Relaxation

One way to relax when you feel anxious is to breathe more deeply.

When you feel anxious, stressed or angry, you tend to take short, shallow breaths in your upper chest. Breathing like this carries less oxygen to your lungs, which can increase feelings of anxiety.

Pay attention to your breathing. When you notice yourself starting to feel tense or taking shallow breaths, change your breathing style to help yourself relax.

Be aware of how you're breathing

To check how you're breathing:

1. Place one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen.
2. Pay attention to which hand moves most when you breathe. If the hand on your upper chest is moving the most, you are taking short, shallow breaths.

Change your breathing

If your breathing is shallow, you can change it to make it slower and deeper. Aim to breathe through your abdomen, so the hand on your abdomen moves most and your chest only moves a little.

It can help if you:

• breathe through your nose and out through your mouth
• place your hands on your rib cage with the tips of your middle fingers just touching. Breathe deep breaths through your nose so that your fingers come apart slightly
• practise for 5-10 minutes at a time each day.

Taking deep breaths can be hard to get used to at first. You may even feel a little lightheaded because you're getting more oxygen. Take a break if you need to, but keep practising. Your body will soon get used to deep, oxygen-rich breaths.

Advanced breathing techniques

Once you've developed your awareness and control of your breathing, try these more advanced breathing techniques.

Complete natural breathing

1. Sit or stand up straight with good posture.
2. Breathe through your nose. As you breathe in:
   • First fill the lower section of your lungs. Your diaphragm will push your abdomen outward to make room for the air.
   • Second, fill the middle part of your lungs as your lower ribs and chest move forward slightly to accommodate the air.
   • Third, fill the upper part of your lungs as you raise your chest slightly and slightly draw in your abdomen to support your lungs.
3. Hold your breath for a few seconds.
4. As you breathe out slowly, pull your abdomen in a little and lift it up slowly as the lungs empty. When you have completely exhaled, relax your abdomen and chest.

With practice, these steps can be performed as one smooth, continuous process in a couple of seconds.

Purifying breath

1. Sit or stand up straight with good posture.
2. Inhale a complete natural breath as you have practised.
3. Hold this breath for a few seconds.
4. Make a small hole between your lips and breathe out a little bit of air with considerable force, as though you were blowing through a straw.
5. Stop breathing out for a moment.
6. Blow out a bit more air.
7. Repeat these steps until you've breathed out all the air in small, forceful puffs.

The windmill

This technique will also help to make you feel a bit more alert!

1. Stand up straight with arms out in front.
2. Breathe in and hold a complete natural breath.
3. Swing your arms backward in a circle several times, then reverse directions. For variety, try rotating them alternately.
4. Breathe out forcefully through your mouth, practising purifying breaths.

Repeat this exercise as often as you like.

Stress and anxiety can cause your muscles to tense up. If this happens, you can try progressive muscle relaxation to release this tension and relax your body.

In progressive muscle relaxation you tense and relax one group of muscles at a time, moving systematically through your body.

After you've done breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation, visualisation can help you to maintain and deepen your relaxation.

Make sure you're comfortable and visualise yourself in a place where you feel peaceful and safe. This could be at the beach, in a forest, in your lounge room or even somewhere imaginary.

Take your time and focus on your imagination – what you can see, hear, feel, smell and taste in the place you've chosen.

You can return to this place when you want a break from stress or worry.