Complete Idiot's Guide to Conquering Fear and Anxiety

Page 73If your body does not easily chill out at first, don't try to force it. It will take practice to retrain your body out of your usual hyper­alert, tense state, and at first, it willseem hard and effortful. Once you learn deep relaxation, you return to the world with a different consciousness and sense of yourself that makes it addicting. Withoutit, the day seems incomplete.A Sigh of Relief: Proper BreathingNotice how you are breathing. Do you breathe slowly or quickly? Is your breathing deep or shallow? Do you breathe from your abdomen or from your chest? If youare chronically anxious or experiencing panic attacks or phobias, odds are your breathing is quick, shallow, and from your chest.The first indicator that you are anxious is your breathing. You gasp, suck in your abdomen, and breathe high into your chest with short, shallow spurts to ready yourbody for quick flight. Once the cause of your stress has passed, your parasympathetic nervous system (PSN) kicks in and your body calms, returning you to abaseline of relaxed, regular breathing from your abdomen.But if anxiety is your constant companion, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) remains aroused, creating agitation, and prevents you from returning to a baselineof normal, diaphragmatic "belly" breathing. Instead, you breathe routinely in a restricted chest­breathing pattern: upper chest projected forward, surface musclestightened, and length of exhalation reduced. This prevents the diaphragm, the muscle that separates the lung cavity from the abdominal cavity, from descendingcompletely in order to inhale. Unable to get the air you need, you may fight even harder on the next breath to suck the air in and set up a vicious cycle: The harder youtry, the less air you get.