If you often find yourself feeling anxious while on cam, this simple technique could help you to hold off those negative feelings by quickly 'rebooting' your brain.
You can complete the Relaxing Breath exercise in just a few minutes - tell your room you're grabbing a drink, do this out of sight, and they may never know you were feeling anxious at all.
What is Relaxing Breath?
Also called 4-7-8 Breath, this simple technique is described by Dr Andrew Weil on his website - you can even watch a video of him demonstrating it.
To try it yourself, do the following:
- Touch the tip of your tongue to the ridge behind your front teeth, on the roof of your mouth. Keep it there throughout.
- Exhale all of the air from your lungs. This outward breath should be audible - make a whooshing noise.
- Breathe in through your nose silently for a count of 4. This doesn't have to be exactly four seconds, if you count slightly faster or slower that's fine.
- Hold your breath for a count of 7 - if you're not great at this, count a little faster throughout the whole exercise so you're not feeling faint.
- Breathe out with a whooshing noise again - it should take to a count of 8 for the last air to leave your lungs.
- Repeat the 4-7-8 part a total of four times.
It's that simple, and although I've only just started doing it myself, there's a definite instant sense of relaxation with it.
Dr Weil says you should do this at least twice every day for 4-6 weeks to notice real effects, and you can gradually build up to repeating the breath 8 times instead of 4 per cycle.
"It is a very powerful anti-anxiety measure, in fact much more powerful than the anti-anxiety drugs that are commonly prescribed."When can I do it?
- Dr Andrew Weil
The short answer is, whenever you want. Twice a day at least, but more often than that if you're feeling the benefits.
Don't overdo it in a short period - you don't want to be light-headed from holding your breath, although you should find as you practise that you can slow down your counting and hold for longer.
Dr Weil suggests using this technique if somebody upsets or annoys you, to literally give you some breathing space before you reply to them; you can also use it at night to put your brain into a sleep state and help to tackle insomnia.
Find more from Dr Weil on Amazon, including audio books on Breathing and Healthy Sleep.
How do you tackle anxiety and insomnia? Let us know your own techniques in the comments below and we can all hopefully find a way that works.
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