The Importance of Breathing

Ok. So the title of this hub may seem blatantly obvious to many people, as without breathing we'd all be queing at the Gates of St Peter! No, what I'm talking about is controlled breathing to help you through illness, stress and a general aid to health.

I first started concious breathing a few years ago when I was going through a terribly stressful time as a coping stategy to panic attacks and anxiety, which would strike without warning, leaving me in a total wreck and jumping at my own shadow. Its such a simple strategy, but at the same time so obvious that many people overlook it at the very time they needed it.

We are all familiar with the advice of taking a few deep breaths before we "take the plunge" into unknown psychological territory, but how many of us actually really do?

Here's the basics.

You train yourself to respond to a series of trigger words said aloud or in your head when you feel yourself becoming agitated or at the onset of an anxiety attack, which invokes a calming visualisation combined with a deep, slow breathing technique. Its not difficult to learn and I have even gotten a six year old who used to throw king size tantrums before bed time to respond to this technique. I dont know whether other people have used a similar method or whether it has an "official name" but I call it "safe Breathing" and it works. Here's how you do it.

Pick a time when you are in a calm, quiet, stress free environment ( I learned this while taking my evening baths) and visualise the things which stress you, while taking deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. As you feel the first symptoms of slight stress (knots in the stomach etc) mentally or aloud say a word that you can associate with calm and happy times, and mentally link this to the safe calm environment that you are in right now. Keep breathing in through you nose and out through your mouth to the count of 4. So breathe in 1-2-3-4 and out 1-2-3-4. Hold the stressy visualisation in your head briefly and see it replaced with a visualisation of the calm stress free environment you are in and eventually after carrying out this excersise everyday for a few weeks you will retrain your mind to respond to this trigger word (I used my dogs name) which will bring you into the deep breathing excersise and positive visualisation. This will lower your heart rate and make you feel less stressed and anxious.

When you find you are in a stressful situation, say your trigger word quietly to yourself and you will find that you will automatically start to conciously breathe deeply and slowly and asscociate this breathing technique with the visualisation of the calm environment and start to calm down. You will feel less anxious and less stressed. You can have a small object like a pebble, shell, coin etc. to hold (this is especially good for children to focus on) to help you focus and assscociate with a calm happy atmosphere.

I have taught this to people who have difficulty before exams, job interviews, flying and even first dates with amazing results.

With children you make the training a visualisation game, helping them to face their fears and anxieties in a safe, calm and supported environment. You tell them to remember the time we thought about what frightens us and how safe and happy we felt then, and get them to remember that feeling with a safe word (something easy and fun to remember like a made up word or funny name). I had a little boy tell me that it was his magic word and his magic pebble that kept the anxiety away about sleeping on his own (after a burglary in his home) and helped him and his parents all get a restful nights sleep. The word he chose was Flumpy Doodle and his magic pebble was a small piece of tumbled rose quartz., which helps to bring about self love. Now whenever he feels scared or anxious he says flumpy doodle quietly to himself and does a few deep breaths and gets on with his life. The nightmares and disturbed sleep are now a thing of the past.

I'm sure I am not the first person to use this technique nor the last, but I am happy to share it with you, the reader, in the hope that it may help you or someone you know break the cycle of health damaging anxiety.

After all, nothing in life is so simple as breathing.