One Simple Breathing Technique for Anxiety: Physiological Sighing

Breathing relaxation techniques are common strategies used in anxiety therapy. This is due to the way your breathing tends to be irregular and shallow when you are stressed or anxious. Anxiety therapy has many useful techniques like meditation, journaling, or exercise. However, life happens and many times it is hard to practice these in real-time, in public places, right before an exam or presentation. That’s when having a breathing technique can be beneficial. Having control of your breath when you feel your stress and anxiety levels rise allows you to use your own body to control the mind, rather than allowing the mind to control the mind.

One Simple Technique: The Physiological Sigh

One breathing technique for anxiety is the physiological sigh. The breathing pattern replicates a natural breath that humans take to relieve stress, such as while sleeping, but it is done on purpose to help alter our emotional and physical states. It also helps lower elevated stress responses like respiration and their rate. Many strategies are used in anxiety therapy to help you improve your symptoms, uncover the underlying stress and fear, and challenge your negative thinking. During the process of working towards coping with your anxiety, having a relaxation technique like the Physiological Sigh to practice in your day-to-day life is beneficial.

Let’s Practice

1. For this exercise, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Take a steady breath in through the nose. One should always breathe with their nose as it acts as an HVAC system. Whereas, the mouth is a bypass from the filtration, humidification and conditioning given by the said system. The mouth is much bigger than your nose, causing excess air to enter and disrupt the O2 / C02 ratio. Therefore, it is much more advantageous to breathe through the nose regularly.

2. At the end of the inhale, pause and top it up with another quick and short inhale to fully fill your lungs. Upon a second inhale, alveoli re-inflate and increase the surface area of the lungs, in turn efficiently discarding C02 from the body. This allows humans to remain in a state of consciousness.

3. Slowly let all the air out with an extended exhale through the mouth. As we exhale deeply, the receptors in the heart notice the rise in pressure and send signals to the brain to lower the heart rate. This generates a calming sensation. Your inhales must be longer than your exhales, that way you’re not actively speeding up your heart.

Great Lakes Neurofeedback & Counselling Services:

Did you know we offer anxiety therapy right here at Great Lakes Neurofeedback & Counselling? That’s right! Our team of Mental Health Professionals can support you and ensure you have your relaxation techniques like this in your tool belt to use in real time when you are feeling anxious.

We offer FREE consultations so get in touch today!