Anxiety and Breath Work
By Nigel McHollan
Part 1
Anxiety:
a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome.
With symptoms ranging from a racing heart rate that you can’t slow down to sweat dripping down your brow to a feeling of the utmost despair. Anxiety leaves you feeling that you’ll never be able to escape from its clutches. With no invitation or a call, it's there, lurking. This can be reality for most people suffering from anxiety. Like a debilitating illness.
What is going on with Anxiety?
Physiologically, these are hardwired responses that are deeply rooted into your nervous system. Some will have been there for generations that would have helped you stay alive in situations where your life was at risk or fighting for survival against nature. This section of your autonomic nervous system is called ‘The Fight, Flight or Freeze’ where you decide upon the course of action to take in order to survive. This response activates the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and your body becomes flooded with Adrenaline, Cortisol and several other hormones that place you into a heightened state of arousal and alertness. Your heart beats fast, you start to sweat and you can feel rising panic. Very quickly you are primed for whatever action that you need to take. Other functions that are non essential such as digesting food, stimulating stomach acid, saliva production, etc are put on hold.
However the days of a sabre tooth tiger trying to eat us have passed but we still have these genetic programmed responses to stress. Modern day stresses such as relationship worries, work demands, medical issues, mortgage payments, public speaking, etc. are the new norm. These can be scary and dangerous when they are experienced for the first time. The fight, flight or freeze response is activated once again and we have anxiety and panic. What can be done to suppress these reactions? Is this just who I am, is this part of me?
Where to begin?
Firstly, acknowledging that you are dealing with anxiety and panic is important. Admitting to being scared or feeling overwhelmed is one of the first parts in dealing with this. Identifying what you are feeling and accepting it. There will be a wide range of emotions that need to be filtered through and understood but this is key to healing and growing from these experiences.
As a SOMA Breath instructor, using the breath as a tool to help my clients regain control over their emotions and feelings is the first step. Understanding what happens to their breath once in a state of anxiety and panic. Usually this is a quickening of the breath with short and shallow breaths coming from the chest and upper body, nearly always breathing in through the mouth. The mouth, a vessel for eating, speaking or used during acute bouts of high intensity and low duration activity such as running for a bus or HIIT training at your local gym. The upper lobes of the lungs are coated in nerve endings that are connected to the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), as seen above, when upregulated it fuels the body with stress hormones. Mouth breathing is often associated with stress patterns and respiratory dysfunction. The lower lobes of the lungs are coated in nerve endings that are connected to the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) which is the counter regulatory system to the SNS. When this is upregulated then our breathing is slower and more relaxed. This system is referred to as ‘The Rest and Digest’ where as it suggests, all the functions that deal with digestion, repair, sleep, etc are performed. Nasal breathing is associated with relaxed, diaphragmatic and functional patterns.
Try This…
Try this simple experiment to show the relationship between your breath, the way you breath and your heart rate:
Place your hand on your heart or your finger on your pulse. Inhale through your nose and notice your pulse quicken then slowly exhale through your mouth to feel it slow back down. The key is the extended exhalation.
Part 2 : I discuss ‘The Oxygen Paradox’ and ‘The BOHR effect’ and their role and relationship with Carbon Dioxide.
Before trying the below Meditation have a watch of this instructional video: