Deep breathing benefits are a lifesaver for me. It works miraculously to calm anxiety and restore emotional stability. But how does it work, and how can you benefit? These tips may help.
Deep Breathing Benefits: How to Best Do It, Why You Should
I never considered how deep breathing benefits my emotional state. However, I learned valuable lessons about how this simple practice works, and what I found may help you.
As someone who’s endured some heartbreaking challenges and physical and emotional difficulties, I’m often asked how I cope with anxiety. They see my eternal optimism as at odds with my past turmoil and ask my secret for dealing with life’s ups and downs. I tell them, quite simply, that it isn’t a secret, yet the most effective technique I’ve discovered to calm anxiety is deep breathing.
How and Why Deep Breathing Benefits Anxiety
How and why does deep breathing work to calm anxiety? The Anxiety and Depression Association of America states that about 40 million adults in America have an anxiety disorder, making anxiety the country’s most common mental illness.
However, if deep breathing exercises can help, surely more people should add this technique to their anxiety-busting toolkit. While my anecdotal experiences may serve as peer advice, to further validate the benefits of deep breathing as an easy-to-use anxiety intervention, here are some scientific answers.
Deep Abdominal Breathing Reduces Anxiety and Stress
According to the American Institute of Stress, 20-30 minutes of deep breathing daily effectively reduces anxiety and stress. It has to be breathing deeply through the abdomen to produce the best results. During deep abdominal breathing, the oxygen breathed in stimulates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system. This, in turn, creates a feeling of calmness and body connectedness that diverts your attention from stressful, anxious thoughts and quiets your mind.
Researchers Find Why Deep Breathing Induces Tranquility and Calm
Research published in Science uncovered what may be a likely reason why deep breathing is so successful in producing a sense of calmness and tranquility. In mice studies, Stanford University researchers discovered that a neuronal subpopulation in the animals’ primary breathing rhythm generator projects directly to a center of the brain with a critical role in “generalized alertness, attention, and stress.”
Moreover, this subgroup of neurons belongs to a cluster of neurons in the brainstem that controls breathing initiation. When scientists removed the neuronal subgroup from the mice’s brains, it did not affect breathing, yet the mice remained calm. Their calm behaviors increased while they spent less time in agitated or aroused states. Further research should explore mapping the full range of functions and emotions controlled by the breathing center.
More Deep Breathing Benefits: Turns Off the Body’s Response to Stress
The body automatically triggers the stress response when you’re anxious and tense. This is known as the “fight or flight” syndrome and is the physiological reaction that occurs from the release of the chemicals cortisol and adrenaline. Initially, the stress response helped man respond to external threats to his existence, like fire, flood, wild animals, or attacks by rival clans.
While not so applicable today, the body’s stress response still throttles up when it senses danger or a threat. Awareness of danger when it suddenly appears helps us take preventive action to save lives.
- Yet when stress goes on indefinitely, and the stress response is constant or chronic, it wreaks havoc on the body.
- Furthermore, not only does anxiety increase, so do many health risks, like obesity, heart disease, and digestive problems.
- However, deep breathing reduces the body’s natural stress response. It decreases heart rate and blood pressure, causing muscle tension to relax. Plus, it promotes an overall resiliency build-up to better cope with life’s stressors and anxiety.
How Does Deep Breathing Affect Stress?
Researchers said their results in a pilot study published in Neurological Sciences indicate that it improves. The study utilized both self-reports and objective parameters.
They also noted that deep breathing benefits overall well-being, mainly during yoga and qigong.
- Research on yoga, the oldest known technique for relaxing, has found remarkable improvements. These include improved blood pressure, heart rate, body composition, motor abilities, respiratory and cardiovascular function.
- Also, researchers found positive effects on mood states, such as anxiety and perceived stress. This particularly applies to deep breathing’s impact on reducing tension anxiety.
Breath Control (Slow, Deep Breathing) Can Decrease Anxiety
Research published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that slow, deep breathing can decrease anxiety by promoting changes that enhance autonomic, psychological, and cerebral flexibility through mutual interactions.
- These include links between central nervous system activities related to emotional control, parasympathetic activity, and psychological well-being.
- The psychological and behavioral outputs resulting from these changes produce many benefits. These include increased alertness, relaxation, vigor, comfort, and pleasantness and decreased anxiety, depression, anger, arousal, and confusion.
In a study published in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers Donald J. Noble and Shawn Hochman investigate how sensory nerves around the chest play a role in deep breathing’s ability to relax the chest during exhalation.
This triggers baroreceptors in arteries. Thus, both sets of sensors feed into the brainstem, and the resulting slow brain waves produce relaxed alertness. Per researchers, the ideal method is six breaths per minute.
How Deep Breathing Benefits the Chronically Anxious
What if you have an anxiety disorder and deep breathing only works sometimes to lower your anxiety? In this case, you may benefit from seeking professional treatment.
Symptoms of chronic anxiety include, but are not limited to:
- Exhaustion and fatigue
- Constant worrying
- Sleep problems
- Decreased or increased appetite
- Digestion problems
- Difficulty concentrating
- Lack of energy
However, there’s no shame in asking for help to overcome anxiety. Medication and talk therapy may be necessary as you learn to cope with anxiety. Yet deep breathing and other therapies can effectively speed your healing.
