One of the main things that people often suggest for anxiety or a panic attack is “Just breathe!” as if it’s that easy when you are panicking! But there is a reason why people say it. Just breathing might not be enough to take our anxiety away, but it can be a good place to start – especially when we are feeling panicky – and can get us to a calmer place where we feel better able to bring in our other techniques like questioning our thoughts

Why does breathing help a panic attack?

Breathing slow and deep breaths can help us feel calmer because it activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system which controls the body’s relaxation response and turns off the fight-or-flight response that get activated when we’re stressed. Slowing our breathing also helps to reduce some of those uncomfortable panic symptoms like light-headedness and numbness in our hands.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

It can help us to take deep breaths if we breathe more with our belly than our chest. One way to do this is to place one hand on our belly and one on our chest (which also feels nice and grounding) and focus on pushing that belly hand out more than our chest.

Box Breathing

Breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, breathe out for 4, hold for another 4 and repeat! It can also be distracting to count in your head or maybe even trace the square with your finger on your palm or leg and focus on the sensation

breathing through a straw

Sometimes it feels like you are breathing too fast and going straight to 4 counts feels too hard. In that case just focus on making your out breath longer than your in. And one way I do this is by pursing your lips and imagine you are breathing out through a straw like you want to make bubbles.

Practice!

It is important to practice these when you are feeling in a good place, and then it will feel easier to do when you are not feeing quite so good.