Breathe Into Your Stomach To Control Panic
One of the crucial things to remember while you are in a panic attack is keep breathing. It becomes extremely necessary to breathe in the course of the attack, as you need to regularize oxygen flow into the blood stream as otherwise there is a severe constraint on the efficacy of the blood flow that in turn ensures control on the mind and the body. Controlling anxiety by breathing is a possibility as the mind and the body are kept steady by such mechanism.
In the course of breathing in a panic attack, what is important is to remember that the breathing should go into the stomach and not the chest only. Panic can be stopped from repeating if such processes are maintained. However, the process of breathing into the stomach is difficult for somebody not used to it. This can in a way escalate the panic in the course of the attempts to breathe into the stomach. Thus, there should be a regular practice under normal circumstances to breathe into the stomach. Unless there is this practice under normal conditions, the person will find it hard to breathe into the stomach instead of the chest in the practice of a regular panic attack the next time.
Here are three tips that you might find useful in this regard:
* Lie down on your back. After this, fix one of your hands firmly onto your stomach and the other one lightly onto your stomach. The next time you breathe in, try to take a lot of air inside as this should fill up your stomach, not just your chest. In fact, most o the air should enter the stomach and not the chest. Do not breathe heavily or at a fast rate. In fact, practice slow breathing at not more than 6-8 times per minute. Try to relax all the while, not inviting any unwarranted for stress in course of this exercise.
* If in case the hand exercise is not enough in keeping down your stomach, try and lay some weight on it like a book weighing 4-6 pounds. The book should rise and fall with inhalation and exhalation respectively.
* In case the above two procedures have failed on you then try to walk on all four appendages that you have like a four legged animal. Relax enough in the course of this exercise too. What happens in this case is that since the chest is pressed for space the stomach automatically takes in more air than the chest.
Once you have gained sufficient practice in breathing into your stomach using one of the three procedures described above, you can prolong the period of doing this and go up to 15- 20 minutes at one go. Having accomplished this, you can try to breathe into your stomach in an upright sitting position and standing too. After this, you could extend the exercise regimen to your office hours and when you are driving or walking.
Again, do not over press yourself in the course of any of these suggested exercises. Remember that you should relax totally and you should never compromise when it comes to relaxing.
Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of My-Personal-Growth-reviews.com, a site that provides reviews of products and services for self improvement and personal growth and development.