Breathwork Courses for Anxiety

The phrase "breathwork" is used to refer to the mindful breathing technique. To influence our mental and physical state during breathwork, we actively manage the length and depth of our inhalations and exhalations.

Breathwork courses that are available online make it so easy for everyone to access them throughout the UK. The Breath Sensei offers free courses for a variety of different topics such as breathwork courses for stress, breathwork courses for anxiety, breathwork courses for improving sleep & focus, along with breathwork courses for corporate health and wellbeing. Try a free breathwork course today and see the benefits immediately when you continue to practice breathwork in the UK.

Breathwork is an active form of meditation that has numerous health advantages, such as improved mood, lessened stress and anxiety, and better sleep. The following topics will be covered in this essay as we examine the connection between breathing and anxiety:

How do breathing and anxiety relate to one another?
Top breathing techniques for anxiety.
How does breathwork ease anxiety?
The science of breathwork: you can relax your mind by using controlled breathing.

How Does Breathwork Ease Anxiety?

Even though fear can occasionally keep us safe, too much of it is detrimental for our body, mind, heart, and spirit. The persistent and crippling worry of the future, which is anxiety, overworks the neurological system, triggers the fight-or-flight response, and causes the body to overproduce the stress hormone cortisol. Our capacity to manage our thoughts is also impacted by anxiety, which is precisely where the breath can serve as a remedy.

We activate the vagus nerve, activate our parasympathetic nervous system, and put the breaks on worry and stress when we practise deep, rhythmic breathing. Our mind settles, our heart opens, and we remember the completeness and truth of who we are when our body returns to its natural state. There are many different breathwork techniques that can give the body this relaxing and strengthening impact.

What is Anxiety & What Causes It?

Anxiety is a physiological state of widespread disquiet that can resemble concern or terror. It can range from moderate to severe and is a sensation of apprehension about the future. The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 13 persons worldwide suffer from anxiety. Scientifically speaking, anxiety is a part of the greater "fight-or-flight" response and is the autonomic nervous system's (ANS) reaction to stress. The body immediately initiates a series of physiological and hormonal responses to help fight or flee a dangerous situation when the brain senses threat.

Even if this evolutionary trait protected our ancestors against numerous predators and natural calamities, our bodies did not evolve the ability to distinguish between an enormous black bear and an awkward talk coming up. This is where mindfulness techniques, like breathing exercises & breathwork courses, might be beneficial in repressing these instinctual behaviours and reducing anxiety through the power of breathing & breathwork.

How Breathwork Helps With Anxiety

The majority of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is made up of involuntary functions. It goes without saying that one cannot wilfully decide to begin digesting their food differently or expand their blood vessels. Of course, breathing is the one significant exception. The respiratory system is the only way we can enter the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and while it does it on its own, we do have control over how quickly and deeply we breathe.

We can deliberately activate our parasympathetic nervous system due to our deliberate control over how much oxygen we take in and carbon dioxide we exhale. By doing this, we can allow our rest and relaxation response to take precedence over our stress reaction by using the breath to convey that we aren't in danger. Breathwork has the potential to influence several bodily functions, including blood pressure, heart rate, libido, and digestion.

The Breath Sensei’s breathwork courses for anxiety will make you see the positive benefits that come from breathing techniques and breathwork. Try a free breathwork course for anxiety today with The Breath Sensei and reap the benefits.

Best Breathing Exercises for Anxiety

Breathwork has been used for thousands of years all throughout the world to treat anxiety. While some techniques are straightforward, others are far more complex. Here are a few simple breathing exercises for reducing anxiety that are a fantastic place to start.

Deep Breathing or Belly Breathing

This is the one that most people are probably already familiar with because it's wise advice: "Just take a few deep breaths." There are a few more specifics to this effective breathing technique for anxiety, though.

Take a deep breath. Longer, deeper breaths should be preferred than short, rapid ones.
Use your nose to take in and let out breaths. As a result, the breath is slowed, which allows the body to take in more oxygen.
Instead of breathing deeply into your chest, picture doing so into your lower torso. Although we actually breathe into our chest-mounted lungs, envisioning doing so causes the diaphragm and pelvic diaphragm to relax, creating more space in the body for the lungs to expand. Placing one hand on the belly and the other on the chest can help. Make a conscious effort to direct your breath toward the hand on your belly rather than the one on your chest.

Box Breathing

This technique, commonly referred to as square breathing, is a popular type of breathwork. Navy SEALs, police officers, and nurses all regularly use box breathing for anxiety as part of their training, and it's reasonable to assume that these are jobs in which being able to control anxiety is vital. In case you needed any more evidence of how quickly it may relieve stress. Additionally, it is incredibly easy to practise and can be done whenever and whenever. Just carry out these actions.

Sit comfortably and slowly exhale until your breath is completely gone while keeping your feet flat on the floor.
On a count of four, slowly inhale until you've filled your lungs to capacity.
For an equal count of four, hold the breath at the peak of your inhale.
Exhale thoroughly until your lungs are empty on the next count of four.
For an additional count of four, hold your breath as you exhale.
Repeat as often as necessary until you start to feel better.

Buteyko Breathing

The Buteyko method of breathwork was developed by Ukrainian physician Konstantin Buteyko, who believed that most people's breathing problems were caused by over breathing. Buteyko's methods are based on gently reducing oxygen intake to improve the body's ability to absorb oxygen, prevent hyperventilation, and trigger the "rest and digest" state of the ANS by simulating our breath patterns when we are at rest, contrary to the belief of many people that breathing more oxygen equates to better health and better breathing.

The Buteyko method includes a number of exercises, all of which are based on the idea that everyone should breathe through their noses at all times, whether they are awake or asleep. To apply the Buteyko technique:

Start inhaling through your nose. Instead of taking deep breaths that fill your lungs to the brim, start to slow down your breathing and maintain it quiet and soft.
Continue to breathe more slowly until you notice a minor air shortage. Maintain these short breaths rather than giving in to the impulse to breathe more deeply.
For one minute, keep breathing in this manner, concentrating on the breath.

Yoga Breathing

Many people learn how to adapt their bodies or minds through breathing exercises in yoga sessions, whether it's to reduce anxiety, enhance athletic performance, or practise meditation. Pranayama is another name for the yoga breathing technique; Prana, the Sanskrit word for spirit or life energy, and yama, the word for control. There are various pranayama techniques for achieving calm and mental clarity, and each has advantages beyond just reducing anxiety.

The Science of Breathwork: Controlled Breathing Can Calm Your Mind

Though breathing exercises have been used to treat anxiety for thousands of years, researchers are still learning more and more about the complex ways that breathing exercises can influence the body. The Autonomic Nervous System, which is what we discussed in the introduction, is ultimately the source of the advantages of breathwork.

Our sympathetic nervous system (SNS, also known as "fight-or-flight") activates when stress or panic sets in. While this is helpful for fleeing immediate danger, it has a significant negative impact on our bodies. Our body is overrun with hormones, we get a massive injection of glucose into our bloodstream, our heart rate goes up, and our blood vessels tighten, raising our blood pressure.

When our daily lives are so stressful that we are unable to let the "relax and digest" process to take over, we experience problems. Constant hormone and glucose spikes, elevated blood pressure, and lack of sleep can have devastating and dangerous effects on our health. This is when using your breath can help.

By using our doorway into the autonomic nervous system—the breath—breathwork is a technique for reversibly engineering the parasympathetic nervous system into action. According to a 2018 National Library of Medicine study, breathing exercises can help us recover control over our thoughts and improve our capacity to concentrate on other tasks. By regulating our breathing, we may tell our brain that there is no longer a threat, allowing the PNS to begin repairing the harm the SNS has caused.

By incorporating this practise into our daily life, we can reap several advantages, including improved GI activity because the SNS is no longer blocking digestion, better sleep, weight loss, and a levelling out of hormones, insulin, and blood glucose.

Ready to feel the benefits of breathwork for anxiety relief? Try out the Breath Sensei’s free breathwork course for anxiety to feel more relaxed and see the benefits for yourself.