Three breathing techniques for anxiety from an Anxiety Counselor

Hello from Madison, WI! I’m Bronwyn, and I provide counseling for anxiety for women and HSPs who live in Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

There are so many breathing exercises for anxiety. It can feel overwhelming to know where to start in sifting through breathing techniques for anxiety. Especially if you’re a Highly Sensitive Person, having too many choices here can make it hard to start. In that vein, I will talk about only three breathing techniques today.

Practice breathing techniques for anxiety when you’re calm

In my experience as an anxiety counselor, it’s best to begin practicing any breathing techniques for anxiety when you aren’t feeling really stressed.

This will allow you to become familiar with how they work. Once you feel comfortable doing them, you can try them in acute moments of anxiety. If you’re having trouble finding a time feeling calm, start with Progressive Muscle Relaxation first.

One reason you don’t want to start doing these breathing techniques for anxiety when you’re already anxious is that it can make it worse. Trying to use a new breathing technique before it feels natural when you’re already feeling anxious can create more anxiety. It might even cause difficulty breathing. One of the reasons for this is that if we take in a lot of air and don’t completely exhale it, it can stimulate the stress response (sympathetic nervous system). The goal of all breathing techniques for anxiety is to do the opposite and make us feel at ease. Breathing is powerful and can also activate a relaxation response (parasympathetic nervous system).

If you find that focusing on your breathing just makes it harder for you to breathe (and relax), all is not lost. There are plenty of other long term strategies to reduce your anxiety, and short term coping skills for anxiety to choose from. 

Breathing technique for anxiety #1: Double your exhale

I’ve talked about this simple breathing exercise before. I put it as number one because to me it’s the most simple breathing technique for anxiety. It can also be helpful if you have tried other breathing techniques and found them to make your anxiety worse.

For this breathing technique, you don’t take a deep breath in. All you have to do is exhale more air than you inhale.

Step one: Breathe in through your nose. Just take a normal breath in, as you normally would, not any longer than usual.

Step two: When you exhale, breathe out the air very slowly. You can count how long your inhale was, and then just double the length of the exhale. This will help slow down your breathing.

Some people can double their exhale by exhaling normally. Others find that pursing their lips helps to slow down the exhale. To do this, you can imagine you’re blowing a bubble with a bubble wand or about to blow out all your birthday candles.

Breathing technique for anxiety #2: Belly breathing

Can you picture what a baby looks like when they are asleep? They breathe through their bellies.

It’s a natural way to give your brain the message to calm down. It’s activating the parasympathetic nervous system, the one that helps you rest.

To start, you can place one hand on your belly so that you can feel your belly rising and falling. As you breathe in, your belly rises. As you breathe out, your belly falls. Simply notice how your belly fills up with air when you inhale, and releases the air when you exhale. Notice your hand moving up when your belly fills up with air, and falling when your belly lets go of the air. At first don’t try to change anything. Just notice.

John’s Hopkins gives some good, clear directions on how to practice belly breathing. Robin Carnes, in her guided Yoga Nidra Meditation, does as well. I’ve used both to summarize the steps below:

Step one: Put one hand on your belly. Rest your elbow on the surface beside you.

Step two: Breathe in slowly through your nose. Imagine that there is a balloon filling up with air in your belly.

Step three: Breathe out slowly through your mouth. (Use the same pursed lip method that I mentioned above for a longer exhale.) Imagine the balloon in your belly is letting out all the air.

Breathing technique for anxiety #3: Expand and soften

This breathing technique for anxiety involves visualizing as much as physical technique. When you breathe in, think about expansion. When you breathe out, think about softening. It works well if you have already practiced deep belly breathing.

Step one: Expand on the inhale

You can do this in a number of ways. During the inhale, you have some options for what to focus on. You could think about expanding all the sides of your ribcage. As I learned from rolfer and physical therapist Kevin McCoy, your rib cage extends not only in the front of your chest, but to the sides and the back. We don’t often think about expanding the sides and the back of the ribs. Try expanding in this way when you breathe in.

You could also imagine your whole body expanding on the inhale.

Think about the air traveling to all parts of your body to help them expand. Imagine the air expanding into your head, arms and hands, pelvis, legs and feet.

Step Two: Soften on the exhale

During your exhale, you can imagine any and all parts of your body softening. If you focused on expanding your ribcage on the inhale, visualize your ribcage softening when you breathe out. You could also imagine your whole body softening. This works well if you’re lying on the ground or sitting down. You can envision your body becoming more soft and sinking into the ground.

If focusing on literal expansion and softening is too distracting, you can try holding in mind the ideas of expansion and softening as you breathe in and out.

Don’t forget about the importance of the length of your exhale. Remember that taking in too much air and not exhaling enough can cause more stress? If you’re breathing in a lot of air but not letting enough of it out, it will make you feel short of breath. You will likely then feel more anxious. Imagining that the balloon in your belly is letting all the air out can help make sure you breathe out a full exhale. Keep breathing out until all the air from your belly is released.

Getting comfortable with breathing techniques for anxiety takes time

Although some people say they feel less anxious after a few deep breaths, don’t expect that you will see immediate results. Research has shown that spending five minutes a day for a number of weeks practicing diaphragmatic breathing can improve attention, affect, and cortisol levels. Keep in mind that you’ll want to practice any breathing technique for anxiety when you’re feeling calm before trying it when you’re anxious. Also remember that breathing techniques are only one of many ways to deal with anxiety. You can amplify the effects by adding other coping strategies, like PMR for anxiety.

About the Author

I’m a clinical social worker with a private practice based in Madison, WI. I provide online therapy for women living in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. In addition to anxiety therapy, I also provide counseling for depression and therapy for HSPs.