My husband has been a follower of the Wim Hof Method (cold showers/ice baths/breathing technique) for about a year, it helped him with pain which was becoming unbearable from a spinal condition.
It's supposed to be really helpful for anxiety and depression as well.
He's always been at me to do the breathing exercises with him but you know what it's like, if someone tells you to try something you're like, nah, I'm good, but if you 'discover' it yourself then you'll try it.
I have suffered anxiety since forever and during lockdown it's become 100x worse. Lost my job, 6 weeks with no pay, then got offered two jobs and took them both so am working 12 hr days, house is WAY too small, kids are doing my head in, etc.
This morning I finally tried this breathing technique and I feel SO. MUCH. BETTER. Debating on whether or not to tell my husband he was right, he might die from the shock.
I'll leave a link to it here in the hopes that someone 'discovers' it themselves and tries it out. If you do I'd be curious as to how you find it.
Short version is
- deep breathing in and out 30x, on the 30th breath push all air out of your lungs and then don't breath in for 30 seconds (2nd round is 1 minute, 3rd round is 1m30s but I couldn't make it that long)
- take a deep breath in and hold it for 15 seconds
- next round starts, you do it three times
I am out of shape with asthma and thought this might trigger something but if anything my breathing is much easier.