3 Breathing Techniques to Immediately Reduce Stress and Anxiety

This is the beginning of an article series exploring the therapeutic benefits of breathwork and mindfulness meditation. If you’d like to stay updated, please consider subscribing.

On my fourth combat deployment, my team had primary entry on a target of an al Qaeda (AQ) facilitator. Whether he was facilitating money, weapons, or operations I don't remember because this was in 2008. Suffice to say, he was just another bad guy.

I remember approaching this target more nervous than normal. Perhaps because this was my first time with the assault force at this particular SEAL team (my previous deployment was solo) and conducting clearance the way we did was still somewhat new to me.

What I did to regulate my already out-of-control heart rate was box breathing, mainly because it was the only breathing technique I knew.

I managed to lower my heart rate to a comfortable rhythm just before making entry. The team cleared all the rooms in the house except for one. I saw my shooting buddy stacked on the door and gave him a squeeze to let him know to open the door and make entry. As I assumed my position, I noticed a figure about eight feet away out of the corner of my eye holding a weapon pointed right at me, and I knew in that moment he had the drop on me.

I also knew that I couldn’t swing my weapon around, acquire, and fire faster than he could on me. Action beats reaction, and all he had to do was pull the trigger. So, I did the only thing I knew I could do. I stepped back. (I’m intentionally leaving out some details here).

As I stepped back, he caught me once in the lower left corner of my front plate and three times in the rail of my rifle, shooting off the forward pistol grip as I was gripping it. My shooting buddy saved my ass, and in the end the bad guy lost, the good guys won.

Now, in most instances, tunnel vision occurs under extreme stress. I would characterize this as “extreme” for most people. However, that’s my body told a different story, because I didn’t have tunnel vision. Remember, I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye and if I had visual constriction due to stress, then I would’ve missed him.

I attribute two things to my success. The first is training, since how we train is how we fight, and I remember being more nervous in training than on any target overseas. The second is the box breathing I did during infil.

Breathing saved my ass because it regulated my nervous system from an activated to a de-activated state. If it worked for me on the battlefield, just think how it can work for you in the workplace, traffic, or everyday life.

Also, this experience isn’t unique to me. Harvard Business Review shared a story about a Marine who drove over an improvised explosive device (IED) only to find both his legs almost severed below the knee. Instead of panicking, he performed a breathing technique that allowed him to stay calm, check on his men, place a tourniquet on his own legs, and to remember to prop them up before falling unconscious. Had he not done so, he was later told, he would’ve bled to death.

Why Breathing?

When we’re activated in a heightened emotional state, our breathing shallows and our respiratory rate increases. At this point, rational thinking goes out the window, so trying to use logic to regain control doesn’t work. That’s why talking your way out of a state of anger, stress, or anxiety is unsuccessful—because the rational brain is no longer “rational.” This is also why it feels like you “can’t think straight” or don’t have the right words or responses in the moment, but they suddenly come to mind after you’ve come down from that activated state.

But here’s the key takeaway:

If negative emotions impact our breathing, then the reverse must also be true: our breathing can influence our emotional state for the better.

This is important because you can use breathing as a tool to self-manage. If things like guilt and shame restrict breathing, for example, then we can also use breathing to get them unstuck. More on that in this series.

3 Simple Breathing Techniques to Reduce Anxiety

There are lots—LOTS—of different breathing techniques out there. Some are designed to activate you, others to de-activate, and others to release stuck emotion. We’ll cover all of them in this series but for now, here are three breathing techniques you can use to reduce anxiety in the moment:

Box breathing. This is a very common technique, widely popular and effective, but not my favorite. Imagine a square, where you inhale for four seconds (or whatever is comfortable), hold your breath for four seconds, exhale for four, and then hold the breath out for four. It does work but it’s a little challenging to stay engaged in a conversation while counting.

478. You don't have to rigidly adhere to these numbers. The key takeaway from 478 is to 1) hold your breath in and 2) extend your exhale. When you hold your breath, you basically short circuit thoughtforms from entering your mind because the brain is suddenly saying, “Hey! Where the hell’s the oxygen?!” What this means is you temporarily stop ruminating and then engage the parasympathetic nervous system through a prolonged exhale, resulting in greater feelings of calm.

The Physiological Sigh. This is my favorite because it’s so simple. Basically, we’re taking a natural response (the sigh) and turning it into a trained response to create a calming effect. Why the sigh? Think of when you’re stressed and what you naturally do. When someone tells you something you don’t want to hear, when you receive bad news, or when you feel overwhelmed, the body lets out a sigh; it naturally goes to the breath. Why? Because the breath releases toxins. For any living organism to survive and to stay healthy, it must eliminate wastes. For humans, 3% of metabolic waste is eliminated thru defecation; 7% thru urination; 20% thru perspiration; and 70% thru respiration. So, if taking a healthy poop and sweating are important to you, then so too should be breathing. Here’s how you perform the physiological sigh:

It’s been said that how we breathe is how we live. Generally, people who breathe shallowly in their upper chest do so because they’re holding onto a lot of tension and unresolved emotion. If this is you, I encourage you to try these three techniques. You may also be interested in the bi-monthly breathwork sessions I host every Sunday.