Hi, I'm Shane
Anxiety is a big thing. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll already know this.
Causes of anxiety are everywhere.
It’s everywhere: TV, radio, socials, prints, online… And, probably if you’re reading this, it’s also edged its way into your family or your friends, or you.
Aside from the growing numbers and hot topic presence, anxiety is also big – massive in fact - in terms of how it disrupts our bodies, our minds, our relationships and our daily functioning. So, potentially, our whole lives and who we are as people.
Anxiety is a Rough Ride
For anyone who isn’t yet aware, make no mistake: anxiety is a rough ride.
This is worth stopping to consider. It might, for example, have you lurching out of public places in a drenching, trembling sweat on legs that no longer feel like your own. Or feeling physically sick and exhausted, maybe forced to hide in the loos or under your duvet, tired and wired with your brain and nerves on fire. Or reaching for the walls as they close in on your tightening chest and you choke and drown in an impending sense of doom that feels like it will never end.
For anyone who thinks this is dramatic overkill, hand on heart, it’s not. Find someone who’s lived with it, or is still living with it, and ask them. You won’t have to look far.
The effect is that you begin to feel completely at its mercy. Which is no joke. It’s a cycle of experience, thoughts, emotions and behaviour that feels unbreakable. If it goes on unchecked, anxiety can make you fearful of life itself. It can keep you housebound. A shadow of your former self. Wary and weary. Ultimately, it can make you feel like you’re losing your mind.
On a more uplifting note (honestly!), this upsurge in anxiety has forced further scientific study and exploration of the condition. With the result that our understanding of the causes and drivers of symptoms has really evolved.
As it turns out, there are quite a few ways to manage and break – yes, actually break – the cycle. The best part about this is that these are all things we can do for ourselves. Things that will also, very likely, benefit other areas and aspects of ourselves and our lives in the future. Bonus benefits. Now who can argue with that?
How to Deal with Anxiety.
So, as we – Shane Pearson (SP) and Hayley Wood (HW) - at DYLC pride ourselves on our practical and sustainable approach when it comes to all things health and wellness, before we go anywhere near the basics of the biology behind anxiety and it symptoms in our next blog post, we wanted to give you something to work with right away.
Something simple. Something everyone can do. And something that costs absolutely nothing. As the mainstay of any anxiety recovery approach, you might have guessed it already: breathing techniques for daily practice.
You may sigh. You may bristle with frustration. Your heart may sink. We know. We’re used to that. And we genuinely share your pain here. Because we’ve grappled with the tedium of daily breathing practice. And fallen from the wagon of it. More than once. But that’s all to be expected with habit change. Which is ultimately what we’re aiming for here: a change in habits to break the cycle and alter the outcome.
So, bad news over, the good news is that breathing isn’t the airy fairy, BS distraction game we once thought it was. Science has informed us otherwise. In a nutshell, what breathing actually does is enhance the body’s relaxation response. Aka: the parasympathetic nervous system. Aka: your anti-anxiety system and best defence against the turmoil.
Think about it for a minute. Recall a situation that may have rocketed your anxiety up in any way at all. What did you do when the situation was over? You exhaled. Long and sloooow. And it felt good, I’m sure. Better than the short, shallow, irregular breaths you were doing right before that when the pressure was still on.
This lovely response applies to any time in your life: chase games when you were a kid, school tests, sports, interviews… They all got the long slow exhale of sheer relief when they were done. What happened there was that your brain was telling your body you’re are safe to relax now. Threat over. Time to kick back a little. Cue: exhaaaaale.
Well, that same message can be fired the other way up. Meaning that if we take it upon ourselves to consciously throw in a few long, slow breaths, regardless of the situation, the message of ‘calm and safe’ shoots up to the brain. This happens courtesy of the vagus nerve. Aka: driver of the parasympathetic nervous system.
We now have a level of control in the face of anxiety. A first tool in our toolkit and a first step to breaking the cycle.
Even better is that our vagus nerve also influences our heart rate. That pounding, racing sensation you feel when anxiety or panic ramps up? Breathing, particularly the long slow exhale or out-breath that we’ve already talked about, helps to bring that down too. Making breathing a kind of two-birds-one-stone win-win.
Anxiety Breathing Technique.
(We then go on to outline 1 or 2 techniques e.g. we like the 2x breathing technique. This is because it really works the exhale by making it twice as long is our inhale or in-breath etc… We can also throw in the 4-7-8 breath)
One question remains. Why is it best to practice breathing techniques every day?
Well, two reasons. Firstly, it won’t be the neat trick that can help abort a panic attack or control a leap in your general anxiety level if it’s not a slick, well-run drill.
Think of soldiers training under fire. Without all that practical training, it’s an (even more…) ugly and terrifying scenario when the time comes. In short, just like any other skill, practice will give you the familiarity, confidence and expertise to use your breathing effectively in an emergency - or acute - situation.
Secondly, breathing practice can be thought of like going to the gym for your parasympathetic nervous system.
The more you flex your muscles with physical training, the better your background, or baseline, fitness becomes. Over time, you feel fitter, stronger and more energetic in general every day. In the same way, the more we work our vagus nerve, and in fact our whole breathing system, through regular practice, the fitter and stronger our anti-anxiety response becomes.
So there. We have you covered with anxiety strategy 1. Be patient with yourself and with your body here. Breaking a cycle and changing a habit are processes and not the flick of a switch. You will have good days and bad days. Use both for the valuable learning that they will prove to be. And never, ever forget to celebrate the gains, because a win is a win, no matter how small!
Next time we’ll look at the biology and symptoms of anxiety and give you another strategy to expand your tool kit. You can check out our video post to find out more about the anxiety cycle. Good luck and go well!
