Anxious? Stop Anxiety in Its Tracks.

Break the Vicious Cycle of Anxiety, Breathing, and Chronic Pain

Our breathing patterns, stress levels, and sensitivity to pain are deeply related. Day-to-day stressors, such as work, worry, and poor posture all have an impact on our breathing patterns. As we become anxious, we begin to take shallow breaths and breathe with only our upper chest and shoulders. We forget to breathe deeply with the diaphragm, our primary breathing muscle. Anxiety encourages over-breathing and over-breathing encourages anxiety. So, the body goes into an alert, and a “fight or flight response” takes over. This is a response by the sympathetic nervous system signaling a state of distress.

The pulse quickens, you feel butterflies in your stomach in your stomach, and your muscles tense up. There is increasing tension in your upper body and your breathing becomes rapid. This dysfunctional breathing pattern brings about a state of hypocapnia, a deficiency of CO2 in the blood, which leads to respiratory alkalosis. Respiratory alkalosis refers to increased alkalinity of the blood. This causes your body to send out calcium through the urine in order find balance (homeostasis). The lack of calcium in the blood causes your nerves and muscles to function poorly.

The effects of breathing pattern disorder are caused by a sympathetic nervous system in overdrive. Mentally, you might experience tiredness, sensory disturbance, and dizziness. Physically, exhaustion, tingling, cramps, weakness, altered motor control, and a reduced pain tolerance are common. The myofascial (muscle) effects are diaphragm weakness, pelvic floor dysfunction, altered core stability, and trigger point pain. There is a direct connection between poor breathing habits and increased sensitivity to chronic pain and anxiety.

How do we break this vicious cycle of anxiety and breathing pattern disorders? Learn to recognize that our anxious thoughts cause us to take shallow breaths that initiate a pattern of hyperventilation and can lead to a panic attack. Once we can do that, we can stop this pattern. The first step begins with practicing proper diaphragmatic breathing.

The most simple and effective is called Pursed Lip Breathing. Try it with me.

 

Pursed Lip Breathing:   Sit in a chair with a long, relaxed spine. Ground through your feet and through your sitting bones. Allow your spine to ascend and your head to float. Rest you hands in your lap with you palms up. Inhale through your nose and exhale as if you are blowing our through a straw in your mouth. Exhale fully and completely. This exercise promotes proper function of your diaphragm.

Next, try it with your hands clasped behind your back or holding onto the back of the chair to inhibit the rise of your shoulders. Keep the shoulders down away from your ears as you inhale. Breathe for 3-5 minutes a day as a practice and use this as a technique when you feel anxious.

Here are a few other breathing exercises:

Child’s Pose Breathing:

Child’s Pose is a beautiful position to practice 3-dimensional expansion of your ribcage. Come into all fours. Take your knees wide and toes together. Press your hips to your heels and relax. Breathe into your ribs, expanding them fully.

 

Side Stretch On A Bolster:

Lie with your ribs over a Bolster or Foam Roller. Direct your breath into your top ribs. Allow your ribs to open and expand with every inhalation. This breath will help open your costal (ribcage breathing) breathing.

 

Posterior Diaphragmatic Breathing on the Block:

Place a yoga block lengthwise under your sacrum so that your knees are bent and your feet rest on the floor. Rest your hands at your sides. Direct your breath into your back ribs, allow them to “hammock” to the floor. This encourages release and expansion of your posterior diaphragm. This is important for your nervous system because of the proximity to your adrenals.

 

If you think that you have a Breathing Pattern Disorder or if you live with chronic pain or anxiety, I encourage you to practice your breathing and to come and see us. We also have Breathing Classes scheduled for September. Check the website for dates and times.

The connection between breathing, anxiety, and pain is real. Acknowledging it will change your life.

 

If you would like a full copy of these breathing exercises, please email me at anita@bodyfixmethod.com and I will send them to you.