Self Help For Anxiety

Anxiety article contributed by Tara Springett.

I am always very confident when I get a new client who has a problem with anxiety, fear, phobia or panic attacks. I have worked with so many people with these problems and every single person was entirely free of these symptoms within a matter of weeks.

How can I be so confident that everybody can just rid themselves of these problems? Because anxiety, fear, phobias and panic attacks are not really psychological problems. They may have been triggered at some point by a psychological trauma but in itself chronic anxiety is the result of a faulty breathing habit.

Therefore, if you gently correct your breathing the anxiety and panic will decrease and after a few weeks completely disappear. This is not just a theory – I have seen it working in every single person I have been working with in my counseling practice over many years.

Many of my clients have trouble believing this because they think there is something deeply wrong with them on a psychological level. The answer is that they are mistaken.

There is nothing wrong with them other than that they have an anxiety-producing breathing habit!

What is an anxiety-producing breathing habit?

In a nutshell – it is over breathing – breathing too much and too fast. Breathing too much, too fast over a long period of time alters the chemical balance in our blood and entire body and is very detrimental.

It can be compared with eating too much, too fast, over a long period of time. Everybody knows the negative outcome of doing this – obesity and many related health problems.

Over breathing creates similar negative outcomes – most of all anxiety and panic.

How do we need to breathe to get rid of all forms of anxiety? In a nutshell – we need to breathe less.

Here is how to breathe:

Breathe in naturally (NOT particularly deeply) through your nose, then breathe out naturally through your nose and then you pause…and pause…and pause…and pause.

The longer the pause the better. Then you repeat the cycle of in-breath, out-breath and pause over and over. If you get to pauses between each out-breath and in-breath that last about 15 seconds you are on your best way to be cured.

Longer pauses are even better. Breathe in this way for 10 to 20 minutes every day while sitting down and concentrating and every time during the day when your anxiety comes up. That’s all!!

My clients sometimes ask me: "But won’t I deprive my organs of oxygen?"

The answer is no – to the contrary – through breathing less and more slowly the oxygen in your blood can be delivered more successfully to your brain, muscles and organs. Most importantly, you will feel more peaceful and happy over time.

Does this all sound too simple?

There is a danger that people do not give this simple advice about anxiety self-help and panic self-help a go, because it seems too easy.

That would be a shame because nobody has to live with anxiety – it can easily be cured. Therefore, measure your average anxiety or panic on a scale of 0 to 10, use the anti-anxiety breathing technique religiously for two weeks and then measure your anxiety again.

At the very minimum your anxiety will have decreased two points. If you carry on breathing correctly your anxiety will decrease further with every week. After some time you will not need the breathing exercise at all because it will have become an unconscious healthy habit.

For a more detailed and expanded explanation of anxiety self-help and panic self-help please refer to Tara's book The Five-Minute Miracle

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