{"id":74853,"date":"2022-07-28T13:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=74853"},"modified":"2022-08-10T12:42:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T16:42:19","slug":"mindful-breathing-for-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mindful-breathing-for-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mindful Breathing for Anxiety Can Help You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How can you use mindful breathing for anxiety? How does mindful breathing stimulate curiosity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>Unwinding Anxiety<\/em>, Dr. Judson Brewer suggests practicing mindful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/eckhart-tolle-meditation-mindfulness\/\">meditation<\/a> to defeat anxiety. One of the techniques he suggests is mindful breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading for better insight on using mindful breathing for anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mindfulness-101-watching-your-breath\"><strong>Mindfulness 101: Watching Your Breath<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One basic mindfulness tool\u2014and the core of many meditation practices\u2014is mindful breathing for anxiety. Brewer recommends that when you notice yourself getting anxious\u2014or are about to do some other behavior you\u2019d rather change\u2014you should pause and become aware of your breathing. Pay attention to the <em>physical sensations<\/em> of breathing (such as its length, depth, and so on), and focus on the part of your body where you most feel the breath.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brewer argues that <strong>watching the breath breaks the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/anxiety-is-a-habit\/\">anxiety habit<\/a> loop and automatically replaces it with mindful curiosity<\/strong>. In other words, if you watch your breath whenever you start to feel anxious, then instead of feeding the anxiety by engaging with it\u2014through worrying, coping behaviors, active avoidance, and so on\u2014you instead relate to your anxiety as a neutral observer. Doing so disarms the anxiety and starves the habit cycle that gives rise to it in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: In general, when watching the breath, you shouldn\u2019t try to breathe in any special way. The goal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ramdass.org\/aware-of-the-breath\/\">isn\u2019t to change or control the breath<\/a>, but simply to observe it. In fact, when practicing mindfulness, one of your goals is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/remaining-neutral\/\">remain neutral<\/a> to whatever you observe. For example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/mindfulness-in-plain-english\"><em>Mindfulness in Plain English<\/em><\/a>, Henepola Gunaratana describes mindfulness as the act of <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/mindfulness-in-plain-english#the-mindset-of-meditating\">standing back and watching<\/a> whatever\u2019s going on in your body and mind. He explains that you should practice mindfulness without expecting any particular result, without straining or rushing, and without judging your thoughts or feelings.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That said, watching the breath doesn\u2019t automatically make anxious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/thoughts-feelings-and-behaviors\/\">thoughts and feelings<\/a> go away\u2014and that\u2019s not the goal. In fact, once you\u2019ve used your awareness of the breath to adopt a mindful attitude, Brewer suggests that you <strong>pay attention to where in your body you most feel the anxiety<\/strong>. He says you can imagine breathing into that area to focus your attention there, and you can even imagine breathing out some of the unpleasant sensations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: As with the breath itself, you shouldn\u2019t try to change or control your anxious thoughts or feelings. The goal of this exercise is to be curious about those thoughts and feelings and to observe them as closely as you can. As noted above, trying to control mindfulness to produce a specific result only undermines the process\u2014and doing so might also exacerbate anxiety. In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/radical-acceptance\"><em>Radical Acceptance<\/em><\/a>, psychologist Tara Brach argues that we typically resist painful or unpleasant feelings like anxiety, which only creates more problems and pain. The solution, she says, is to see things as they are (through mindfulness) and to <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/radical-acceptance#accepting-things-as-they-are\"><em>accept them <\/em>as they are<\/a> (rather than fighting against or trying to avoid or change unpleasant experiences).)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-cultivating-curiosity\"><strong>Cultivating Curiosity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the benefits of observing the breath is that doing so encourages curiosity. Brewer considers this an ideal antidote to anxiety. He also offers several additional practices that are specifically designed to help you respond with curiosity even in difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Brewer recommends that <strong>when you\u2019re stressed, anxious, or otherwise upset and you feel closed down, you say \u201chmm\u201d out loud to yourself<\/strong>\u2014just as you would if you encountered something interesting or surprising. He argues that saying \u201chmm\u201d triggers you to become curious about whatever\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, he says that <strong>deliberately widening your eyes can trigger a curious (rather than fearful or angry) response<\/strong>. He points to research suggesting that we open our eyes wide when we\u2019re trying to take in information and narrow them when trying to block out sensory input (as when something disgusts us) or focus on action (as when we\u2019re fighting or fleeing).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Many contemporary therapists recommend similar tricks to calm the body and promote desired emotional states. For example, some experts suggest that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dbtcenteroc.com\/half-smiling-willing-hands\/\">adopting a serene half-smiling expression and turning your open hands palm-up<\/a> can reduce anger and frustration and increase feelings of peace and acceptance. Similarly, evidence shows that breathing such that your out-breath is longer than your in-breath <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindbodygreen.com\/0-4386\/A-Simple-Breathing-Exercise-to-Calm-Your-Mind-Body.html\">triggers your body to enter a state of calm<\/a>\u2014which can help counteract the fight-or-flight instinct that drives anxiety in the first place.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can you use mindful breathing for anxiety? How does mindful breathing stimulate curiosity? In Unwinding Anxiety, Dr. Judson Brewer suggests practicing mindful meditation to defeat anxiety. One of the techniques he suggests is mindful breathing. Continue reading for better insight on using mindful breathing for anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":34827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,43],"tags":[709],"class_list":["post-74853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","tag-unwinding-anxiety","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Mindful Breathing for Anxiety Can Help You - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Paying attention to your breath is one of the best ways to ease anxiety. 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