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The breathing technique for anxiety is actually a mental checklist to calm the body.
Learn to calm your nervous system and lower heart rate in a few minutes with The 8 Qualities of Breathing taught to me by my friend & Yoga Teacher Piyush.
These 8 Qualities can be done at any time and place. Any beginner in Pranayama can practice this after reading this blog post!
This is a great breathing technique for anxiety.
Read more to understand your breathing pattern to help maximize these 8 Qualities.
What is the 8 Qualities of Breathing?
The 8 Qualities of Breathing is almost like a mental checklist that allows you to prepare the body for relaxation and can reduce anxiety.
It also gives you a chance to train you concentration muscles bringing more mindfulness in your life.
1. Nasal
It is important to breathe In and Out from the Nostrils as the body was designed. Nostrils helps filter the air from particles and humidifies it by making air more suitable for the lungs to absorb oxygen.
Focus on feeling the air moving in-&-out the nostrils from the tip of the nose to deep into the naval cavity.
2. Abdominal
The 8 Qualities of breathing shows the bodies natural way of breathing. Abdominal breathing helps regulate bodily energy as well as relax it. Majority of us had this habit as infants but began Chest Breathing and Shoulder Breathing as society molded us.
Focus your attention on your belly.
Bring your awareness to feel the rise and fall (expansion & retraction) of your belly. Fill your belly up with air then expel it.
If you happen to be laying on your belly in makarasana, bring your awareness to feel the rise and fall of the lower back.
Abdominal breathing is a great breathing technique for anxiety reduction.
3. Slowly
It is important to keep in mind that the slower we breath, the more we can relax and the longer we live.
The Yogi’s believes that breathing is our life force and that we only have certain breaths per life. They believe that the less breaths per minute we have such as a tortoise or elephant, the longer we live.
The more breaths per minute, like a rabbit, the shorter we live.
Focus your attention on slowing your breath as much as possible and maintain that rhythm.
P.S. (7th Quality “Silent” relates to this)
4. Deeply (Abdominal to head)
Using your imagination, focus your awareness on the air that’s entering and exiting your body. Then imagine each inhale filling the upper part of your body from head to abdomen.
Next inhale, imagine breathing from head to toe.
Easy way to imagine is to think of a color to represent the air that enters the body like a white or green light.
This is an important step in the 8 Qualities of Breathing.
5. Smoothly
Breath smoothly by inhaling and exhaling as with no friction or hesitation.
If you have stuffy nose or mucus, after cleaning, take the principles of Slow, Silent and smooth and imagine a tiny path way on each side of the nostrils and feel the air pass with no friction.
6. Evenly
Don’t beat yourself up if your inhales and exhales aren’t even. This is quite normal.
Don’t worry about counting your inhales and exhales as numbers create an expectation that may put stress on your current natural capacity.
Instead, bring your awareness to breathe deeply and try to consciously match the inhale to exhale.
7. Silently
Bring your awareness to your nostrils. Key to this is to breath so softly that you cannot hear yourself breathe.
This quality relates to the 3rd Quality: Slow
8. Continuously
Finally, make sure there isn’t any pauses or friction. Breathing should be continuous and cyclical.
Imagine cyclical air / energy flow from your naval cavity as you breathe down the front over your body, down to your perineum, breathing up the spine to the crown of the head and out throw the nostrils.
Conclusion
The 8 Qualities of Breathing can help bring balance into our daily lives by simply reminding ourselves to focus on our breath.
To help utilize The 8 Qualities of Breathing to it’s fullest, discover your breathing pattern with the 4 Types of Breathing.
These simple qualities is a beginners breathing technique for anxiety to help prepare our bodies for relaxation by directly influencing the central nervous system.
Thank for reading and I hope these post was of some use to you.