Breath holding and shallow breathing

Hi,

Was wondering whether anyone has this problem, when anxious or angry I have this tendency to just kind of shallow breath and at times hold my breath. Many times, I don't even realise I am doing it. But then after the even, I feel really all tense and tight and then I get scared of my symptoms and think I have some cardiovascular issues.  I know that I am not alone, it is a common anxiety symptom.

But how do I learn to breathe better under these stressful situations and how do I get used to the symptoms of dysfunctional breathing and not worry about it. Any useful tips, calming phrases etc.

Just want to know how others deal with it.

Thanks.

Sumi

[strangedork]

I'm currently doing some breathing exercises.  I started about 2 weeks ago. I looked up "hyperventilating, breathing.exercises" on google, and found a number of sites.  Most of them involved lying on your back.  You place one hand on your chest, and one hand on your stomach.  As you breath in your stomach needs to rise--this is supposedly only possible through the action of your diaphragm, and your chest shouldn't move.  You breath in through your nose for like a 3 or 4 count, and then exhale either through your nose, or through pursed lips for a slightly longer count.  You can place weights or a heavy book on your stomach to help build up the strength of the diaphragm.  It says you shouldn't use too much weight too early because you don't want to overdo it because the diaphragm is a muscle like any other.  Most of the sites recommend doing it twice a day for like 10 to 15 minutes.  
So far I THINK i'm starting to see ever so slight results, but it's still too early.  Apparently it takes quite a long time---several months--- to see real progress.  For me, I'm desperate to get better without depending on a doctor for my mental health.

[sumihari]

Thank you so much for responding to my post. I am fine with the rising of the stomach . My difficulty seems to be when I have to concentrate on the breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth as I am a habitual mouth breather. As my neck, shoulder and jaw muscles are often tight, when I focus breathing in through the nose etc, I get more anxious.

I guess at least my stomach rises which means that my diaphragm is working, that's great. Perhaps I just have to practice on strengthening my diaphragm using the technique and if I feel comfortable mouth breathing, so be it. I find a U-tube video clip by Eileen Troberman on Effortless Breathing which I found very reassuring. I think she mentioned that the rising of the stomach creates a vacuum and the air automatically comes in our body. We don't really need to emphasise breathing in our nose or mouth. This is the way I interpreted it. I just googled in Eileen Troberman and got this. She is an Alexander Technique Teacher .

Let me know how you are going , perhaps I shall learn a few things. Take care and happy breathing.

Sumi

[strangedork]

Hi sumi,
(had a bad, anxious day today  but now much better)  One of the sites I read said that mouth breathing encouraged worse breathing habits, but apparently there is some disagreement on this.  I'm like you, anything that focuses on my breathing makes me anxious, so part of the exercise for me has been to relax into it.  Like I said it is getting better, but today I didn't do it, so I'm wondering if that might have contributed towards my bad day today.  
Anyways keep me updated on your progress also, maybe we can get better together.