Each day more people write us asking what Yoga can offer for people that suffer anxiety and panic attacks.
The anxiety and the panic attacks, or hyperventilation, are not the same thing but in many cases they appear at the same time.
For hundreds of years yogis have known that the mind only obeys to a one thing: breathing. Therefore we give so much importance to the practice of breathing control, called pranayama.
The goal is maintain consciousness in the way we breathe, specially when the levels of stress begin to rise, whether external or internal causes like negative and/or obsessive thoughts.
It doesn’t sound very realist for a person that never has practiced breathing exercises to think about have all their attention in breathing in the middle of a hurricane. Nevertheless when these anxiety attacks happen, we only have two exits; to suffer it, or to give an opportunity and try some method as the one that we propose.
They are basic breathing exercises. When you feel that you are losing control, sit down in a chair with the feet flat on the floor and the back straight, or lay on the floor or flat surface. Subsequently put both hands on the abdomen and feel the abdomen inflates in the inhalation, and comes back inside in the exhalation.
If it’s the first time that you practice breathing exercises probably you are doing it all the way down. The right way is the one described above, and we have explained this process in the following article:/breathing-home.html
Also I am going to describe one of my favorite breathing techniques, that I have taught and practiced per years with a lot of success in people that have suffered anxiety and panic attacks.
This technique of pranayama is NOT only for people that suffer anxiety, or have experienced panic attacks. It has other good benefits, as balance the two hemispheres of the brain, and bring calm and clarity. Something that we can use in many moments.
I recommend you to practice this excersise daily. They only take few minutes a day and give excellent results.
Here is described step by step the breathing technique. Please click here: