Dealing with anxiety – breathing exercises or meditation could be the answer.

Many anxiety sufferers are looking for alternative ways for dealing with anxiety and its symptoms. Though there are medications available that are proven to improve the more severe symptoms associate with chronic anxiety, there are other at-home treatments which can decrease the suffering of more mild, less dangerous anxiety disorders. The following are two at-home treatments which have been successful in dealing with anxiety:-

Breathing exercises.
Deep breathing is one of the most effective ways to decrease stress and feelings of anxiety. To fully understand what relaxed breathing feels like, imagine the speed and depth of your breath before falling asleep or first thing after waking up in the morning.

At these times your breathing will be low, slow and deep. Trying to duplicate this breathing pattern during times of fear and distress can help to slow your heart rate, and calm the body’s other anxiety-related symptoms such as sweating, shaking and stuttered speech.

Here are the three steps to perform deep breathing exercises.

1. If possible close your eyes and concentrate on the lifting and lowering of your chest as you breathe.
2. Now, breathe in through your nose while making sure to raise your chest and staying focused on the filling of your lungs.
3. Breathe out from your mouth, feeling your chest lower and lungs empty.
4. Repeat until you feel your body relax.

Meditation.
To some meditation may seem like a hoax or simply a myth believed by die-hard hippies and naturalists. However, meditation is a proven practice and dates back as far as ancient Egypt and has roots in almost every religion.

Dealing with anxiety can be incredibly difficult. Making time every day for a short, solitary meditation session has been shown to decrease anxiety symptoms and has also decreased the number of panic attacks suffered in some patients.

Here are is a simple four step meditation which you can use to help solve your anxiety issues.
1. Sit in a comfortable position, in an area where you feel both safe and secure.
2. Close your eyes and concentrate on taking slow even breaths. In through the nose and out through the mouth.
3. Now, in your mind try to picture the numbers one through ten, each in its own individual color. For example, imagine a red number one, a green number two and so on…
4. While staying calm and keeping your breathing steady, imagine the numbers while counting backwards from ten to one. Holding each number in your mind for the length of three breaths.

Both breathing exercises and meditation can help immensely when dealing with anxiety. Additional at-home treatments could include yoga, ty chi or even swimming.