Hello,
I hope you are well.
We are all touched by anxiety from time to time.
A certain amount of stress is healthy.
Stepping out of our comfort zone occasionally can make us nervous,
But doing so is the pathway to growth.
For some of us,
However,
The experience of anxiety can be extreme and disabling.
Elements of everyday life that others might take for granted may cause us intense physical and mental anguish.
Our heart might begin to race,
Our breathing might become rapid and shallow,
We might become pale,
Our thoughts might begin to swirl.
For some,
A full blown panic attack can result where we will feel as if we are dying.
It is not a pleasant experience.
It is also not a reaction we can simply shake off.
Willpower can only take us so far.
Interestingly,
By concentrating on one physiological feature which we can control,
We can break the circuit of our anxiety response.
With practice,
It can become a calming feature of our everyday life that can proactively maintain a calm state.
Of course,
I am speaking of the breath.
Remember that during anxiety,
Our breathing becomes rapid and shallow.
By consciously slowing and deepening the breath,
We can restore a feeling of calm.
Our breathing rate is the number of full breaths in and out we take in a minute.
Let's try now to count how many times we breathe in a minute.
Count on the in-breath one,
Breathe out.
Breathe in two,
Breathe out.
And so on.
Try to breathe as naturally as you can.
Ready?
Begin.
And finish.
Now I wonder what your breathing rate was.
Fifteen?
Twenty?
More?
The technique we are going to use is to aim for ten breaths a minute.
That's ten inhalations and exhalations in one minute.
Breathing at this rate has been shown to be calming and restorative.
That will be three seconds to breathe in and three seconds to breathe out.
That may sound very difficult,
But once you get the rhythm,
You will be able to do this naturally,
Without timers or gadgets in any setting.
This simple exercise is to breathe at this rate for three minutes.
How can we do this in a simple way?
If we count three for each inhalation and each exhalation,
We're on our way.
To keep track of how many breaths we've had,
I change the first number.
Like this.
One,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
Two,
Two,
Three.
Two,
Two,
Three.
And so on.
When you get to ten,
Begin with one,
Two,
Three again.
If you manage to be breathing at the suggested rate,
Ten breaths a minute,
Then by counting breaths to a ten a total of three times,
You should be at around three minutes.
But be playful with yourself.
Make a game of it.
See how accurate you can be.
I predict that in a short space of time,
You will be as accurate a timekeeper as Big Ben.
Let's give it a try.
Find a comfortable position.
I'll help you start off,
But I won't stay long.
I don't want to mix you up with your rate of breathing,
Since it might be different to mine.
I'll give you little sign posts as we go through.
Remember,
There is no wrong way to do this.
It's not a competition.
How you do is how you do.
And that's fine.
Ready?
Now let's begin.
One,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
One,
Two,
Three.
Two,
Two,
Three.
Three,
Two,
Three.
Three,
You you one minute you you you Two minutes.
You woman There.
How did you do?
More importantly,
How do you feel?
Are you calm?
Do you feel relaxed?
Repeating this exercise every day is very helpful.
It's like having a secret superpower.
You can be standing in a queue and inside your head you're just counting to three in time with your breath.
People will be impressed by your zen-like calm.
Have fun and don't forget to breathe.
