Simple Self-Care Technique for Anxiety

The Audible Exhale

One of the first techniques I mention to new clients who are struggling with anxiety or overwhelm is to take three audible exhales any time they start feeling anxious.

To take an audible exhale, check out the video above, or follow along with these instructions.

Find a comfortable seated position.  Gently close your eyes or find a soft downward gaze.

Inhale through the nose, allow the breath to tunnel down deep into the belly.  Then open your mouth and let the air out slowly with an ahhhhhhhh sound.

The audible sound you make on the exhale should sound like – “ahhh I’m so relaxed”, not “argh I can’t stand one more minute of this”.

Repeat twice more.  Continue to take audible exhales until you begin to feel your anxiety subside.

The audible exhale and your nervous system

I love the audible exhale because it addresses anxiety on two fronts.

First, it helps us shift from the Sympathetic Nervous System (our fight, flight, or freeze response) into the Parasympathetic Nervous System (rest and digest). This is actually changing the way your body is physically responding to the world.

During Sympathetic Nervous System response, your body prepares to protect you from a threat.  This threat can be real or perceived. And the physiological response includes releasing stress hormones, accelerating heart rate and respiration rate, and shutting down “non-essential” functions like digestion and reproductive functions to direct resources to your extremities.

When you take slow, conscious, and audible breaths, it triggers a Parasympathetic Nervous System response in your body which occurs in the absence of danger. This is basically the reverse of everything that happens during sympathetic nervous system response.

In parasympathetic nervous system response, your body cuts back the production of stress hormones, slows your heart and respiration rates, and re-engages your digestion and reproductive functions.

When you take slow, deep, conscious breaths, you’re actually sending a message to your body to shift into rest and digest mode and out of fight, flight, or freeze.

Anxiety lives in the future

The audible exhale also addresses anxiety by bringing us back to the present moment. Anxiety lives in the future. It’s the fear of something unknown that has not yet happened.

When we bring our focus back to the present moment, we move our attention away from what might happen and back to what is happening.

Unless you’re in a situation of actual danger (in which case the sympathetic nervous system could save your life) the present moment should feel much calmer than the unknown future.

Next Steps

There are so many more self-care techniques to help address anxiety, but taking several audible exhales anytime you start to feel anxious is a great place to start!

If you want to learn more about self-care techniques that will work for you, get your copy of my free Self-care toolkit.

I’m sending you a great big hug – you’ve got this!