The Lovely Art of Breathing: Help with Anxiety from Christian Counseling

Breathing is essential to our life. We may choose to just let our breathing happen without thinking about it. But focusing on our breathing can be a helpful tool, for it can teach us about our anxiety and it can also help us to relax. There are many different breathing exercises and programs that are specifically designed to accomplish different things.

In this article, I would like us to stop for a moment so that you can experience and reflect on the phenomenon of breathing. Many of the suggestions that I make here are things that you would hear when being guided through a breathing exercise in a professional setting. If you follow them, they will probably leave you feeling pretty relaxed. Before you begin, you need to sit up straight – and do make sure that you breathe normally when you need to!

Your Body is for Breathing

Here is an exercise to begin with. As you read, take three full breaths.

• On the first breath, exhale for as long as it feels comfortable, allowing your exhalation to linger. It doesn’t matter whether you breathe through your nose or your mouth, but don’t count how long it takes.
• On the second breath, inhale through your nose and mouth at the same time and make sure that you do not do so silently. Then exhale, but control the release of your breath using your throat rather than your lips.
• On the last breath, experiment with the sound you make by moving your mouth to different positions. Be warned that you may sound like Darth Vader! Notice how long you can exhale for when you are focusing on sounds rather than oxygen levels. You can control your breath with your throat even when your lips are closed and you are breathing through your nose. Open your mouth when you feel comfortable doing so.

If you are able to breathe through your nose, appreciate the fact that you can do so! Isn’t that great?

Breathing Brings You Pleasure

For the next exercise, start with your lips together and breathe through your nose. Open your lips suddenly and listen to the power of your breath as you suck air in. The next time, pull the air in more forcefully and feel how large your lungs become when you open your lips.

Try breathing in through your mouth and then out through your nose. This will probably not be so pleasant, for the nose releases too fast and the mouth draws in too fast. But then switch them around and feel the difference. It’s nice to experience the pressured control of inhaling through the nose, but the biggest pleasure comes from a controlled exhalation. It’s worth stopping to consider how pleasurable this controlled pressure on the lungs is. Our society often seems to equate physical pleasure with sexual pleasure, but that is a mistake. There are many physical activities like breathing that are not sexual but are soothing and physically pleasurable, for human beings are designed to experience physical pleasure.

Breathe to the Full

For full breaths, try starting with your head straight up and breathe through your nose, and as you draw breath in, lower your head into your chest and open your mouth. The intention is to feel the top of your lungs stretching. The key moment comes when you exhale, for if you can feel your breath stretching the top of your lungs and, beyond that, your back and shoulders, this means that you are taking a full breath which is very therapeutic.

A warning: If you feel light headed during this exercise, then take a break and breathe easily for a moment.

Breathing Brings You in Touch with Your Emotions

You also need to be aware that our breathing is linked to our emotions, and the following exercises could trigger emotional reactions. If you take a small, firm breath and push it out several times, it can feel like crying. You may even feel like crying, as the heart and body are connected and your breathing can trigger an emotional response. Taking several medium sized breaths and then pushing them out can feel like aerobic exercise, or exhilaration, or perhaps panic. By occasionally checking in on what emotions you are feeling, you can develop your emotional muscles and identify your emotions, experiencing them to the full.

Your Breathing Happens by Itself

Fill your lungs so full that the air rushes out of you freely, but without activating your diaphragm or any muscles. Just let the air gush out. Try this again with a smaller breath and observe how your exhalation stops a bit short. We are used to pushing some air out after breathing in; this is physiologically efficient and also pleasurable. Next, let another big breath fall out, but this time, let it remain exhaled and contract your tummy muscles slowly. As the air starts coming out, engage your diaphragm and side muscles to squeeze out every last drop! Hold this position and notice how air rushes in when you release your diaphragm. Observe how it feels as if you are doing the breathing, yet it actually happens by itself. Squeeze the air out again and then take a little breath after your lungs fill naturally. Exhale fully but very lightly through your nose, and see if you can enter into a special place of extremely small, peaceful and quiet breaths. If you are able to do this, stay there for about twenty seconds with your eyes closed. Start breathing fully again when you start to feel desperate – and notice how sweet that breath is.

Observe Your Breathing

Allow yourself to refill on oxygen for a bit so that you can relax deeply. (Notice how, if you strive to normalize your breathing, it becomes difficult and your heart rate increases). One of the objectives in this exercise is to reach a place where your muscles are so relaxed that you can observe your breathing without controlling it. Feel how your diaphragm pulls your lungs open and feel the pressure of your lungs as they push air out. Your body is both harvesting oxygen and equalizing the air pressure with that of your surroundings. By opening your lips slightly, you can feel the faint wind as it moves like a stream. This may feel like tiny little breaths that occur as you keep your airway open without really breathing, or it may feel like very quiet, long and imperceptible breaths. By closing your mouth, you should feel the silence in your nose and be able to focus on your lungs. Rest there and “watch” the air in the room come into you as breath. This is a good place. If you can become very still, see if you can feel how your heartbeat affects that tiny stream of air.

Slow Down

Try to feel a ‘well’ in your tummy area after some relaxing breathing. This may feel like ethereal water that has filled a well in your tummy. This feeling is your diaphragm. Slowing down this much is therapeutic and centering, especially if you are in an aroused state like anxiety. Just as you slow down enough to see the clouds move, so try to slow down enough to feel your diaphragm in your tummy.

If you are relaxed, try inhaling air with your nose, and pushing it out slowly for as long as you can. Your goal is to lose track of the world and to breathe by feeling your heart as you breathe. Feel the heart beat as you exhale, and lose sight of everything else. You may feel tension as you pass the half-way point when you begin to push air out. Try doing this with your eyes closed, and let the next breath slip in soothingly. Achieving such calm control can teach you to become self-soothing instead of reactive, knowing that the next breath will come and that you are in control of when you breathe.

Christian Counseling Can Help You to Deal with Anxiety

Breathing exercises can be a great help for those who struggle with anxiety. Once you learn them, they can be done almost anywhere. Professional Christian counseling will sometimes recommend such exercises that can help people to relax and become more centered. These exercises can be used both during a counseling session and outside of the counseling room. If you desire to feel more centered in a life that can be overly busy and often hurtful, or if you are having difficulty coping with anxiety, Christian counseling might be just what you need. Please get in touch with me if you would like to start a conversation about anxiety and working toward wholeness.

Photos
Photos are from freedigitalphotos.net; In The Hush Of The Sunset Stock Photo By prozac1,image ID: 1009374; Human Body With Lungs And Heart Stock Image By dream designs, image ID: 10053052