Breathe with me: Carousel Breathing Practice

Join me for a 10 minute breathing practice you can do anytime, anywhere, to shift your mental and emotional state

Last week I talked about the importance of recognizing our stressors— and how they can affect us— before we simply start throwing “feel-better” techniques at ourselves. Paradoxical though it may seem, simply acknowledging the reality of our situation can have a settling effect on our system.

That doesn’t mean that using breathing techniques can’t be helpful. As I mentioned in last week’s post, breathing is the only function of the autonomic nervous system over which we have conscious control. This makes it a powerful mechanism to dial down an overactive nervous system, or in working with trauma symptoms when they arise.

The technique that I share in the video below is a good one to use, as my colleague Jennifer Snowdon says, “anytime the breath feels out of control.” One of my clients has found it to be a good resource in working with panic attacks as they arise. I learned it myself from Jennifer as part of my own breath retraining process, which helped me to lower my overall experience of anxiety.

As with any technique, remember that if it doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you— each of us respond differently to different interventions. Consider it an exploration and see what you find!

Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message with any thoughts or questions.

Both Jennifer and I have found that there are so many ways to work with anxiety, stress, and the body-based effects of trauma without even talking about the sources of that anxiety or stress (although that can be a part of the process, too). If you’re curious to know more, we’ll be sharing more information and practical strategies in next month’s Better Breathing for Trauma series. Whether you’re a human who lives with anxiety, or someone who supports other humans in a therapeutic way, our intention is to help you understand how stress lives in our posture and breathing patterns, and how we can shift our experience from the inside out.