5 Minute Therapies: And… Breathe

There’s so much in life we take granted. The little things like the certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow morning and set in the evening. That our loved ones will return home tonight safe & sound. That the car the will start in the morning when I want it to. That an old flame will surely appear as if from nowhere when I’m having a bad hair day, a breakout or after being caught in a rain storm. We’ve all been there.

However, there are much more subtle things that we take for granted that sit on the border between life & death, or at the very least possess the ability to give us a health-wobble.

Of these I’d say the thing I most often overlook is each and every breath. In fact, it’s not until that breath is taken away that I really notice it. Some years ago I was challenged by a friend to take an Ironman – a ridiculously long triathlon involving a 3.8km swim. I was already into cycling & running so I accepted their challenge, foolishly thinking that my 50m swimming cert obtained in secondary school was somehow proof that I could manage the required standard. It was only when I got into a pool and tried to swim a few hundred meters that I realised the scale of what I had signed up to.

My technique was awful and every stroke felt like it was accompanied by my last breath. With each passing breath & stroke I felt more & more anxious. It was an awful experience. After a month or so of struggling to manage anymore than a broken 2 or 3 hundred meters without feeling like I was about to keel over, I realised that I must be doing something wrong.

When I stopped to think about my technique I realised that I was holding my breath as I swam until I was gasping for air. Then I would stick my head up and out of the water and in a split second try to exhale and then inhale before starting the process again. By holding my breath under water I wasn’t giving myself enough time when I lifted my head, to simply breathe in. So, I slowed down my stroke rate, consciously focused on breathing out under water, breathing in when I lifted my head, and before I knew it I was swimming a Kilometer, and then a mile, and then… well,. for a very long way.

Not only that, but a former anxious swimmer was now calm & confident in the water.

It was bringing my breathing into my full awareness and synchronising it with my movements that things started to fall into place for me. It underlined the power of breathing, something we often overlook, to take us far and reduce our experience of anxiety.

When we experience anxiety, it can also be accompanied by a variety of physiological symptoms such as changes in breathing, racing heart, feeling tense, to name just a few. But this physiological fact, as much as it is inconvenient and can be very distressing, can also be harnessed to work to our advantage. Although these symptoms are often reactions, they can also be causal. For example, we notice our heart racing and determine that as a sign of feeling anxious and so become anxious.

That means that the system is two-way. The information doesn’t simply feed from the brain down, it can also feed up from our bodily sensations & experiences. If we can get a symptom like our breathing under control we can use it a way to activate our parasympathetic nervous system.. which is to say, help calm ourselves down.

Below you will find a few of my favourite breathing exercises. Ones which I & my clients have reported the greatest success with:

1. Square Breathing: Where ever you are, try to find a comfortable position and look for a roughly square shape. Perhaps a window or a door frame. You are going to trace the outline of that shape with your eyes slowly, as you do breathing in, then holding your breath, then breathing out before holding again. For example: Breathe in for 4 seconds tracing your eyes from one corner to the next, then hold your breath for 4 seconds tracing your eyes to the next corner, then exhale for 5 seconds tracing your eyes to the next corner and then hold for 4-5 seconds tracing your eyes along the last edge. Then repeat for few at least a few cycles but preferably for several minutes.
2. Belly Breathing: Try to find a comfortable place or position. Place one hand on your belly & the other on your chest. Notice your hands rise and fall with each breath. Breathe in through your nose slowly and into your belly. Feel your hands rise – the hand on your belly should rise further than the hand on your chest. Breathe out through the nose, again noticing the relative hand movements… And repeat.
3. Time Breathing: Similar to Square Breathing except there’s no need to trace the outline of a shape. Breathe in for 4, hold for 4, then out for 4 or 5 seconds, and then hold for 4-5 seconds. As you breathe in, try to imagine the restoration of calm, and continue for 10 to 20 minutes.
4. Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Find somewhere flat to lay and begin by taking a few deep breaths. As you breathe in slowly, tense the muscles in your feet and relax those muscles as you breathe out. Then repeat but this time move on to the next body area to tense – your lower leg, for instance. Repeat this process moving your attention to the various areas up through the body. Take your time and don’t over-tense. If you feel any pain, stop tensing that area immediately.

The act of breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system – the bit that has the function of calming everything back down. So, as a general rule, try to take more time when breathing out than when breathing in and try to relax as you do so.

If you would like to talk with a professional counsellor& psychotherapist feel free to contact BroadMinds Therapy for help & advice. We offer a free consultation with no obligation to book further sessions. Call (+353) 0899420568, email help@broadmindstherapy.org , message us via this web page or visit our facebook page for more information.

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