Did you know that practicing breathing and mindfulness could be your most powerful tool against stress and anxiety? Years ago, when I was spiraling out of control, I longed for experts to give me practical tools to combat fear and anxiety. Instead, what I received was a counselor who gave me anything but practical tools. While my counselor wanted to dig into my childhood, I desperately needed something to help me with fear and anxiety.
So, what did I do when one of my counselors began to talk about breathing exercises? Here I was, drowning in fear, anxiety, and depression, hoping and praying someone would give me something to stop me from spinning out of control. I was also seeing a psychiatrist for medication management. I spent lots of time alone seeking God. I was doing everything I knew to do to find hope and healing.
My journey taught me that context is crucial when introducing new tools. Picking a counselor with whom you trust and connect can impact so much of your healing journey. What a counselor does during those initial visits can either make or break any work in the coming days. This particular counselor and I were not a good fit, and the suggestion of breathing exercises fell flat.
Why? The counselor didn’t frame this technique in a helpful way. He also failed to provide supporting information about how our brains work and that breathing can help return our brains to baseline. This would allow my brain to use the logical side. None of this information was provided. What I needed was context. Why is this helpful? What does this do? How does it fit into the big picture?
If you’re anything like me, your initial experience with a particular tool or therapy can impact your willingness to try it later. To this day, I still have a healthy dose of skepticism when anyone talks about breathing exercises. Getting past my initial exposure to breathwork has taken a lot of effort. Today, I can see just how much proper breathing exercises and mindfulness can reduce anxiety, fear, and depression. I will often use deep, diaphragm breathing to help me be present in the moment.
BUT…context is crucial. It’s important to understand that these tools help bring the brain back to baseline. They do not remove stress or anxiety, which will take additional work to resolve.
Take Action
- What about you? How has breathing and mindfulness changed your relationship with fear, anxiety, or depression?
- Maybe you are like me, and you had a bad experience with a tool like breathing. What have you done to reconsider that tool? Have you found success with a tool that you once met with skepticism?
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