a day when you are calm. This can help develop muscle memory, so it's easier to access these tools when anxious or stressed.