The 6 Fundamentals Of Abdominal Breathing To Manage Anxiety
It is clear that breathing is essential for the maintenance and survival of the human organism, but many people tend to overlook its implications for our emotional state. It is not in vain that several of the techniques and strategies used in psychotherapy involve conscious control of how we breathe.
In this sense, Abdominal breathing is one of the most important variants to learn to regulate how we think and feel And specifically, it helps to achieve a state of relaxation and mitigate anxiety. In this article we are going to focus on it, but first, we will review the main types of breathing.
Before entering into the keys to abdominal breathing, it is necessary to look a little more in-depth at the types of breathing that exist. Mainly, we can consider that there are three different types of ways of breathing.
1. Abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing
abdominal breathing is one in which there is a significant movement of the diaphragm, a muscle that separates the thoracic cavity from the belly and that acts like a spring. During breathing, the diaphragm lowers toward the belly, air is sucked into the lungs, and when this muscle rises, air is expelled to the outside. That is, it acts as a kind of embolus, pressing on the lower part of the lungs and causing the air to rise in the direction of the trachea.
This type of breathing is considered to help take advantage of lung capacity and ensure that the body’s cells are oxygenated efficiently.
2. Chest breathing
Chest breathing is one in which there is opening and closing of the rib cage This breathing modality causes relaxation if done in a directed manner, but takes advantage of both lung and abdominal capacity.
3. Clavicle breathing
Clavicular breathing is breathing in the highest part of the chest and, as a result, causes the collarbones to rise. This is the typical breathing of states of anxiety and nervousness, being very superficial and inefficient, because with each breath of air the blood is oxygenated little.
When performing these types of muscle movements, little air enters the lungs, making it necessary to take many breaths in a row to oxygenate correctly. And since little oxygen is inhaled, little reaches the brain and a state of “alert” can occur because the body is in a vulnerable situation. Thus, it is both a (partial) cause and a consequence of anxiety.
The basics of abdominal breathing
These are the key guidelines and ideas that you should keep in mind to carry out abdominal breathing.
1. Start learning in a context that makes it easy for you
If you are starting to practice abdominal breathing, Do your best to make it easy for yourself, since starting from 0 is already a challenge in itself Go to a quiet place, without distractions and that offers you privacy. Otherwise, you will be more likely to struggle or get frustrated, and that will demotivate you.
2. Make sure the belly expands more than the chest
A very easy and intuitive way to know if you are doing abdominal breathing correctly is to put one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. If they both move more or less the same, you are doing it wrong. Ideally, the hand on the belly should move much more and that the one on the chest barely does it.
3. Quality matters more than quantity
Make sure each inhale and exhale cycle occurs slowly but surely, dedicating dedication to each one. Allow several seconds to pass both during the entry of air and in the process of its exit.
4. Rhythm is more important than strength
Some people make the mistake of trying to carry out abdominal breathing by greatly straining the capacity of their lungs, until they reach a point where they feel discomfort due to the tension generated in their muscles and tissues in general. But this not only produces totally unnecessary discomfort, but also plays against the most important aspect of a good way of breathing: maintaining a constant and consistent rhythm
5. The lungs expand in all directions
Keep in mind that although we notice the phases of breathing especially in the front part of our trunk, the lungs do not expand only towards the front part, but do so in all directions; The only thing that happens is that we have more soft parts in the ventral part
That is why, when carrying out abdominal breathing, you should also let them expand to the sides and in the lower part of your back. Many people are surprised to know that if they take deep breaths with their diaphragm, they notice how the part of the kidneys “inflates.”
You may be interested: “Respiratory system: characteristics, parts, functions and diseases”
6. Don’t become obsessed with always breathing like this
It is normal that in your daily life you go through different types of breathing. No one can control the way they breathe at all times since that would be exhausting and would imply a significant effort at the price of neglecting other important aspects of life (in addition to the fact that, paradoxically, this perfectionism would make us prone to suffering from anxiety).
Keep in mind that if we breathe automatically and anxiety predisposes us to breathe in a certain way, it is not by chance; There are survival mechanisms behind that, and they have been carved out over hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection. The goal should be to intervene in your breathing, especially at key moments when you notice that anxiety is not helping you, but rather is an obstacle.
Do you want to have professional psychological support?
If you are interested in having psychological assistance, contact me. I am a psychologist who is an expert in the cognitive-behavioral model, and I provide care in person and online.
