Banish Anxiety

Here is another breathing exercise that can be used to help quell anxiety when trying to sleep at night.

• Lie flat on your back in bed with your arms by your sides. Take a few deep, cleansing breaths, concentrating on keeping your breathing even and steady.



• Acknowledge one stressful or anxious thought each time you breathe in, and release it with the air as you breathe out. As you breathe out, imagine that thought to be a miniature bubble that just floated out of your body.



• When your anxiousness has abated, keep focusing on steady breathing and slowly get into your normal sleeping position.



• Now switch to acknowledging the thoughts of things that you are grateful for. This time, pull these thoughts in with each breath and, as you breathe out, be thankful for each thought. Do not "release" the thought as you breathe out, simply acknowledge it.

This form of breathing exercise uses a very simple form of visualization (the miniature "thought" bubble), and represents a simple form of meditation (acknowledging your thoughts). We will discuss more involved versions of these exercises in the following pages.

Relaxation Exercises >>>

Best sellers from

The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety and Stress Without Drugs and...
by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber M.D. Ph.D.
Amazon Price: $10.87
Customer Review: Excellent book on how to handle stress. Written by a French psychiatrist, I discovered it in France some 5 years ago. Not only the author quotes many examples of stress related discomfort and diseases, but he guides his readers to recovery. He indicates combined medications which can help. He shows diagrams and photos of what stress generates i...
 

The Instinct to Heal: Curing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Without Drugs an...
by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber M.D. Ph.D.
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: I used to be severely depressed and non-functional for many years. I discovered on my own that Nutrition is the most important thing to cure depression. It's especially important to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. So learn a lot about nutrition! The second thing is to deal with your psychological issues. I recommend reading many, many self help bo...
 

The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook: A Step-by-Step Program for Curing Yourself of ...
by Ph.D. Edmund J. Bourne
Amazon Price:
Customer Review: This book seems to be very helpful and i enjoy it. I love the fact that theres questions at the end of each chapter
 

Healing without Freud or Prozac: Natural Approaches to Curing Stress, Anxiety...
by David Servan-Schreiber
Amazon Price: