Yoga Breathing Exercises (Pranayama) Reduce Anxiety and Stress

In my previous post, Breathing Through the Circle of Life, I mentioned how paying attention to my breath has helped me to get through the worry and anxiety about my mother's serious illness and the premature birth of my first grandchild.

That prompted me to write another on-line article, Reduce Anxiety With a Calming Yoga Breath.  

Image: nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I pointed out, it's not the formal pranayama (yoga breathing exercise) techniques per se that are absolutely necessary here, because we all breathe, and we can all benefit from focusing on better breathing techniques whether or not we practice any aspect of yoga.

But my background is in yoga -- including pranayama (yoga breathing exercises), so I do use the Sanskrit names of the pranayamas that  have been most useful to me in reducing anxiety. 

In this article, I discuss how anxiety leads to tight, tense upper chest breathing, and how that can trigger other anxiety-related symptoms including dizziness, racing pulse, digestive complaints, and headaches, to list just a few.  These stress and anxiety related symptoms can be eased with the easy breathing techniques that I mention.   

As an extra benefit, I've noticed that paying attention to my breath in this way has also been easing my night-time hot flashes.  

By the way, my mother continues to progress, although slowly, and my grandson is home from the hospital, and thriving with the loving attention from his two parents.