Soothing your mind

Any activity that slows down your breathing is good for helping you switch from the sympathetic nervous system ‘fight and flight’ to the parasympathetic nervous system (our relaxed state.)  This includes yoga, meditation, listening to a relaxation track, hypnotherapy and tai chi.

You can trick your mind into feeling calmer with slower breathing, particularly taking longer out breaths than in breaths.

Working with your mind helps you change negative patterns and create new pathways and habits.  It is never too late to do this!  This is neuroplasticity in action. 

 A grounding exercise

If you’re feeling very anxious or need to calm down it can be worth grounding yourself with the 5,4,3,2,1 exercise.  This involves looking around you for 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste (even if that’s just a sip of water or noticing how your mouth tastes.)  Take your time over this and say the things in your head. 

Specific breathing techniques

It is worth experimenting with these different techniques to see which one suits you best.  Try to breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Some people find it helpful to try to imagine breathing out through a straw.

  • Box breathing: find something rectangular or square to focus on such as a door, window or book.  Start in the top left hand corner. Take a deep breath in to the count of 4 while you follow the top edge of your square with your eye.  Then hold to the count of 4 as your eye traces down the next line.  Exhale to the count of 4 while your eye goes along the next edge and finally hold your breath again for the count of 4 as your eye returns to the starting point.

  • 3,4,5 breathing.  Breathe in for 3 seconds, hold for 4 and out for 5. 

  • 4,1,6,1 breathing.  Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 1, breathe out for 6 and hold for 1.

  • 4,7,8 breathing. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds and breathe out for 8 seconds.

  If you’re very nervous try to slow down your breathing while you concentrate on counting backwards from 200 (or 700!) in 7s.