Calm the mind
Anxiety and panic disorder
Your breathing can become a reflection of your state
Your breath is constantly responding to what is happening inside and around you. Your breathing changes with your emotional state but also your physical state.
Think about how you breathe when you're:
-
Excited
-
Angry
-
Stressed
-
Frightened
-
Concentrating
-
Exercising
-
Relaxed
-
Sleeping
The relationship also works in the other direction. The two-way street between body and mind is undeniable.
Think back to the last time you had a fright, such as having to pivot to avoid a near miss on the road when driving your car, or that panic feeling when you realise you've made a big error at work. All of these sensations can be felt very quickly as a knee-jerk reaction in the gut.
This is one of the reasons we often call the gut our “second brain”. The gut has its own extensive nervous system, known as the enteric nervous system, which is in constant communication with the brain.
Another quick fun fact is that around 90–95% of the body's serotonin is associated with the gastrointestinal tract. Serotonin has many important roles in the gut, including regulating digestion and gut movement, and the gut and brain are constantly communicating through the gut-brain axis.
Interestingly, many of my clients who experience anxiety also have a confirmed or unconfirmed diagnosis of IBS.
Changing the way you breathe can influence the physical state you're in.
Think of it like this:
Gut ↔ brain
Brain ↔ nervous system
Nervous system ↔ breathing
Breathing ↔ how you feel
This is one of the reasons I describe the breath as a reflection. It can give us information about what is happening in the body, while also giving us something we can work with.
I explore this more deeply in my article, The Reflection of the Breath.
What if the fear of panic becomes the problem?
For many people, the panic attack itself isn't the only problem. It's also what happens afterwards, when you start worrying about having another one. Then this consumes you.
You might become hyper-aware of your heart rate. You notice every change in your breathing, consciously or subconsciously. You start avoiding certain places or situations. And the fear of "What if it happens again?", along with the fear of judgement, becomes something you're living with daily.
You might stop going to places where you previously felt comfortable because you're worried you won't be able to escape if panic strikes. The world can gradually become smaller, but your reality of this condition gets larger.
This is one of the reasons understanding your physical breathing response can be so empowering. Rather than becoming frightened by every change in your body, including your breathing, you can begin to understand what your body is doing and why.
You can start to move from fear of the sensations to understanding the sensations, while gradually strengthening your tolerance to one of the key chemical drivers of breathing: CO₂.
But shouldn't I take a deep breath when I'm anxious?
This is one of the first things I want to challenge and rewire for you. We've all heard: "Just take a deep breath" when someone's trying to support us through a challenging situation. But depending on how you do it, this can actually be fuelling the fire rather than helping to calm things down.
To understand this more easily, you need to look at how that deep breath might be experienced by your brain and body. It's generally going to be through the mouth. It may be audible, big, hard and effortful. If the intention is to create calm, gentle, quiet and light breathing, then repeatedly taking big, effortful breaths may be working in the opposite direction to what we're trying to achieve.
For some, these big deep breaths can also become a habit and eventually an extension of our everyday breathing pattern.
From a biochemistry point of view, we consider this as overbreathing. You're moving more air than your body needs, which can lower CO₂ levels in the blood. Most people don't realise that we need a carefully regulated balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide for our respiratory system to function effectively.
And lesson number two here is that CO₂ is not simply a waste gas, as it is often described. It is an essential part of gas exchange and plays an important role in regulating breathing, blood pH and how readily oxygen is released from haemoglobin to the tissues.
When we breathe excessively and CO₂ falls, haemoglobin holds onto oxygen more tightly. This is known as the Bohr effect and can influence how readily oxygen is unloaded to the tissues, organ and cells. So when someone with anxiety or panic says, "I can't get enough air", the sensation isn't necessarily because there isn't enough oxygen in their body but CO₂ has dropped.
Sometimes, the problem is that they are breathing more than their body needs and the resulting changes in CO₂ are contributing to the sensations of breathlessness, dizziness, tingling or air hunger.
This is where the Buteyko Breathing Method can feel counterintuitive as rather than telling you to breathe more when you feel like you can't get enough air, we gently and gradually focus on retraining you to breathe less, not more. We're working towards a breath that is quieter, lighter and more efficient, while gradually building your tolerance to the normal changes in CO₂ that occur with reduced breathing volume.
Your journey with Breathscape is about reprogramming the language of the breath and changing the relationship you have with your breathing. As you become more aware of your breath and learn to work with it rather than fight against it, we're working towards a breathing pattern that is more organic and flows more smoothly in and out of the body, like a calm wave.
A breath cycle that is barely felt, barely seen and barely heard. This is music to the mind and comfort to the body.
Breathing Slow doesn't make longterm change
If I simply gave you a Breathing Slow exercise, we wouldn't necessarily be changing the underlying breathing pattern or the biochemistry of your breath in a way that creates lasting change. This is why we talk so much about CO₂ in Buteyko.
I also won't put you straight into a 4 in, 6 out breathing cycle, which is six breaths per minute.
For a lot of you, this will be very unachievable initially and may make you feel more panicked and breathless rather than relaxed and calm. If you've ever tried to follow cadence breathing in a yoga class or a meditation or breathing app, you may have already experienced this.
When we reduce breathing volume appropriately, CO₂ naturally rises towards a more normal level. But this is something we need to progress towards gradually and meet your body where it's at.
Trying to force yourself into a particular breathing cadence before your body is ready can actually cause you to overbreathe in an attempt to achieve the rhythm.
The six-breaths-per-minute cadence can be a useful long-term goal for some people, but it isn't where everyone needs to start.
So, we look at you as a whole.
What can you learn to do when anxiety starts to rise?
One of the most empowering parts of breathing retraining and Buteyko is learning that you have something you can do in the moment. I call this learning the tools of your inner tool box.
Rather than immediately reacting to the physical sensations of anxiety, you can begin to recognise what's happening.
Your heart may be racing. Your breathing may have changed. You may feel that familiar wave of panic beginning to rise.But instead of fighting the sensations or taking increasingly bigger breaths, you can use the breathing strategies you've learnt to help interrupt the escalation.
And with practice, that can change the relationship you have with those sensations.
More importantly, during the time we work together, I’m giving you breathing exercises that adapt to your breathing and nervous system in the moment to become our new normal. This strategy is also strengthening your overall nervous system and your response to previous triggers will be treated differently.
The trigger may be the same, but your response to it doesn't have to be .
Important note
Breathscape breathing retraining is complementary to medical and psychological care. It is not intended to diagnose or treat anxiety disorders, panic disorder or other mental health conditions.
If you're experiencing new, severe or unexplained symptoms such as chest pain, fainting, severe shortness of breath or other symptoms that concern you, seek appropriate medical assessment.
If you are already working with a GP, psychologist, psychiatrist or other healthcare professional, breathing retraining can be considered alongside your existing care.
You don't have to fight your breath
Let's breathe.
We'll talk about what you're experiencing, your story and whether Breathscape may be a useful part of your journey. I have a felling it will be.
If anxiety has changed the way you live your life, I’m sure you know there’s got to be another support avenue that you haven’t explored. And if you’re curious to know how to simply improve your breathing to strengthen your nervous system we should talk.
.png)
Research & Further Reading
Leyro TM, Versella MV, Yang MJ, Brinkman HR, Hoyt DL, Lehrer P. (2021).
Respiratory therapy for the treatment of anxiety: Meta-analytic review and regression. Clinical Psychology Review, 84, 101980.
This meta-analysis included 40 randomised controlled trials examining respiratory-focused interventions for anxiety. Overall, respiratory interventions were associated with greater improvements in anxiety symptoms than control conditions, although the researchers noted substantial variation between the inter ventions and study populations.
Maleki A, Ravanbakhsh M, et al. (2022).
Effect of breathing exercises on respiratory indices and anxiety level in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder: A randomized double-blind clinical trial. Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 34(4), 247–251.
This small randomised clinical trial involved 41 people with generalised anxiety disorder. The breathing intervention was taught by a trainer certified in the Buteyko procedure and included Controlled Pause, slow breathing, reduced breathing volume, nasal breathing and diaphragmatic breathing alongside participants' usual medication and counselling. Anxiety measures improved over the study period, although the differences between the breathing and control groups were not statistically significant.
Anxiety and panic aren't just thoughts
At Breathscape, I use the Buteyko Breathing Method to help you understand the relationship between your breathing, your nervous system and the physical sensations that can accompany anxiety and panic, and to help get your body working for you rather than against you.
When we think about anxiety, we often think about what's happening in the mind. Its a two way street, the mind and the breath and vice versa.
But anxiety is also a very real physical experience, and your breathing can often become part of that experience too. Your breathing may become faster, heavier or more effortful. Notice this next time your body starts to enter this familiar state. Maybe until now you haven't realised the connection.
You may feel tightness in your chest, light-headedness, tingling, dizziness or a feeling that you simply can't get enough air. Your body is responding to what it perceives as a threat, preparing you to respond and protect yourself.
This is a normal protective response. The problem is that sometimes this response can become overly sensitive, prolonged or difficult to switch off. And this is where your breathing can become part of the cycle.
Research has found differences in respiratory patterns in people with panic disorder. A 2013 meta-analysis found that, compared with people without panic disorder, those with panic disorder had higher average minute ventilation and lower end-tidal CO₂, as well as greater variability in their breathing patterns.
The anxiety-breathing cycle
When we're anxious, our breathing often changes. It can become faster, bigger, noisier or more effortful.
We may sigh more. We may breathe through our mouths. We may start taking big "deep" breaths because we think we aren't getting enough air. But the way you breathe can influence the physical sensations you're experiencing.
Changes in breathing can alter carbon dioxide levels in the body, and CO₂ is an important regulator of breathing. Your brain and body are constantly monitoring information about CO₂, oxygen and pH, and using this information to adjust your breathing. The respiratory centres in the brainstem are a key part of this automatic control system.
When breathing becomes excessive for the body's needs, we can begin to overbreathe and lower the level of CO₂ in the blood. This can contribute to sensations such as light-headedness, tingling, chest tightness and breathlessness.
Those sensations can then be interpreted as danger. And suddenly, the anxiety increases. For some, this may even be the starting point of a panic attack. The increased anxiety can then make the breathing increase again. Now those physical sensations might start to feel even more like suffocation.
Breathing changes → physical sensations → fear → more breathing changes.
This can become a powerful feedback loop. The good news is that breathing is one part of the cycle you can learn to influence.
Once we change our relationship with our breath, become more aware of it and start working with our response to CO₂, we can change the game.
This doesn't mean that breathing is the cause of every panic attack. It means that breathing is one physiological pathway we can learn to work with.
A client story
I worked with one client over four sessions who experienced crippling anxiety and panic attacks. She would wake during the night having severe attacks. Travelling on any form of transport, being a passenger in her car, and even trains and buses could elevate her nervousness.
Here is what she had to say:
“My anxiety literally controlled my life, but it is more manageable now than it has ever been. I haven’t had a panic attack for months, which is the longest I can remember. If I feel myself starting to lose control, I know which breathing exercises to turn to to help calm my nervous system.
Those close to me recognise how significant this journey has been for me. My husband sees the huge impact and how quickly I can now come back down, which was never the case before. Friends have commented on how much calmer I seem.
It has quite literally been life changing.”
Sometimes we feel anxious for no apparent reason and your breath can be part of the picture. Often this is because being in fight or flight (the sympathetic nervous system) is our ‘new normal’. We can become more reactive to changes in our surroundings, our thoughts or our general state, and our ability to move smoothly between activation and recovery isn't always as seamless as we'd like it to be.
This isn't just something we experience in our minds. Our breathing is closely connected to the physiological side of anxiety.
I understand this personally as I've experienced both anxiety and panic myself, and I know how disconnected and at loose ends you can feel when your own body suddenly feels like it has turned against you. What I also know now is that there is another part of the anxiety and panic conversation that often gets overlooked: Your breathing.