Anxiety Breathing technique: The Bumble Bee Breath

 

The Bumble Bee Breath is an ancient yoga breathing technique that imitates the sound of a bumble bee. It is very relaxing and prompts the release of seratonin.

Some benefits:

- calms the mind and soothes anxiety

- helps memory and concentration

- good for headaches including migraines 

- good for the thyroid

How to do it:

Sit comfortably

Relax your shoulders

Close your throat slightly so you can hear your breath when you breathe in

Cover your ears with your thumbs and your eyes with your fingers

Keep your lips closed but lightly and your teeth slightly apart with your jaw relaxed and breathe out slowly making a long, low humming sound

Make your exhalation long and smooth

Repeat 5-10 times

Then sit with long slow breaths for a couple of minutes and enjoy the peace.

Find out more in the full podcast below:

Anxiety Breathing Techniques:

The Measured Breath: Anxiety Relief Breathing Technique

Anxiety Exercise: The Seven Eleven Breathing Technique

Breathing Your Way to a Calmer Place

3 Anxiety Breathing Techniques You Can Practice Anywhere

anxiety breathing exercise

To find out more about yoga breathing exercises here:

Pranayama: Breathing to Calm your Mind and Heal Your Body

Guided Relaxation Preview: Breathing Calm

Enjoy a few minutes of our Breathing Calm guided relaxation audio available for the price of a latte from the Anxiety Slayer Store 

The Cleansing Breath

Toxic emotions mean toxic emissions. Both inside and outside of yourself, negative emotions cause pollution. Ayurveda calls this internal toxic waste mental ama and it encourages us to learn to process our emotions healthily so we can prevent it's build up. 

Here's a quick and easy way to step back and neutralize negative thoughts using a simple exercise called the cleansing breath please click the play button to follow along and try it for yourself...

If you found this podcast helpful, please share it with a friend.

Photo "Dee lets off some steam" by toastforbrekkie

5 Finger QiGong Meditation for Anxiety Relief

Here's a simple seated qigong meditation for you to try. It guides you through focusing on your breath along with some meditative hand postures to help you relieve anxiety.

This meditation has been recorded with a selection of real Tibetan (or singing) Bowls which produce a very soothing sound which supports meditation and relaxation. These bowls have been recorded live in order to preserve the subtle sounds of the harmonic overtones they produce.

If you like what you just heard, you'll be pleased to know that you can find more anxiety relief mp3s in the Anxiety Slayer Store.

Related Resources:

The Music of Tibetan Singing Bowls from Inner Calm Audio

FLICKR photo by effekt!

Yoga Breathing to Calm your Mind

Ayurveda and Yoga both recommend that we spend time each day practicing some simple breathing exercises for relaxing the mind and looking after the body.

One of the most popular yoga breathing exercises is a pranayama practice called Nadi Shodhana, or alternate nostril breathing. It's a simple technique that controls the flow of vital energy to the brain and has a very calming and balancing effect on the mind and body.

Nadi Shodhana is a Sanskrit term that means channel purifying. Both Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine place great significance on keeping the channels of the body and mind clear and consider it vital to our wellbeing.

The Benefits of Alternate Nostril Breathing Include

- Calming stress and anxiety and relaxing the mind
- Cooling Anger 
- Encouraging the flow of vital energy throughout the body
- Enhancing mental concentration and clarity

How Alternate Nostril Breathing Works

Alternate nostril breathing works by balancing the opposite energies in the body, in a very similar way to the Chinese theory of yin and yang. One nostril is cooling, one is heating, one has a male energy, and the other has female. Breathing through one nostril stimulates the left hemisphere of the brain and the other nostril stimulates the right. So by spending just 10 minutes a day switching your breath between nostrils you can balance your brain, calm your mind and boost your immunity.

In this podcast Shann talks you through the benefits and then leads a live pranayama practice for you to listen and follow along.

Related resources: Yoga Downloads for Stress and Anxiety Relief

Photo by Pensiero