Breathing Exercises for Emotional Regulation

Breathing exercises can be really helpful in calming anxiety and other strong emotions. When we are anxious our breathing tends to increase in rate and it might feel like we are hyperventilating – there is a good reason for this.

Anxiety is actually adaptive and important for survival – there is an area in your brain (the amygdala) that has the role of protecting you from harm. When the amygdala is triggered by a threatening situation, it tells the body to prepare itself to either fight the threat or run away from it – this is called the fight/flight response. Imagine if you were getting chased by an aggressive animal – you would need to have as much strength as possible to either run away or defend yourself! The problem is that sometimes the amygdala is triggered by situations that may not threaten your survival. You can read more about the fight/flight response here:

https://www.stress.org/how-the-fight-or-flight-response-works

Basically when the fight/flight response is triggered, a number of things happen in the body. One of these things is an increased breathing rate in order to pump oxygen around your body quickly to enable you to run faster or fight harder. Breathing exercises can help to counteract this fight/flight response and activate the parasympathetic nervous system to return you to a state of calm.

There are many ways to teach breathing exercises to children and teens, but for younger children it is important to try to make it fun! There are two very important parts of breathing exercises:

1.       When doing deep breathing, you should be breathing all the way into your tummy (so the tummy should go in and out). Often when anxious we can start breathing more shallow into the chest which can make it harder for the body to calm.  

2.       Breathing should be slow – this may take some practice (which is best done when in a calm state). You could start with 3 seconds in, hold for 3 seconds, then 3 seconds out, and then increase to 5 seconds when ready.

Examples for children:

Bubble Breathing – The deeper they breathe, the bigger the bubbles will be! Try to encourage them to breathe in through the nose for 3 seconds, hold for 3 seconds, then breathe out for 3 seconds.

Belly Breathing – This can be done by the child lying down with a soft toy on their belly and trying to focus on ensuring the soft toy is rising and falling with each breath.

Block Breathing – Think of a Minecraft Block and follow along the edges or draw the square while breathing (see the video below for an example):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNG2zh32Bqs

Flower/Birthday Candle – Breathe in like you’re smelling a flower (through the nose) and breathe out through the mouth like you’re blowing out a birthday candle.

It is important to practice, practice, practice! Try practicing regularly when the child is calm so that then it comes more naturally when they are heightened.

For a child friendly explanation of the fight/flight response and the importance of breathing, the following book is great!

Hey Warrior by Karen Young

https://www.socialmind.com.au/product/hey-warrior/

Have fun practicing! 😊