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Is Breathing Exercises In Anxiety is helpful?

I am suffering from anxiety and depression from last 3 years. Recently I started doing Yoga. So I want to know that Is Breathing Techniques really helpful in curing the depression?

If anyone here has a Yoga experience his/her comment will be valuable for me. Thank You
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Breathing exercises aren't necessarily a yoga experience when used for anxiety.  Breathing exercises come from different sources, including yoga, meditation, western psychology, Taoism, and other places.  So there are many of them.  As far as "curing" depression and anxiety goes, that will involve more than breathing exercises.  They can help a lot, as can yoga, and meditation, whether from yoga or other traditions is probably better still for this.  But to cure it, you have to learn to change the way you think -- instead of thinking anxious thoughts you learn not to, the same with depressed thoughts.  This will usually require therapy of some kind and a lot of practice.  There's no guarantee of it working, but if you work hard enough and it does work, you will come out the other side.  So while I think breathing exercises are really useful and besides they are spiritually rewarding my own view it takes more work than just that for a "cure."  But feeling better than you did is pretty cool in and of itself, right?  And every positive step can lead to another one until you find that elusive cure.  Many have gotten there.  I hope you're on of those.
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973741 tn?1342342773
Breathing exercises don't 'cure' anxiety but they help.  They slow our heart rate down, calm and soothe us.  Here is one to try . . . square breathing (breath in for 4, hold 4, breath out for 4, hold 4, repeat.  I can't quite do 4 comfortably, I'm more at the 2 range trying to stretch to 3. :>)  but you get the idea)..  Here is one I have used with my kids. Birthday candles we call it.  Hold up your fingers and blow at the ends of them like you are trying to blow out birthday candles.  That's 5 blows.  And my son's occupational therapist used what she called 'pizza breaths'.  Basically if you are trying to cool food down, you take in a big breath and blow out a big breath onto the food (pizza).  :>>)  It should help.  Give it a try.

How long have you been dealing with depression and anxiety?  What else do you do for it?
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3 Comments
Breathing exercises generally try to get you to use abdominal breathing -- deep breathing that comes from your abdominal area, so the lungs are full, rather than shallow breathing, which can make some people more nervous.  When it comes to meditation and breathing exercises, the best teachers are the ones who know how to show you how to do it -- you will actually put your hand on your abdominal area, for example, to feel it filling up and emptying so you know you're getting it.  Hard to teach with language alone.  All the best.
Sesame Street  came up with the birthday candle breathing for kids.  Most people do not need to a professional to institute breathing exercises ---  it's not really that hard.  Luck to the poster and may you have a peaceful day.
Again, we're all entitled to have beliefs.  But the fact of breathing exercises is to get to abdominal breathing.  It is what it is.  And it's not that easy to do.  You can get a placebo effect by doing something when you were doing nothing before, but that usually passes.  Kids are one thing -- their anxiety problems don't translate in most cases to adult anxiety.  If you have chronic adult anxiety, it always is best to learn how to do things the way they were studied.  Everyone gets to live how they want to live, by belief or by evidence.  Whatever works.  But again, there are people who have problems with shallow breathing, which comes from the chest rather than the lower reaches of the lungs where deeper breaths come from.  Breathing exercises were developed to teach abdominal breathing.  What anyone on here wants to do with this info is up to them.  Peace, all.
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