NoPanic

Author: Wayne Senior

  • When to Do the Breathing Exercise: Going Out

    This is the second part of a three-part series on the No Panic breathing exercise. In this series, we are focusing on when to do the breathing exercise. It’s all about the timing.

    Anxiety can cause people to struggle to leave their homes , to go anywhere. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a small journey to a local shop, or a longer journey to a place far away. The thought of going out can be so overwhelming for some, that they simply stay at home. The longer they stay at home, the harder it is for them to go out.

    There are also people whose anxiety intensifies when they go out. This can cause them to feel exhausted when they get home. They may even suffer panic attacks after they arrive home. It doesn’t matter if they went for a short walk or they went out with friends. Anxiety does its best to make them feel bad because they went out.

    If the thought of going out is a trigger for your anxiety, you can use the breathing exercise to prevent anxiety either stopping you from going out, or punishing you for going out.

    The first step is to plan the time when you’re going to go out. You could do that a few hours beforehand, the night before, or a few days in advance. Doing this means you will know when you are due to go out.

    Usually when people go out, they aim to be ready in time for the moment they expect to set off. When you have anxiety as that moment draws nearer, your anxiety increases.

    Aim to be ready at least 10 minutes before you go out. In those 10 minutes you have given yourself, do the breathing exercise until the moment you walk out of the front door. Although it is good to do the breathing exercise while sitting down, you can do the breathing exercise while you are walking towards the door to go out. Make sure setting off is the first thing you do after doing the breathing exercise. Don’t give anxiety enough time to return and undo your hard work.

    You can do the breathing exercise when you’re out. If you allow yourself enough time, you can stop walking or driving for a few minutes to do the breathing exercise, before continuing your journey. It isn’t necessary to stop, so you can still do the breathing exercise if you haven’t allowed yourself enough time for stops.

    If you’re spending time somewhere, you could do the breathing exercise when you arrive, before you go in. That is particularly useful if there are going to be lots of people there, or you are meeting up with others. While you’re not talking to others, there may be other opportunities to do the breathing exercise.

    As you get good at doing the breathing exercise to ease your anxiety when you go out, knowing you can do the breathing exercise to keep your anxiety under control may give you confidence. Increased confidence can reduce anxiety. You could even become reassured enough while out, that you can reduce how often you do the breathing exercise.

    Remember what I wrote about how anxiety punishes people for going out? You can stop anxiety punishing you. Simply sit down and do the breathing exercise for 10 minutes soon after you are home. You are home, so there is more time to do the breathing exercise.

    Don’t let anxiety stop you or punish you for going out to relax. Don’t let anxiety stop you or punish you for going out to enjoy yourself. Do the breathing exercise before you go out, while you are out, and when you get home.

  • When to Do the Breathing Exercise: Eating

    This is the first part of a three-part series on the No Panic breathing exercise. In this series, we are focusing on when to do the breathing exercise. It’s all about the timing.

    Anxiety causes some people to struggle with eating. In some cases, people avoid eating, so they don’t have to experience the effects of eating with anxiety. In other cases, people still eat, but they experience high anticipatory anxiety before eating. After they have finished their meal, they struggle to digest what they have eaten.

    Even if you have high anxiety around eating, you can eat any meal you would eat if you did not have anxiety.

    We usually advise people to have small, simple meals if their anxiety is affecting their eating. The reason we give this advice, is one of the general rules of anxiety. The bigger something is, the more overwhelming it is. The more overwhelming something is, the less likely people are to do it.

    If your anxiety is high while you prepare your meal, you may do the breathing exercise to bring it down. For the breathing exercise to be most effective, do it for at least two minutes before you eat. As soon as you stop doing the breathing exercise, start eating. It is important not to leave a gap, because anxiety can return to fill the gap.

    The point of eating immediately after doing the breathing exercise, is that you will be eating in a more relaxed state. When you are relaxed, there is more room for the food travelling through your digestive system. The journey should be smoother, so you should feel more comfortable.

    After people who have anxiety finish eating, they can experience upset stomachs and other irritating symptoms. These symptoms can be prevented. When you succeed at preventing them, you will know you can prevent them. That knowledge is reassurance, which may cause you to feel less anxious about eating.

    Once you finish your meal, do the breathing exercise again. This time, there is no risk of food going cold, so you can do the breathing exercise for the amount of time we usually recommend – ten minutes. Doing the breathing exercise should result in your stomach and other parts of your body feeling more settled.  This way you can avoid the discomfort experienced by people who have anxiety, after they have finished their meals.

    Before you had anxiety, you may have enjoyed larger meals. Do you really want to wait until you have overcome anxiety before you can enjoy larger meals again? What if you could enjoy larger meals, even though you have anxiety?

    You can. There is just one thing you may need to do differently. In your mind, divide your meal into sections that are no bigger than the simple meals you were eating before you decided to start eating larger meals again. It is not necessary to change how your meal is organised, but you may do that if it helps. The sections don’t have to be different to each other, but you can make them different if that helps.

    After eating each section, stop eating, and do the breathing exercise for at least two minutes. As soon as you finish the breathing exercise, carry on eating.

    Depending on the size of your meals, you may want to challenge yourself by gradually increasing the sizes of the sections of your meals, and dividing your meals into fewer sections. Make sure this is done gradually, and only when you feel ready. Gradual changes are more likely to endure.

    Ideally, you should reach a point where you no longer need to do the breathing exercise before or after eating. Until that time, it doesn’t matter if you have to do the breathing exercise so anxiety doesn’t affect you at or after mealtimes. It doesn’t even matter how long you have to include the breathing exercise in your eating routine. What matters, is that you are able to eat what you want to eat, even if you have anxiety.

    Use the breathing exercise, and enjoy your meals.