Cure panic attacks through breathing

I am sure most people know that you can calm your body through breathing. You can also use breathing as a mean to cure your panic attacks through knowing how to control them. The air that we inhale into our lungs feeds our blood with oxygen and so makes the whole marvel that is our body mechanism work. The body knows that oxygen is vital for its survival and it will do everything it can to keep our breathing going. Why is this important to know?
Well it namely is so that the breathing goes before everything in our body. For example if you are really close to throwing up you can stop yourself by breathing slowly. Why? Because the body priorities the breathing.

How can we use breathing to cure panic attacks?

By telling our body that we need to breath and it will shut down every other action in order to take care of the oxygen. It’s that simple. So just like any other tool presented in this blog the breathing on its own doesn’t actually cure panic attacks but in combination with all the small tips on this blog you will soon be able to control and later cure your panic attacks.

What breathing techniques are there?

There are many but I have chosen to take up what is called “whale breathing” It is a technique used in Yoga and it is very potent when it comes to calming your body.

How do you whale breathe?

First you want to either sit straight in your back but still comfortably or lie down on your back. Then you start taking notice of your normal breathing through your nose. Notice if your breathing is shallow or if you are breathing down into your diaphragm. If you are calm and breathing slowly you can count till 9 on your inhalation if not start by counting to 7.

Here’s how you whale breathe.

You inhale and exhale though your nose.

You inhale slowly with little air counting to either 7 or 9.

You hold your breath counting to 2 and then you exhale slowly with little air counting to 7 or 9 depending on what you started with. You hold for 2 and then inhale again and so forth.

The reason I say you should inhale and exhale with little air is that if you take a too big breath you are not going to be able to count as far.
Then there is another thing you have to do when you whale breath…. You have to draw the breath down towards the back of your mouth inside your nose so that you almost make a snoring noise. This is the sound of the whale! The reason you are making that sound is that you when drawing the air downwards you will be able to draw your breath even if you have a blocked nose. It is also very useful to control that your breath is slow. If you try to breathe this way fast, your air gets stuck in the back of your mouth. Try it! Basically it is just a way of controlling that your breathing gets into your lungs slowly so that the body has time to take care of the oxygen that you so kindly provide for it.
It has a powerful effect on panic attacks and if you continue breathing through the attack. Concentrating on the breathing only, you notice how your body feels calmer and your mind lets go of all the racing thoughts.

Why has it an effect on the thoughts?

Because when you count, your mind is up taken by the counting – as we know the mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time. We just have to teach it to obey us! Good luck!
And if you have the opportunity, you should definitely try Yoga – have you ever heard about a Yogi with panic attacks?