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Breathing is one of the most important things we do, yet we give it very little thought – mostly because we don’t usually need to. But during times of stress, anxiety or panic, paying closer attention to our breathing can make an instant difference in how we feel.
If you’ve been stressed or anxious, introducing some breathing techniques into your daily routine can help you manage your emotions.
Breathing techniques are also used by those looking to improve or enhance fitness performance. For example, most world-class athletes and performers use breathing techniques to help them achieve peak efficiency, right when it matters most.
Below, we explain how you can use three popular breathing exercises to relax, focus, and unwind. They’re quick and easy to do and can offer powerful rewards with practice.
Why is the quality of our breathing important?
When we breathe in air, our blood cells receive oxygen and release carbon dioxide, which gets expelled as we breathe out. The quality of this oxygen exchange can affect how calm and in control we feel. Typically, the more oxygen you inhale, the more carbon dioxide you’ll exhale.
While excess carbon dioxide is removed by breathing out, carbon dioxide in its normal range also plays various roles in the human body, such as helping slow and regulate your heartbeat and lowering blood pressure. So, the quality of our breathing can also affect these processes.
Regularly allowing your lungs to reach their full capacity by taking full, deep breaths can also help keep them functioning well. But many of us don’t realise that when we’re busy, stressed, or anxious, our breaths can become short and sharp.
How might stress and anxiety affect our breathing and our bodies?
When we breathe in, our diaphragm (the dome-shaped sheet of muscle beneath our rib cage that’s largely responsible for breathing) contracts and moves downwards, allowing the lungs to expand fully and draw in air. Then, as we exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and moves upwards, forcing air back out of the lungs.
Whether you realise it or not, when stressed or anxious, you’ll typically take shorter, shallower breaths, preventing your lung cells from becoming fully oxygenated. This can also happen when we wear tight clothing, practise poor posture, or have health conditions that weaken the muscles involved in breathing.
Shallow breathing is known as chest breathing because it doesn’t allow your diaphragm to contract or fully relax. When this happens, you might notice that only your chest rises and falls, but not your belly. Chest breathing reduces the quality of our oxygen exchange and keeps the body tense. It happens when we feel stressed, but can exacerbate and be responsible for anxiety, fatigue, panic attacks, and a rise in blood pressure.
Conversely, by countering short, shallow breaths with long, deep ones, we can work to reduce anxious feelings.
How can breathing exercises help reduce stress and anxiety?
To help our bodies feel more relaxed, we can work on taking deeper, more controlled breaths. Deep breathing, also known as belly or abdominal breathing, encourages full oxygen exchange and allows sufficient carbon dioxide to be released into the bloodstream to regulate our heartbeat and lower blood pressure.
When you take slow, deep breaths, you’ll notice that your stomach rises, rather than your chest. This is because your diaphragm is contracting and relaxing fully, maximising the amount of air passing into and out of your lungs. This process allows your blood to become fully oxygenated, making your body less likely to signal the stress response that causes anxiety and panic attacks.
Deep breathing also encourages us to exhale for longer. When this happens, the brain sends messages to the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, signalling that it’s okay for the body to relax.
3 breathing exercises to try when you feel stressed or anxious
1. Basic belly breathing
As discussed above, belly breathing (also known as diaphragmatic breathing) is a technique that allows your diaphragm and lungs to work optimally. There are plenty of breathing techniques out there, but most are based on basic deep breathing (or belly breathing), where you practise allowing your diaphragm to relax and contract fully with each breath cycle.
If you’re new to deep breathing, the following exercises are a great place to start. By practising this daily, you can help reduce the work your body needs to do to breathe properly.
Sit or lie somewhere comfortable and allow your whole body, including your neck and shoulders, to relax. You might find it helpful to close your eyes.
Then place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest (or you might find it more comfortable to place both on your stomach). Putting a hand on your chest allows you to make sure it’s your stomach that’s rising and falling, and not your chest.
Take a deep breath through your nose, feeling your stomach rise under your hand. There should be little movement in your chest.
Purse your lips and exhale slowly through your mouth for about three seconds. You can push down very gently on your stomach while doing this.
There are no rules about how many times you practise this, but for best results, aim to repeat the cycle at least four times. Once you’ve got the hang of basic belly breathing, you might like to try some more advanced breathing techniques, such as the 4-7-8 or the breath focus ones (see below).
2. The 4-7-8 breathing technique
The 4-7-8 breathing technique has been used to soothe a racing heart and reduce nerves. It forces the mind and body to regulate your breath with counting, which can distract you from replaying worries in your mind. Those who’ve tried it say that it becomes much more powerful with practise.
It’s said to be a great tool for getting to sleep because it prevents anxious thoughts from circulating the mind, with some people saying that they fall asleep in just one minute.
You might find that you become slightly lightheaded to begin with, but this should happen less the more you do it. For best results, try to practice this technique twice a day. It only takes a few minutes and can be hugely beneficial.
You can do this exercise either sitting or lying down – the most important thing is that you’re comfortable. Then, when you’re ready, rest the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth just behind your top front teeth. It’s a good idea to get familiar with this positioning because your tongue will stay here throughout the entire practise.
You can then take the following steps to complete your first breath cycle…
- Allow your lips to part and start exhaling through your mouth. This should be a full breath to the extent that you might make a whooshing sound whilst you do it.
- Once you’ve exhaled fully, close your mouth and inhale deeply and silently through your nose while counting to four in your head.
- When you reach four, hold your breath for seven seconds.
- Then exhale fully through your mouth for eight seconds, making that same whooshing sound as you go.
- Practise this pattern four times to achieve four full breaths. With practise, you can work your way up to eight breaths per session.
3. Breath Focus
This breathing exercise uses a calming word or phrase to help you focus and is great for mental detachment. If you’re struggling to stop worrying about the things that you can’t control, or you’re feeling particularly panicked, you might find this technique particularly helpful.
It begins with basic belly breathing (which you can practise using the method in step one)…
- Find somewhere peaceful and comfortable to sit or lie down. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach, and take a few deep breaths. Pay attention to how each breath makes you feel and let your body relax as much as possible. Try to alternate between normal and deep breathing, reflecting on how much more relaxing deep breathing can be. Do this for several minutes.
- Choose a focus word that brings you some peace or happiness. This could be a word like “relax” or “peace”. It will be personal to you and can be any word that makes you feel peaceful and/or positive. Repeat the focus word in your head every time you breathe in and every time you breathe out. If this feels like too much, just repeat it as you exhale.
- The next step is to allow your deep breath and your focus word to work together on a deeper level. Imagine that as you inhale, you’re breathing in feelings of peace or calmness. Let these feelings wash over you. As you breathe out, picture any negative feelings or tension that you’ve been bottling up leaving your body.
If at any time a negative thought pops into your mind, first note it, then watch it leave your mind and body when you next exhale. While you’re doing this, repeat your focus word with each breath. - Try to practise this for at least 10 minutes a day. This could be one longer session or a couple of smaller ones.
Final thoughts…
Breathing exercises don’t always feel natural to start with, and some people worry about feeling silly. But you might be surprised at how much calmer it can make you feel and how much easier it becomes to stay focused with practise.
When you’re starting out, it can be easier to stick to practising your breathing techniques at the same time each day. This is the fastest way to help it become a habit that sticks. If that goal feels unrealistic, try it for a few minutes when you’re feeling particularly anxious or stressed.
If you find these breathing techniques helpful or you’re looking for additional ways to cope with stress and anxiety, check out our introduction to mindfulness or 7 tips for coping with stress and anxiety.
Have you practised any of the breathing techniques above? Or do you have any additional techniques that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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