Proper breathing is so fundamental and transformative, yet its power to improve health is so often completely overlooked by most mental health professionals.  Something that's available to us immediately, costs no money, requires no prescription, no needles, has no side effects, and keeps us always in control.  It only requires a few minutes of our time per day.

                Considering that breathing is something we do all the time - it is estimated we take over 22,000 breaths in a day - it seems worth exploring the power and the impact this function can have on our health and well-being.  Proper breathing, in my experience is unquestionably one of the most simple, ancient and effective strategies used to improve our life and alleviate stress and anxiety.

                When we suffer from ongoing stress and anxiety it creates in us something called disordered breathing.  In general disordered breathing means that we are breathing too fast, too shallow, and too high in the chest.  This is also called “upper chest breathing”.  This type of breathing generally keeps the body tense, the heart racing and working faster than it needs to, and makes it impossible to experience a sense of complete deep relaxation.

                Disordered breathing is generally maintained by a negative thought pattern that includes thoughts of worry, nervousness and fear. 

                Thoughts like “what if”:  What if I can't make it, what if I fail, what if something bad happens,            what if I get hurt, what if I lose someone. 

                As well as thoughts like “I should have, could have, must”:   I shouldn't have said that, I should      know this by now, I could have done a better job, I must never embarrass myself.

These thoughts create feelings of fear, guilt and despair which in turn create tension in the muscles of our body.  This includes restriction of the diaphragm, which is the main muscle used in proper breathing. 

                Disordered breathing patterns in turn sustain our thoughts of worry, fear and nervousness.   It’s a vicious cycle and it must be interrupted through our own conscious effort.  One of the most powerful techniques to break this cycle is to change our breathing pattern because our breath is ultimately linked with our mind. Think about how you breathe when you suddenly become anxious, fearful or angry.  The very first thing that changes when our thoughts and emotions change is our breathing pattern.  In addition, breathing is the only function in our body that is both voluntary and involuntary – or conscious and unconscious.  If we don't think about it we’ll breathe anyway; when we focus on it we can influence its rhythm.

                You can test your own breathing by looking in the mirror.  As you take your deepest and most powerful breath in, watch to see if , as you inhale,  your whole upper chest and torso moves up.  See if your shoulders lift significantly on the inhalation and drop on the exhalation.  Notice if the abdominal area or belly contract as the chest rises on the inhalation.  If this happens, then you have witnessed upper chest breathing. 

And this is most certainly contributing to your levels of stress and anxiety.

When this type of breathing happens people struggle to take a deep breath in; and when they do, it never feels fully satisfying. 

                You can also test the speed of your breathing by counting how many breaths per minute you take.

Do this by counting each inhalation and exhalation as one breath, and count how many times you breathe for two minutes; then divide your results in half to get an average per minute.

10 -12 breaths per minute means you are breathing in a healthy and relaxed manner

12-16 breaths are still within the norm

16 breaths and above means that your body is in a state of hyper-vigilance, and hyper-alertness.

Taking 16 breaths or more per minute intensifies and sustains levels of stress and anxiety and will, over time, tax your immune system.

                Disordered breathing is also responsible for much of the tension people experience in their bodies. The problem is when we breathe from the upper chest, we are using what's called the secondary respiratory muscles, which are located around the shoulders, neck, jaw, and face.  These muscles are more delicate and should really only be used in case of sudden threat because they tire more easily than the primary respiratory muscles which include the diaphragm and abdominal muscles.  The diaphragm, which is a sheet-like muscle that lies horizontally in the body, is the main or primary muscle we should be using when we breathe.  It sits just below the lungs and heart and separates the chest from the abdomen. 

                When we breathe properly there is an obvious and powerful movement of the rib cage outward, as we use primarily the diaphragm, rather than movement in the upper chest. The abdominal muscles in turn make the belly rise on the inhalation and fall on the exhalation.  In disordered breathing we use the secondary respiratory muscles far more often than we should and this creates tension in the neck, jaw, face and shoulders, and is often the cause for headaches and other neuro-muscular problems.  This is why tension in these areas are so common in people with anxiety and stress and why by changing our breathing pattern alone, we can experience significant and dramatic relief of neck, shoulder and jaw tension.

                When this pattern of fast, shallow breathing, high in the chest, is maintained over long periods of time, it leads to what is known as hyperventilation.  Hyperventilation means moving more air in and out of the chest than the body can really handle.  If I can't breathe in fully, then I can't breathe out fully so I try breathing more quickly to make up the lack of oxygen.

Hyperventilation is what anxious and stressed out people are doing lots of, and this in turn affects all major systems of the body:  neurological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular.  That's why people with stress and anxiety frequently suffer from :

                rapid heart beat

                chest pains

                tingling, prickling, numbing sensations

                dizziness, lightheadedness

                poor concentration

                sleep disturbances

                physical and mental restlessness

                bowel problems

                frequent sighing

                Of course people don't go to their doctors complaining of their breathing or saying they are hyperventilating.  They only see their breathing difficulties as a symptom of something else.  Because the powerful effect of our breathing is overlooked patients are frequently sent to various specialists like internists, neurologists, and cardiologists.  More often than not, they are told there’s nothing wrong with them physically because the tests don't reveal anything abnormal.  When this happens a person may be labeled neurotic or a hypochondriac and may be prescribed tranquilizers, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety or sleeping pills; and people are left feeling frustrated, confused and misunderstood.  Yet no one is paying attention to the impact of their breathing!

                Rapid, upper chest breathing is a normal response to sudden threat.  It's one of the reactions of the fight or flight response, which is an instinctive, adaptive internal response to danger.  So the first response to sudden stress is a change in our breathing pattern.  But in people with anxiety and stress this rapid breathing or hyperventilation has become a stable, ongoing feature.  They are breathing as if they were in imminent danger, expecting something bad to happen at any moment, or the other shoe to drop.  This keeps them in what’s called a constant state of hyper-alertness, hyper-arousal or hyper-vigilance.  That means they are always vigilant about what’s going to happen next, on guard and bracing themselves in case of danger.

                As we can see, the breath is an important indicator of what's happening in our thoughts and feelings and can have very real and distressing effects on our body.  But consider this:  If the breath is so powerful it can produce this range of negative symptoms, then surely it can also produce positive experiences in our mind and body   And if feelings are so connected to breathing then it seems logical to conclude that if we learn to control our breathing then we can learn to control anxious and stressful states of mind.  This is why it’s so important to make contact with our breathing pattern so we can use it to influence our well being.

                When I first tell people that I'll teach them about breathing they're not usually impressed because after all they’ve been doing it their whole life.  Yet most of my clients will agree that this is one of the most useful, constructive and healing practices they've learned in therapy.  Because much of therapy is about trying to activate and stimulate the resources, strengths and abilities we have within us, the process of proper breathing is about re-stimulating inherently healthy breathing patterns that we had when we were first born.  Through awareness we can begin to remove the obstacles to proper breathing and through practice we can rediscover and re-activate our natural capacities to breath in ways that are satisfying, and conducive to well being.  The good news is that good breathing is never lost - it’s only forgotten - because of negative habits.  Just like our capacity for peace, joy and happiness inside us is never lost.  It’s only unexplored or undeveloped.  Through awareness and practice we can recover our ability to breathe fully and healthily.

                My experience with people has convinced me beyond a doubt that ultimately to relieve anxiety and stress we must influence our breathing. 

                By working with very simple methods to change our breathing pattern we can become centered, grounded and calm within, and develop our capacity to experience more positive energy and a sense of vitality and pleasure in the body.  The potential to feel vibrant and energized yet calm is not something we can get from a pill; it's something we must cultivate using discipline and the power of awareness.

                I’m always amazed at how I grew up learning so much about the world, politics, geography, other people and the cosmos, and yet was taught so little about what’s going on inside me, and how to develop the powers of my mind and wisdom and the ability to be calm and trust my body.  Considering that these are the attributes that ultimately carry me through life and determine the quality of my existence it seems reasonable to spend some time learning to cultivate them.  And one of the first steps in doing so is the concrete experience of working with our breathing.

Freedom from stress is just a few breaths away….

Claire Maisonneuve is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and director of the Alpine Anxiety and Stress Relief Clinic in Vancouver.

Her CD  “The Power of Breathing to Relax” is available through her web site at www.anxietyandstressrelief.com

Phone: 604-732-3930