Breathing Exercises

I tend to hold my breath when I’m stressed. I know, I know, it’s not good. I think I do it because I’m afraid that when I am stressed and I don’t hold my breath, that I will end up panting, and then EVERYONE will know I’m FREAKING OUT! To be fair, if I keep holding my breath, I might pass out and that’s bound to attract some attention. I’m on the path to mindful breathing, or whatever it’s called, I just need some guidance.

I did some research on breathing exercises to see if it would help me when I was freaking out a bit. I found a few from Dr. Weil. You know, the guy that kind of looks like Santa and sells mushroom based face cream or something at Origins? (Do yourself a favor and click that Origins link. The copy on the page says, “Is your skin silently aging?” Nope. My skin is incredibly vocal about my complete and utter disregard for it.)

I tried to demonstrate the first one on his list for Derek and ended up shooting snot out of my nose. That made us both laugh, so I guess that’s a good thing? I am wondering if any of you have some favorite breathing techniques for when you need to calm down. Please share, I’m sure Derek will thank you if it prevents me from projectile snotting at him. Thank you!