3 Breathing Hacks To Stop Anxiety Fast!

Is there a way to just stop anxiety when you're feeling really nervous, really anxious, overwhelmed? Is there a way to just turn it off? Well, that way is called opiates. No, but that's what we'll reach for. You know, it's opiates. Alcohol, cannabis, although that could go, that could go the opposite direction. Right. But in any case, we're looking for a substance. Sometimes we grab our phones or flick on Netflix or just try to kind of distract or turn off. Maybe food is your drug of choice and all of those have a consequence, small or large. It maybe distracts you or temporarily numbs you or temporarily turns the anxiety down, but it doesn't actually help resolve anything. There are special simple techniques you can use with breathing that can actually help you regulate your nervous system, regulate your breathing, and as a result feel way better. The only pitfall to these is they don't work if you don't do them. That's the only challenge. Now it might sound kind of simple, like, well, just do it then. But when you're in the moment, when you're anxious, sometimes we want the quick fix, the instant gratification, the easy thing. And so I'm going to share these techniques with you. They're very simple. You can understand them and practice them in seconds. But to choose them in the moment, no one can do that for you. There's no hack that can make you do it. Like, that's you becoming more self aware and saying, you know what? I want to choose something better. And so a little simple technique that I learned from Atomic Habits, which is a great book if you haven't read that one, which is if you're doing the thing that you don't want to do, let's say, you know, you're feeling anxious, you're like, I should do one of those breathing techniques. And they're like, where's my phone? And you start to reach for your phone and you know that's not what you want to do, but you're kind of doing it. You're kind of a little addicted. You're just like compulsive with it. Just narrate out loud what you're doing. So I did this the other day. I had like a full day. I was like 8am to 8pm working. And then I ran this group for like three hours. It was amazing. And I was just like all revved up afterwards. And my wife and kids were at some play, they were watching Hamilton, I guess. And so they were out, just me and the dogs. The dogs went to bed and I'm like, you know, it's like 9. Usually I go to bed at like 9:30, 10 these days. And it was like 9:30. They weren't getting back till late. And I was just like, I gotta do something, you know, can I go? I don't know, you know, so then I go grab my phone and that's not what I wanted to be doing. So I grabbed my phone. As I pick up my phone, I'm gonna go check some work thing. It's freak. I just worked all day. Just. Dude, ease up man. Chill out. And why? Because we get in those modes, those anxious modes. It felt like good and empowered. I was going, but there's still that kind of adrenaline in the system, right? So I got my phone, I start to pick it up and I say, I'm going to check slack right now. I'm doing this because I'm feeling revved up and it's like uncomfortable to slow down. I'm probably avoiding some emotions and ultimately this is going to keep me more stressed out. And in that moment it worked. Like sometimes you say it and then you just do it anyway. That moment I was like, I don't want to do that. And I ended up like choosing, putting on some music and then I had energy. So I ended up like cleaning up the kitchen. It was great. So narrate what's happening now. What are the breathing techniques? Really simple. The first one, the best one, my favorite one, Wim Hof. If you don't know who Wim Hof is, just look him up on YouTube right after this video. Just type in wim hof w I m space h o f F the Iceman. A Dutch athlete who's all about the cold and cold exposure and this simple breathing technique that he teaches. There's a thousand and one places he teaches it. You can find him teaching you. You can find him doing it on people's podcasts. Super simple. It's just fully in and then letting go. Fully in, letting go, right? And so you're like filling up your belly and your chest, letting go. And you do that like 30 times, sometimes a little bit more. There's a whole process. He can guide you through it. That one is my favorite. I will do rounds of that. You know, he does three, sometimes four rounds in a row. It's kind of this intensive like 15 minute process which you can do. And that will reset your nervous system in profound ways. Especially you combine that. But then go taking a cold shower, you will be in a completely different state. After doing that, and it might be uncomfortable, you might stir up because a lot of times, anxiety. What is anxiety? Anxiety is there's some stimulus that I am perceiving as danger. So now I feel fear. And it could be a stimulus in the future. What if this happens? What if this happens? That happens. It could be your own emotion, right? Maybe you're feeling angry or you don't like somebody at work and you're like, oh, I shouldn't dislike somebody. And now you're feeling anxious about that dislike, right? So when you start to do these breathing techniques, you might just start to feel more when you're doing them. Get out of your head, go into your body. You don't need to figure everything out. You're just doing a physiological exercise. Breathe, move through. I find the first round that I do it, it's like all the emotional sludge that's there is like. Which is why I sometimes, you know, resist starting this approach. So one other thing I'll do is just one round randomly throughout the day. You know, it takes three minutes. Super effective. Highly recommend it. That's breathing technique, number one, Wim Hof. And number two, it's called box breathing. And you know, all these you can just look up online. I'm just kind of pointing you at some resources. So box breathing is called a box because it's a counting technique where you count the same length of time for your inhale. You're holding it, exhaling, holding it out. So it goes like this. Let's say you're breathing into the count of five, right? So I counted five, hold it for five, exhale for five, Hold it, exhale, and then breathe in, right? So you pick the number. Is it 3? Is it 5? Is it 8? Whatever you're breathing, you know, you're not trying to go like, you're not straining yourself in any way. You're just kind of the goal here is it focuses you, you're counting, it takes attention to do this. So it gets your mind off of craziness. And if your mind goes back to the craziness, just gently go like, ah, no, come on back here. And then do that box breathing. Just commit. Say, I'm going to do 10 of these or 12 of these. And you will be, you will start to regulate and be in a very different state after the box breathing. And again, you can look that up and get more nuance to it. And then the third one is the simplest one to do. And it's probably my main go to. I use this even more than The WIM HOF one. Because it's so easy to integrate into your daily life. You know what that is? That's simply bringing your attention to your breath multiple times an hour. So I just did it right there. You just pause for a second. Maybe you're working at your computer. Maybe you're doing this thing. Maybe you're driving, maybe whatever. Maybe you're interacting with your kids. And you just. While you're doing that thing, you just take a moment. It's like all your attention's out there and you just go. You can close your eyes if you like. You don't even have to. You just. You can do it. Right now, as you're watching this video, you're listening to me, right? Can you just bring more awareness into your ribs and your belly and consciously breathe in? When I do, I'm like softening my. I'm softening everything. I'm softening my belly because without knowing it could be tightening your belly, I'm softening. And then when you breathe in, I can feel my low back and the sides of my belly kind of move. Everything moves out and I sometimes will let it out with a sigh. And then that's it. Then it's back to your day. And you can do a couple of those if you want. Super easy to integrate. So those are three simple breathing techniques. As always, it's about doing them, not just knowing them in your head. So share down below. Maybe there's other ones. Maybe you want to link to other videos. Maybe there's resources you have. Let's all support each other and grow. The power of breathing to regulate anxiety is extraordinary. You know what else is extraordinary? You. Thanks for being with me today. Until we speak again. May have the courage to be who you are and to know on a deep level that you are awesome.