“My name is Jeff Duke and I’m a clinical social worker at Bhatia Psychology Group. One of the things that can be helpful when you’re experiencing anxiety is to go through some relaxation strategies. This can be a good way to address anxiety before it ever reaches the level of panic.
One of the most effective ways that you manage anxiety is to learn how to do abdominal breathing.
The reason why it works is because it actually kind of tricks the systems that go off when you’re experiencing anxiety and makes them think the threat has gone away. Take 10 minutes every day and practice breathing in with your stomach and breathing out with your stomach. Something like this:
So that when you’re breathing in, your stomach actually bull frogs out like this. And when you breathe out, your stomach comes back in. That allows you to get a full lung fulls’ worth of air into your body, which actually starts to trigger a relaxation response in your body.
Another thing you can do, you can do the deep breath method where you start… And you can even try to establish a rhythm where you might breathe in for maybe two seconds. Hold for two seconds. Out for two seconds. Hold for two seconds. And then start the process again.
It just sort of establishes a peaceful, relaxing rhythm. If you want to try and get yourself out of your symptoms and more into the moment is to start to try and bring your attention to more grounding aspects of your body, like your feet, the sensation of your feet planted firmly on the floor. How does it feel to have your foot in your shoe planted on the ground?
There are many relaxation techniques that people can learn to manage their anxiety, and those are some of the things that we can help you with here at Bhatia Psychology Group.”
For more information, contact us today schedule a FREE phone consultation with our clinical director.