Anti-Anxiety Breathwork – learn the simple 4-7-8 pranayama
There’s a saying you might have heard in a yoga class – as goes the breath, so goes the mind. This connection works in both directions linking your breath and your state of mind. And by utilizing anti-anxiety breathwork practices, we’re able to calm the mind by regulating our breath.
Think about your breathing when you’re anxious, it tends to be shallow and rapid. Anxiety makes me feel like there’s a vise around my chest and I just can’t get a full breath in.
Now think about your breath when you’re relaxed or just before falling off to sleep, it’s slow, deep, and easy.
Under the best of circumstances, it can be difficult to corral wandering thoughts. But especially during times of stress and anxiety, it’s a struggle to tame a turbulent mind.
However, through focusing on the breath, you can bring a sense of calm to your body and your mind.
In Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil discusses using breathwork to help bring about a sense of calm. “Slow, deep, quiet, regular breathing simply cannot coexist with emotional turmoil, and it is much easier to learn to regulate the breath than to will negative moods to end.” He suggests a twice daily practice of 4-7-8 breath to help rewire your response to stressors and reduce anxiety.
Why the 4-7-8 breath
With a varying count, the 4-7-8 breath has a unique “signature” you can train your mind and body to recognize as an indication to relax.
As with any other conditioning, repetition helps the body learn. And Dr. Weil encourages this breath be practiced at least twice a day with four full inhalations and exhalations in each session. While there needs to be consistency and a twice daily frequency, this practice does not require a major commitment of time.
Dr. Weil notes that “By imposing this rhythm on your breathing with your voluntary nerves and muscles, you will begin to influence your involuntary nervous system toward more balanced functions, with great benefits to overall health.” (The emphasis is mine.)
Breathwork practices (including this one) work by sending a message to your nervous system that it’s safe to relax. To learn more about the how and why of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system responses, read my post here.
An intermediate practice
If you’re new to pranayama or breathwork practices, I suggest starting with this or this before coming back to practice this technique.
Since the 4-7-8 pranayama practice requires breath retention, specific tongue placement and visualization, it’s not a beginner breath. In addition to maintaining your awareness on multiple aspects at once, breath retention has several contraindications and can increase anxiety in some people.
Having said that, there are many benefits of the 4-7-8 breath practice so I encourage you to return to it once you’ve experimented with other pranayama or breathwork practices.
Deepening the impact
While this anti-anxiety breathwork alone will help trigger a state of relaxation, I like to combine this practice with a visualization. Since we’re only focusing on this breathing for four breaths at a time, adding in a visualization helps to deepen the impact of the practice.
When you breathe slowly and with control, you trigger your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). Studies have found that through a combined practice of pranayama (breathwork) and meditation, we’re able to actually effect biological changes by reducing the free radicals in our bodies.
4-7-8 Guided Breathwork
Ready to get started?
Here is the guided audio for this pranayama.
For this breathwork practice, you inhale through the nose to the count of four, retain the breath for a count of seven, and then audibly exhale through pursed lips for a count of eight. Repeat this full cycle for a total of four breaths.
Remember to get the full benefits this breath needs to be practiced consistently both twice a day and over time in order to obtain the deepest impact.
Contraindications
It’s important to remember we’re not cookie cutter humans and what works for one person may not be right for another.
If at any point you feel light headed, discontinue the breathwork practice immediately and return to your normal breath. Additionally, any breathwork practices which require breath retention (either holding the breath in or out) are not recommended for pregnant women, those who have eye or ear problems, and those with high blood pressure.
Finally, breath retention can be triggering for those who are suffering from anxiety or who are working with active trauma (either big or little t).
If this applies to you but you would like to experiment with this breathwork, begin with just one count of breath retention at the end of the inhale for your first practice. Add in one additional count each time you practice this breath until you reach a point where you have seven counts of breath retention. If at any point this practice becomes triggering, discontinue the practice and return to your normal breathing.
[…] Pranayama (breathwork practices) also fall under this category as well as under Yoga above. Prana means life force energy – pranayama is the practice of intentionally directing that life force energy. […]