Are you constantly worrying about the future? Are you afraid of what might happen, the ways in which you might fail or things might not go the way you want? Do you feel anxious for no reason, or do you often feel that you can’t control this excessive worry? Do you feel irritable, tired, find it hard to concentrate in certain situations and experience mental fog? Do you feel tension in your body, muscle aches, stomach pains, nausea and restlessness along with these worries invading your mind?
These are all symptoms of anxiety, which often interfere with our professional, social and academic life. Anxiety can prevent us from doing things to our potential, opening up to others and channeling our energy effectively.
I vividly remember the times when anxiety had its say in everything I did, felt and thought. Starting from situations where I had to speak in front of an audience (in front of strangers, colleagues, even friends and family), to the most mundane contexts (performing simple tasks, making routine decisions, carrying on a conversation), my mind was overwhelmed by the eternal “what if” question (“What if I was wrong?”, “What if I left a negative impression?”, “What if I fail?”). All of these thoughts were followed by an avalanche of physical sensations, such as: stomach pain, muscle aches, elevated pulse, sweating, bloating, shaking, shortness of breath and so-called “mental fog”: the feeling of confusion in which I could no longer understand what was going on around me. When all these physical sensations were taking over my body, my mind started to produce even more of these questions, and I felt as if I was being held and suffocated by a chain. In those moments, the only way out was to run away from the situation.
I was often overwhelmed by these sensations just anticipating the different activities I had to do that day. I would wake up in the morning feeling nauseous, and the reality is that not infrequently I would vomit. The walk to school was an ordeal, day in and day out, and once I stepped through the school gates I would go into survival mode, where I hoped not to be asked any questions and tried to remain as private as possible. And then…I preferred to be, from the beginning of the day, in a defensive state, refusing to socialize, to ask questions when I didn’t understand something, to voice my opinion in debates or even to argue my position when an injustice happened to me. On top of all this, the state of confusion or ‘mental fog’ prevented me from concentrating and I ended up making careless mistakes or not actually processing the question I was being asked. In the social environment, the same story: I was silent even with my closest friends, as I was overwhelmed by the question “If I do/say this, what will they think of me?”, and from this position I ended up letting them decide and take the reins of our friendship.
However, it wasn’t these thoughts and bodily sensations that kept me stuck the most, but the way I was treating myself in those moments. As I found myself in an anxious state, I started to blame myself, because “I couldn’t manage to be different: more open, more uninhibited, more confident, more and more and more …” I was very critical of myself and felt guilty for all my reactions under the influence of anxiety. All this inner criticism prevented me from seeking help and resources, instead choosing to punish myself by depriving myself of: socializing, enjoyable activities for myself, and even personal care. It has recently been a year since these memories have truly become a thing of the past, and I have begun to accept them with a compassion I was not capable of at the time.
From the thoughts that everything I do is wrong, insufficient and worthy of mockery, from the constant emotions of anger towards myself and others, not to mention the physical pains and alertness I felt in any context, I came to discover a free space in myself from which I could look at all these inner processes. I could seek out and understand their sources without fear or avoidance. I was able to release many blocked emotions to the point of feeling complete peace in all the storm inside of me and… self-love, even when my thoughts were telling me I didn’t deserve it. How?
Through breathing and connecting with nature.
Short, chest-breathing helps us just enough to give us that minimum dose of oxygen to keep our body’s organs functioning and surviving, the natural reaction to danger. We receive stressors from all directions and they are perceived as dangers. From the tasks we have to accomplish to the noise of the city, we are surrounded by elements that trigger our ‘fight or flight’ response. Chest breathing has thus become the way we’ve come to breathe almost every moment, keeping us alert and stressed.
The alternative is diaphragm breathing. Unlike chest breathing, diaphragm breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to organs in the chest and abdomen. This stimulation leads, among other things, to a slowing of the heart rate, which brings the body into a state of relaxation, from which we can observe our anxious emotions and thoughts more detached.
Numerous research studies have explored the link between diaphragm breathing and stress [1], with results indicating a significant reduction in negative emotions, cortisol (the stress-related hormone) and increased attention.
A few minutes of diaphragmatic breathing, i.e. breathing from the abdomen, helps to reduce the heart rate (increased heart rate is a specific symptom of anxiety) and improve general mood [2], [3].
Next, I will describe the steps of diaphragm breathing:
- Lie down on the bed/couch or even on the floor, wherever you feel most comfortable, in as relaxed a position as possible, with your knees bent;
- Place one palm on your abdomen and one on your chest;
- Inhale so that only your abdomen swells and your chest as little as possible;
- Exhale, bringing your abdomen back to the starting position;
- Watch as the hand on your chest remains still while only your abdomen moves.
This technique in itself is a resource for managing anxiety in the long term. But specialized help should not be ignored. Anxiety is treatable, and part of the treatment almost always involves psychotherapy, of which the most effective for anxiety disorders is cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT ) . Through this, we can get in touch with our anxiety, see how it affects our lives, which anxious thoughts consume us and how we feel when we are in these anxious states. By learning some simple practices, we can be able to control these sensations and observe our thoughts so that we can discern whether they reflect a real danger or an overreaction. The goal of this process of cognitive restructuring is to modify these thoughts to reflect reality as closely as possible and not to cause feelings of fear and anxiety. That’s why seeing a psychotherapist is a necessary step in treating any anxiety disorder.
There are certain situations where the support of a therapist is necessary even for practicing diaphragm breathing. For example, people who have panic attacks should be cautious about using this technique during an attack, because without good mastery of the method, they will not be able to control the rhythm of their breathing. These people are encouraged to seek the help of a CBT therapist and practise the technique in moments of relaxation until they develop the ability to apply this type of breathing in more difficult situations. [4]
Just as breathing has helped me manage my anxiety symptoms much more easily, nature has supported me in beginning to accept and love myself as I am. On numerous walks in the forest, I began to listen to its rustling, to feel the moss on the stumps with the bridge of my palm and to smell the damp earth after the rain, leaning on the ground. The relationship I nurtured with nature, spending every day at least a few moments contemplating it, experiencing it with all my senses, nourished me with a feeling I had never experienced before. A sense of belonging, of protection, of unconditional love. The forest accepted me unconditionally, it allowed me “to be” in all my forms: in crying, in dancing, in running barefoot, in howling and despair, in ecstasy and silence.
There, in nature’s space, I wasn’t judged by anyone and I didn’t feel like criticizing myself, as there was no social pressure to do things according to a certain standard.
That’s how I learned to accept myself, to listen to myself and to see myself as enough, modeled on nature that welcomed me, that allowed me to be myself and in which I could explore myself as a unique individual.
Being physically active in nature and feeling connected to it leads to increased well-being and improved mental health. Studies show that physical activity in nature leads to a decrease in somatic anxiety (sensations in the body associated with anxiety: muscle tension, stomach pain, diarrhea, etc.) [5], and a sense of connection with nature is correlated with lower levels of generalized anxiety and negative emotions. [6], [7]
Thus, by spending a few moments in nature every day, observing it, experiencing it through all your senses, you will most likely be able to notice changes in your general affective state, finding that much sought-after inner peace more easily, and physical activities in nature will help you release blocked emotions and feel present and confident in your own body.
Although anxiety can lead us to construct a story that we come to believe strongly, as if it were reality, the truth is that we can gradually break out of this cycle of worry. In this article, we introduced two highly accessible resources that can help us in this process: breathing and the stillness of nature, and with the help of a psychotherapist, we can change our story in unimaginable ways.
If you need a single nudge to show you that the story unfolding in your mind doesn’t reflect your potential, replace the thought “What if it all goes wrong?” with, “What if everything eventually goes right?” What would you do differently, then, in the process?
Let curiosity beat anxiety.
Bibliography:
[1] Ma, X., Yue, Z.-Q., Gong, Z.-Q., Zhang, H., Duan, N.-Y., Shi, Y.-T., Li, Y.-F. (2017). The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults. Frontiers in Psychology;
[2] Steffen, P. R., Austin, T., DeBarros, A., & Brown, T. (2017). The Impact of Resonance Frequency Breathing on Measures of Heart Rate Variability, Blood Pressure, and Mood. Frontiers in Public Health;
[3] Chen, Y.-F., Huang, X.-Y., Chien, C.-H., & Cheng, J.-F. (2016). The Effectiveness of Diaphragmatic Breathing Relaxation Training for Reducing Anxiety. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care.
[4] William O’Donohue, Jane E. Fisher, General Principles and Empirically Supported Techniques of Cognitive Behavior Therapy, 2009;
[5] Franco, L. S., Shanahan, D. F., & Fuller, R. A. (2017). A Review of the Benefits of Nature Experiences: More Than Meets the Eye. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health;
[6] Lawton, E., Brymer, E., Clough, P., & Denovan, A. (2017). The Relationship between the Physical Activity Environment, Nature Relatedness, Anxiety, and the Psychological Well-being Benefits of Regular Exercisers. Frontiers in Psychology;
[7] Martyn, P., & Brymer, E. (2014). The relationship between nature relatedness and anxiety. Journal of Health Psychology.
Other useful resources on anxiety:
Anxiety – or how it’s all just “in your head” by Alina Șerban
