I can hear you saying “Dude, I breathe every second of every day.”
Yes, I know, but you aren’t doing it right. 
I say that tongue in cheek of course, but what I am getting at is you most likely aren’t breathing the way that Yogis have taught for centuries. In yoga, this form of breathing is called Pranayama. This form of breathing calms the mind, relaxes the body, decreases and eliminates stress and anxiety, increases lung capacity, strengthens the internal organs and improves mental control.
You see a benefit now right?
So what is the difference between regular breathing and breath control, also known as Pranayama?
Two things really: Conscious control of the inflow and outflow of breath and breathing from the diapraghm.
When you breathe normally, you are unaware of your breath and, if you are a Westerner, you are breathing with your chest focusing your breath in the upper lobes of your lungs. Pranayama, or breath control focuses on breathing from your diapraghm, which when done correctly looks like your stomach is inflating while your chest stays relatively still.
Now there are some yoga purists who might find fault with my simplistic definition of Pranayama. I’m not concerned. The truth is, I only use the term Pranayama out of respect because it was the Yogis that realized the benefits of breathing techniques. It’s really the daughter of Pranayama that we will be using, if I had to name it, I’d call it meditative breathing. It’s just not important to follow everything by the book when breathing for stress and anxiety reduction. If you are trying to reach Nirvana through your breath, then ok I guess you can be stringent with positions and where and when and how and which type is best for what, but for our purposes we are just trying to get the benefits – like no anxiety. If we happen to reach Nirvana as well, that’s a nice side effect.
The difference between “meditative breathing” and Pranayama is: Pranayama can get pretty intense. It focuses on many aspects of breath. Breathing fast, breathing slow, holding one nostril closed, breathing through the mouth, panting like a dog, the list goes on. This is not what I want to focus on for reducing stress and anxiety.
Breath control for stress and anxiety should slow the heartbeat and calm the body and mind. This can be accomplished by matching your breath to your desired state. Your body is closely tied to your breath and your breath controls your body. For instance, if you want to calm down, breathe slowly. If you want energy, pant like a dog.
Here is what I suggest to get started:
Your body changes state from moment to moment. Sometimes you need more oxygen than others. If you breathe too deeply you can increase your heart rate when you would actually like to decrease it. So if I told you to force yourself to a specific pattern, it might have the opposite effect. Over time you will want to move into a patterned breath and it will be easier for you to do after you have built up the lung capacity and experienced how your body reacts.
So at first, just focus on breathing slowly in, by inflating your stomach and letting your chest remain still, to a point where you are comfortable. Then breathe out slowly, by deflating your stomach, to a point where you feel comfortable.
Two things: First, I said “slowly.” I mean slow. Not deep, not barely breathing or shallow breathing. I mean slowly inflating your stomach. This should take 2 – 3 seconds. Second, I said “to a point where you are comfortable.” When you reach this point, you still could inhale more. You could also exhale more on your out breath. We aren’t trying to completely inflate and evacuate the lungs on every breath. That would cause our heart to speed up or change it’s beat pattern. This is a perfectly normal reaction to breath work and you are safe, it’s just that our goal is to release anxiety and stress, calm down and relax.
Several people have identified specific breathing patterns for calming the mind and body for stress and anxiety reduction. They have names like “the 2 – 4 breath”, “the 4 -3 breath” and the “heart breath.” Though the names are not descriptive enough really, the objective is the same; calming the body and mind.
Performing these different breaths only requires that you breathe in for a certain count and breathe out for a certain count. With the 2 – 4 breath, you breathe in for a count of two and breathe out for a count of four. However, the 4 – 3 breath has you breathing in for a count of four, holding it for a count of three, breathing out for a count of four and holding it for a count of three. The heart breath has you breathe in for a count of five and breathe out for a count of five.
So you see, these meditative breathing techniques all involve breathing in for a certain count, maybe holding the breath for a certain count, exhaling for a certain count and maybe holding again for a certain count. Then you just repeat the process. If you happen to fall asleep while you are doing it, beautiful! You were trying to relax and you can’t get any more relaxed than that.
