Help for anxiety with four-part breathing and tapping

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We all want to avoid a fearful stimulus by contracting and pulling inward. Yet, humans have the ability to override our fear and force ourselves through a fight-or-flight scenario. This ability of course has survival value—until it doesn't. We can get stuck in this hyper-vigilant, cortisol-overloaded state, which is damaging to our well being.

Listen to my brief comment on anxiety, then use these lessons to return to the parasympathetic, or calming, state. Save the sympathetic, reactive state for when you really need it.

This lesson helps you let go of muscular habits that interfere with breathing. It's not just the breath, though, it's all the hidden ways that we hold and grip throughout the ribs and trunk. By imagining the lung filling the chest cavity in many directions, the muscles become more responsive to the demands of your shape, as well as your emotional needs.

You practice meeting the external pressure with the internal pressure, feeling how the whole surface of the ribs can widen, expand, and release.

AY179

This lesson cuts across anxiety like no other. The rhythm of the tapping calms the system, creating a reverie state. You’ll be surprised by how full and easy your breathing is by the end. Plus, you regain upright posture and ease in the low belly, where we hold so much tension when we’re stressed.

This lesson introduces four-part breathing: inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Then you link the four parts with tapping or rolling, like rolling the hands or tapping the fingers. It’s a brain challenge to count the taps and breathe in the four parts. We do that to stop ruminating—you can't tap, breathe, count, AND worry. Once the breathing changes, the emotions change with it.

AY180

This lesson focuses breathing and tapping on the left side, adding some seesaw breathing to let go of old tension.

The increasing contrast between the left and right sides shows just how much we can improve support and gain strength—yes, strength—because this whole lesson is about letting go of the muscular tension that interferes with our movement.

When we let go of unnecessary holding, our muscles are actually available for use! You’d be surprised how much muscle tension is below the level of conscious awareness.

 AY186

This lesson brings more seesaw breathing into the mix of counting and tapping. As you hold one variation fixed, you are asked to continue with other variations of tapping and breathing. Yes, it’s complicated and confusing and challenging. That’s why we’re doing it: To retrain our system to make use of our full potential, not just the narrow range of habits we’ve settled on as “useful.”

Play with this lesson and don’t strive for perfection, just approximate the patterns as best you can. It will improve over time as you gain more and more volitional and precise control over the muscles of the abdomen and chest. As you continue to practice this process, your balance, posture, digestion, and comfort will dramatically improve.

Plus, have a good laugh over how jumbled up you get, then restart and try again.

AY187

This lesson has more shapes in which you challenge the diaphragm to find smooth, easy movement. Sometimes you’re tilted, sometimes you’re rotated, sometimes you’re folded and rotated. The idea is to continually create space for your breath no matter what shape you’re in. As you return to neutral after all these funny shapes, you’ll find the ease of breathing has greatly increased.

Tip: Then you’re on the side, one arm will be long overhead. If that’s not comfortable, get a towel for your head and simply bring the arm in front of you.

AY188

Here we do not have tapping, just an exploratory process to define the inner boundary of the lung. You imagine a little white dot of light moving around the inner boundary that represents the lung. It's remarkable how awareness of your shape changes the musculature. Don't listen to me, test it out.

This lesson helps let go of tension in the neck, shoulder, and jaw. I have seen people make remarkable improvements in their breathing with this experiment. Note that it is one-sided so that your brain can sense a clear contrast between the two sides. If, for some reason, you need to do the left side, you can, but stay within the constraint of the lesson and do only one side.

AY189

I love this lesson for the sheer quantity of feedback you get when you press different parts of yourself into the floor while doing the four-part breathing.

The idea is to challenge the breath while you press and lift many ways. Notice when a quick, harsh contraction stops the breath. Then, run the experiment to strategize how to use your muscles without stopping the breath. Using the breath as a barometer like this changes how you move through space. It’s a way to notice when you’re unconsciously tensing, holding, or moving in a way that causes stress. It’s a wonderful skill to have.

AY191