Top 10 Breathing Exercises for Anxiety from a Breathwork Instructor

Feeling overwhelmed? Anxious? Stressed to the max? While there is no one-all-be-all solution to anxiety, breathing exercises are an excellent place to start.

Across generations and cultures around the globe, it’s well-known that consciously controlling the breath, something you do 17,000 times a day, has a profoundly positive impact on your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. You would be amazed at how your life will spiral upwards if you choose to pay attention to your breath as much as you do to your phone.

But I don’t expect you to make a drastic lifestyle change at the drop of a hat — it’s unrealistic and won’t stick — instead, I wrote this post so that you can easily use breathwork as an effective way to manage anxiety when the need arises. We'll explore why breathing works to manage anxiety, discuss ten effective breathing exercises that you can easily incorporate into stressful moments, and answer some common FAQs.

Now together take a deep breath in… and out… Let’s begin.

Before we dive into the specific techniques, let's quickly explore the current scientific understanding behind breathwork.

When stressed, the breath becomes shallow and rapid, triggering our body's fight-or-flight response. (Sympathetic nervous system) This can lead to a cascade of physical and emotional symptoms that work as a negative feedback loop; increased heart rate, muscle tension, and anxiety leads to more poor breathing patterns, which leads to more of the aforementioned physical symptoms, the cycle continues.

However, by practicing deep, slow breathing, we can activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for our body's "rest and digest" response. This helps to calm the mind, body, and emotions by reducing c02 levels in the blood, reducing stagnant metabolic waste in our tissues, slowing the heart rate, lowering the blood pressure, reducing stress hormones, and more. This in turn results in a positive feedback loop; the better you breathe, the more your mind, body, and emotions will slide into relaxation.

Now we boogie with the top 10 breathing exercises for anxiety.

This fundamental technique involves deep, slow breaths that engage your diaphragm, the primary breathing muscle. By focusing on pushing the belly out as you inhale, you can increase the volume of air you bring into your lungs, therefore activating your parasympathetic nervous system to enter a state of relaxation and reduce anxiety.

1. Lie on your back. If you have lower back pain, place a bolster or pillow beneath your legs to raise them and relieve the pressure of your back.

2. Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest.

3. As you inhale, push your belly out.

4. Once your belly is fully extended, push the chest out as you continue to inhale. Think of this belly → chest motion like a wave.

5. Passively release the exhale, slow and controlled. Don’t fully exhale, just release.

6. Repeat this breathing pattern for 5-10 minutes

7. Once complete, lay still for at least 60 seconds. If you get up too soon, you may get dizzy and fall over - we don’t want that.

This simple yet effective technique involves a specific breathing pattern that has been shown as a way to consciously tap into the parasympathetic nervous system to calm your mind, slow your heart rate, and initiate that positive upward spiral we talked about before. By following this rhythmic breathing pattern, you can induce a state of relaxation and reduce anxiety.

1. Take a comfortable seated position

2. Inhale slowly through your nose for a count of 4.

3. Hold your breath for a count of 7.

4. Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 8.

5. Repeat for 4-5 cycles.

6. Once complete, sit still for at least 60 seconds.

This ancient pranayama practice (pranayama is Sanskrit for ‘control of life force’, or ‘conscious breathing') involves alternating breaths through each nostril, balancing the body's energy channels.

1. Sit comfortably with your spine straight, shoulders back and down.

2. Close your right nostril with your right thumb.

3. Inhale slowly through your left nostril for four seconds.

4. Close your left nostril with your ring finger of the right hand and release your right nostril.

5. Exhale slowly through your right nostril for four seconds.

6. Inhale slowly through your right nostril for four seconds.

7. Close your right nostril and release your left nostril.

8. Exhale slowly through your left nostril for four seconds.

9. Repeat this cycle at least ten times.

10. Once complete, do not get up right away. Sit still for at least 60 seconds.

This simple yet effective technique involves taking a deep inhale followed by a long, forceful exhale. This is the quickest and easiest breathing technique to relieve anxiety in this guide.

1. Take a comfortable seated position, shoulders back and down, spine straight.

2. Inhale deeply through your nose.

3. Exhale slowly and forcefully through your mouth, making a sighing sound.

4. Repeat 10-20 times, or until you feel the anxiety leave

5. Do not get up right away after you’re done; sit for at least 60 seconds

This technique involves curling the tongue to in turn cool the mind, emotions, and body by lowering the body temperature. This cooling sensation will help you shift into a parasympathetic state.

1. Sit comfortably with your shoulders back and down, spine straight.

2. Form an “o” shape with your lips, curl your tongue, and stick it out of your mouth

3. Inhale through the tongue slowly and controlled. This is where you will feel the cooling effect.

4. Exhale through the nose.

5. Repeat this inhale/exhale cycle for 10-20 rounds, or until you feel the anxiety subside.

6. Once complete, sit for at least 60 seconds. Do not get up right away.

This soothing pranayama involves humming the “om” while breathing, creating a gentle vibration that can calm the mind and reduce stress. The vibration produced by repeating Om can help to relax the nervous system and guide you into a state of peace.

1. Take a comfortable seated position, spine straight, shoulders back and down.

2. Close your ears with your thumbs.

3. Inhale deeply through your nose, slowly and controlled.

4. Exhale slowly through your nose, humming a gentle "ommm”.

5. Repeat for 5-10 minutes.

6. When complete, sit in the moment for at least 60 seconds before getting up.

This well-known and simple technique is as effective as it is easy. Breathing in this rhythmic pattern can be visualised as creating a square with your breath that can calm your mind, regulate your emotions, reduce anxiety, and improve focus.

1. Take a comfortable seat, spine straight, shoulders back and down.

2. Inhale slowly and controlled for a count of 4.

3. Hold your breath for a count of 4.

4. Exhale slowly and controlled for a count of 4.

5. Hold your breath for a count of 4.

6. Repeat for 5-10 rounds.

This technique combines deep breathing with progressive muscle relaxation to release physical tension, cleanse the tissues of built-up waste, and help stuck prana move through the body.

1. Sit comfortable with straight posture and open shoulders, eyes closed

2. Take three deep belly breaths to take the edge off

3. Starting with your toes and working your way up to your head, tense and release each muscle group in your body.

4. As you tense each muscle group, inhale deeply.

5. As you release the tension, exhale slowly.

6. Focus on each little muscle and take your time working your way up.

7. Once you reach the top, reverse and tense/breathe

This very, very powerful Kundalini breathing technique involves rapid, forceful exhalations followed by passive inhalations by rapidly engaging and disengaging the diaphragm. It takes dedication and practice to master, but is well worth the effort. One more thing - if you’re new to breathwork, this technique will make you dizzy, so listen to your body and be cautious.

1. Sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight, shoulders back and down.

2. Take a deep breath in through the nose, fully exhale through the nose.

3. Hold the exhale for a moment.

4. Consciously contract your diaphragm to push air out from your nose.

5. Relax the diaphragm to allow a small amount of air back in. It’s sort of like kicking air out of your nose with your diaphragm.

6. Repeat this for 30-60 seconds, gradually increasing the pace as you progress.

7. Once complete, sit still for at least 60 seconds so you don’t get dizzy upon standing.

One of my many original breathing techniques with admittedly unoriginal names, I crafted the anxiety management breath around the concept of facing your troubles head on and consciously wrestling them into submission. You’re in fight or flight? Embrace it with five fast breaths, reign your nervous system in with five regular paced breaths, shift into rest and digest with five slow breaths, and maintain that state with some breath holds.

Before you start, know this; you will feel rushes of energy, out-of-body, and a shift in consciousness with this technique — and most importantly, you’ll forget you were anxious in the first place.

1. Close the eyes and take a comfortable seated position, shoulders back and down, spine straight

2. Take five fast, deep belly breaths

3. Take five deep, regular paced belly breaths

4. Take five slow, controlled belly breaths

5. Take a deep inhale in and hold for 15 seconds

6. Exhale and release, hold for 15 seconds

7. Take a final deep inhale in and squeeze your fists, arms, chest, and neck muscles to press blood to your head. Hold this for 15 seconds

8. Exhale, release. Repeat as many times as you need, but once should do the trick.

9. Wait at least 60 seconds before getting up, you will feel lightheaded and dizzy if you get up too fast.

While these ten breathing techniques for anxiety are a great place to start and have in your back pocket, a comprehensive understanding of breathwork is needed to experience the full benefits of it.

This is one of the many reasons why I developed the Breathwork Training Mastery Program, a complete guide explaining how to breathe, how not to breathe, how it all works, and a bunch more information to help you fully understand breathwork.

Plus, there’s two yoga classes and five original breathing techniques for emotional management, brain fog, sleep, and more — all in an easy to access and navigate course interface with videos, animations, detailed instructions, and more. Sign up today to take control of your breath, mind, and destiny.