Everyone presumably knows about breathing smoothly, breathing to a rhythym, breathing deeply in, exhaling slowly, breathing softly, breathing in all kinds of ways etc etc etc
To what extent do any of these techniques help with anything at all, be it fitness, calmness, whatever?
And if they do help meaningfuly,** why is it our bodies do otherwise by default**? Mine basically breathes in the bare minimum, pauses, does the same, and in a jerky/ in-out-y kind of way.
Same for loads I think.
When you have an anxiety attack, your body experiences three things: rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, and a flood of adrenaline, to prepare you for “fight or flight.”
Of those three things, you have control over one: breathing.
By deliberately slowing down your breathing, you can force your body to halt the response. Your heartbeat will return to normal, and the adrenaline surge will stop.
It’s not easy, especially when you are right in the MIDDLE of the panic attack, and your heart feels like it is boiling in your chest, and you are filled with the feeling of imminent doom.
So, when you are calm and settled, practice the deep breathing. Learn to exhale and inhale slowly, with a pause between each breath. It helps to have someone practice the breathing with you. Once you have the technique down pat, it’s much easier to draw on this training to help you during an actual anxiety attack.
~VOW
This device helps the user to slow/control their breathing, and is shown to reduce blood pressure over the long haul. It ain’t woo, there is clinical testing data that shows it really does work. It’s a good way for some people to alleviate hypertension without resorting to medication.
Diaphragm breathing (ie: from yor belly) is important for actors and singers who need to project.
It’s not. Pretty much every adult ever chest breathes and you know you do if when told to take a deep breath, you raise your shoulders and puff out your chest. It’s shallow and inefficient and forces you to breathe more rapidly than your body is meant to. Why it developed, I’m not sure but I’m guessing the answer has to do with having a quadripedal physiognomy but spending all our time upright.
If you watch a baby breath you see them inflate their stomach with each inhale and deflate it with the exhale, as opposed to the upper chest. That’s abdominal breathing and it’s what singers and actors do to project but it has also been linked to lowered blood pressure, less fatigue and reduction in headaches.