It’s the simplest reminder and gesture, yet one that escapes us all the time.

While many people suggest deep breathing to handle anxiety, I tend to stay away from those exercises when someone’s anxiety is very heightened. Anxiety can cause us to hold or shorten our breath, hyperventilate, or engage in irregular or shallow breathing. What this means for the body is that the chest gets tight, which then makes it harder to breathe, which can then make us feel anxious about our tight chest and irregular breathing. It’s not a great cycle.

Because of that, some people feel their anxiety increase when they are asked to take a deep breath and notice that they can’t. So what do we do when something is too challenging? Back up.

Instead of trying to manipulate the breath (and hey! if that works for you, keep doing it!), just notice it instead. It can be hard to swap panic, judgment, and forced breathing for letting go and mindfulness, but doing so can have a powerful impact.

If you’d like to give it a go, click the audio file below and follow along.

I invite you to be curious about the practice rather than judge what you think it should or shouldn’t look like - and I’d love to hear what you notice!