WHEN BREATHING IS DIFFICULT
The single most effective way to relieve anxiety and stress and improve health comes from improving the way in which we breathe. Simple exercises are so helpful that the results can often be stunning. However, what if you cannot do deep breathing exercises because of other difficulties? In particular, those with asthma and chronic anxiety find deep breathing exercise to actually increase anxiety significantly. What can be done?
Issues that cause feelings of panic are difficult to resolve through reason. Complex difficulties like abuse, deterioration, chronic pain, chronic anxiety can be hard to address directly because of the depth of circumstances.
Basically all problems have 2 components:
If it is difficult to directly address or treat the source, it is possible to address how the body reacts to it, thereby easing the stress involved in the underlying issue. This is a basic principle of the Building Better Balance technique. For example, you may not be able to reduce the damage to your nerve cells caused by neuropathy, but you can certainly address the problems it presents. Improving your balance by other means is one suggestion. The same with arthritis: You might not be able to change the joint damage the disease has already caused but you can reduce the symptoms of pain and stiffness nonetheless.
The same principle applies when you have difficulty breathing. Take the steps you can to reduce the symptoms the breathing problem creates.
Basically all problems have 2 components:
- The underlying source of the problem.
- How the body reacts to the problem.
If it is difficult to directly address or treat the source, it is possible to address how the body reacts to it, thereby easing the stress involved in the underlying issue. This is a basic principle of the Building Better Balance technique. For example, you may not be able to reduce the damage to your nerve cells caused by neuropathy, but you can certainly address the problems it presents. Improving your balance by other means is one suggestion. The same with arthritis: You might not be able to change the joint damage the disease has already caused but you can reduce the symptoms of pain and stiffness nonetheless.
The same principle applies when you have difficulty breathing. Take the steps you can to reduce the symptoms the breathing problem creates.
What problems does breathing difficulty create?
- Tension locally in the chest.
- Tension in the stress muscles, the neck and shoulders.
- Tension in the breathing process.
- Increased heart rate.
The following suggestions for addressing tension and anxiety
circumvent the breathing process itself.
With some relaxation comes better physical response.
1) Stretch any area that gets tense during the breathing process.
2) Lower your heart rate directly.
3) Alternative strategies.
Stretches:
Stretch for the front of the upper chest:
Find a sturdy upright chair. Sit in the center of the chair with your feet flat on the ground and your waist not touching the back of your chair. Keep your spine straight throughout the exercise. Test the situation by holding onto the back of the chair and tilting forward. If the chair has arms, bring your hands to the inside of the chair arm before grabbing the back of the chair. Find the best spot to hold onto. Try different hand holds as well as holding on higher or lower on the back of the chair or the back of the seat.
If your chair legs lift off the floor STOP immediately! Move further back in your chair and try again.
Exercise: While sitting upright with your arms in your lap, circle your shoulders by bringing them forward, up, back and down. Slide your shoulder blades down and together toward your spine. Keeping your shoulders where they are, bring your hands to the back of the chair and hold on. Tilt your torso forward. You should feel a stretch across the top of your chest, under your collarbones. Breathe normally and hold the stretch.
Continue holding onto the back of the chair with your right hand. Let your torso lean over to the left. You should feel a stretch through your right shoulder and into the side of the neck. Hold onto the back of the chair with both hands. Reverse by holding on with the left hand and leaning over to the right, stretching the left shoulder and neck. Hold on with both hands and pull yourself upright.
If your chair legs lift off the floor STOP immediately! Move further back in your chair and try again.
Exercise: While sitting upright with your arms in your lap, circle your shoulders by bringing them forward, up, back and down. Slide your shoulder blades down and together toward your spine. Keeping your shoulders where they are, bring your hands to the back of the chair and hold on. Tilt your torso forward. You should feel a stretch across the top of your chest, under your collarbones. Breathe normally and hold the stretch.
Continue holding onto the back of the chair with your right hand. Let your torso lean over to the left. You should feel a stretch through your right shoulder and into the side of the neck. Hold onto the back of the chair with both hands. Reverse by holding on with the left hand and leaning over to the right, stretching the left shoulder and neck. Hold on with both hands and pull yourself upright.
If you add pulling your abdomen in as you do these stretches, the effectiveness is greatly increased. Basically you are engaging the front of your lower torso at the same time as engaging the back of the upper torso: the miracle formula!
Stretch for the neck and shoulders:
Part 1: Sit in the middle of a sturdy upright chair with your spine straight and your left arm down at your side. Squeeze your right shoulder up and pull your left shoulder down. Hold the squeeze. Turn your left palm (and therefore your whole arm) forward and back 4 times. Reverse.
Part 2: Again squeeze your right shoulder up while pulling your left shoulder down. While holding the shoulders there, slowly and gently turn your head to the right and left 4 times. Reverse.
For more exercises to relieve tension in the neck and shoulders, click on the button below:
Part 2: Again squeeze your right shoulder up while pulling your left shoulder down. While holding the shoulders there, slowly and gently turn your head to the right and left 4 times. Reverse.
For more exercises to relieve tension in the neck and shoulders, click on the button below:
Slow your heart rate.
Use the Carotid Maneuver: Slow your heart rate directly and quickly by gently stroking the carotid artery that runs down the side of your throat. The vagus nerve runs down the neck in the same area. It is responsible for regulation of the autonomic nervous system that controls the heart and digestive system. Take your fingertips and draw them diagonally down the side of your throat. Start below and behind your ear and end at the spot between your collarbones in the front of the throat. This gentle massage stimulates the vagus nerve which in turn signals the heart rate to slow. You must be very careful doing this and be vigilant about stroking only one side of your throat, not both at the same time. Stimulating both sides can cause you to faint.
Other indirect strategies:
- Neck massage. Use your hand to massage the opposite side of your neck and shoulder, especially the area across the top of the shoulder. Try to find muscle knots and kneed them out as much as you can. You can use significant force with shoulder massage. Dig into tight areas with your fingers and knuckles. When you find a tight spot, press into it and hold for a few seconds.
- Sing: To sing is one of the most wonderful exercises for the entire body. The vibration that comes with song has a wonderful relaxing effect everywhere. The process of singing improves the use of the muscles need to breathe. If you are not used to singing, try to vocalize the scales softly in order to warm your throat up. A wonderful 1st warmup is to simply make a gentle sound as you exhale.
- The Woodchopper: Enthusiastically grunt loudly as you exhale. This is even more effective as a yoga exercise. Stand with your feet apart in a gentle squat position. When doing squats, tilt the torso forward and stick your rear end out backward. Clasp your hands and make a chopping motion with your arms, from overhead to down and between your legs. As you move down, grunt loudly. Do not try this if you tend to get dizzy or disoriented. If you are older do this only if someone is with you watching.
Custom breathing strategies:
- Do not force your breath.
- Do breathing exercises using a more limited scope: When breathing is limited it is possible to do many of the same breath exercises designed for full breathing. Simple do the exercises with much lower expectations. You can still breathe in for 5, hold for 5 and exhale for 7. Just use a much smaller expansion and exhalation. Aim for a relaxed breath process within your limits.
- Find the natural breath wave within your limited capacity: When we have no tension and breathing is deep and normal, the breath will find a natural wave where there is no tension on the upper end of the cycle. But for most of us and especially for those with trouble breathing, that upper end is blocked and our breath has to stop short. For anyone, but especially for those with asthma or chronic shortness of breath, try stopping short of that upper limit and find the natural movement of the breath in its limited and shortened wave. Try to prevent yourself from coming up against that tension blockage. Stop the inhale before you get there.
- Try abdominal breathing: If the chest has tightened because of difficulty breathing, try using the abdomen to breathe. Increase the expansion of the abdomen and decrease it, not from the breath but through core muscle use. Use the abdomen to "breathe" the body.
- Imagine the world breathing you: When tension is present in the breathing process it is helpful to imagine that someone or something else is "breathing" you. Imagine for instance that the universe is breathing your body. The universe becomes the force that is responsible for your breath. Not you.
- Remove existing toxic air from your lungs: When it is difficult to get new air into the lungs, try first to exhale as thoroughly as you can, even if it is limited, to remove as much from your lungs as possible before breathing in again.
- Lie on your stomach to relieve stress from breathing: Unless you are pregnant, lying on your stomach is advisable if you have lung problems like those presented by COVID-19. “The majority of your lung is on your back, not on your front. So by lying on your back, you’re closing off more of the smaller airways and this is not good during the period of infection.” Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi from Queen's Hospital in London. Reportedly, this technique is one of the improvements in treatment for the coronavirus that has possibly subsequently contributed to a reduction in lethality.
Updated October 15, 2020