Breathing

Breathing
Learning how to control your breath and purposefully making yourself breathe as if you were calm, will make your body and mind more relaxed. This is a great skill to have for stress and anxiety management.

Do practice calm breathing even when you’re not particularly agitated. That way, when you feel anxious, you won’t have to waste time and energy to look up a guide. It’s also a good way to literally “take a breather”.

Basic:
Sit or lay in a relaxed position, though don’t think you need to be entirely rigid. I know it might feel difficult but try to keep your chest open, don’t slouch or curl up too much. Relax your jaw, lips almost parting. Move if you must, just try to be comfortable.

-Count roughly 5 seconds in your head, and inhale down through the nose while you count. Get your lungs comfortably full. You shouldn’t feel like a balloon about to blow.
-Count roughly 2 seconds, while holding your breath.
-Count roughly 5 seconds, while exhaling up through the mouth and nose. Try to get your lungs comfortably empty. You shouldn’t feel like there’s a vacuum in your chest.
-Wait for roughly 2 seconds, then start again.

Do this for about 5 times and then gauge how you feel. If you don’t feel any less agitated, continue doing this for 10 more times, then gauge how you feel again. Essentially, keep doing it until you feel better. If you have nothing to do besides feel anxious, you may as well do this. Distracting yourself with maladaptive coping strategies like jacking off or arguing in the internet doesn’t count, by the way.

Intermediate:
We’ll go a bit more into detail for how to breathe. Basic method works and is easier to access for those who don’t have the energy to be bogged down with intricacies, but it’s good to eventually learn to do this properly. This may start to sound more meditative and it is, but meditation isn’t really the point, just breathing is.

-Sit upright. This may feel uncomfortable if you’re used to slouching in front of the computer. Just do your best to have a straight ( but not rigid ) back, with your shoulders back, and down ( but again, not rigid ).’
-Pull your head back just a little. We are always kinking our neck to look at screens. Imagine there’s a string attached to the top of your head, holding you up.
-Relax your jaw, let your lips almost part. Keep the tip of the tongue resting on the roof of your mouth ( if this doesn’t come to you naturally, you should look into Mewing ).
-As you breathe in, start by filling the lower part of your lungs first. Like pouring water in to a container. You may have to “manually” move your stomach. It will feel a bit unnatural first.
-Reverse to breathe out. Empty the upper part of your lungs first, deflate the chest, then the stomach.
Advanced: If you can do all of the above without too much effort, introduce a Mindfulness element and focus on how your breath feels like in your nostrils, in your throat, in your chest, in your stomach.

-Count roughly 5 seconds in your head, and inhale down through the nose while you count. Get your lungs comfortably full.
-Count roughly 2 seconds, while holding your breath.
-Count roughly 5 seconds, while exhaling up through the mouth and nose. Try to get your lungs comfortably empty.
-Wait for roughly 2 seconds, then start again.

Again, you just do this until you feel calmer, or more grounded.