Anxiety is the most common issue affecting our life. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all have anxiety in some shape or form. Some people can take care of it without it affecting their day-to-day work, while some people find it difficult to deal with it. The first step if tackling it is to accept it. Accepting will let you take the next step of planning to deal with it. There is no single arrow that you can shoot which will take care of it. We must look at what is best that works for us. One common theme and one common method if you think of it is breathing. The most basic thing that the body does and inherently something which takes care of most of the issues inside our body.

Pranayama, breathing is at the heart of Yoga and its practitioners vouch for its efficacy in resolving bodily issues. ‘Prana’ means universal life and ‘ayama’ means to regulate. The root of it is two things. One is that the body needs oxygen and when you get it in the right amount it helps the body to heal itself. Two the brain controls the body, if we force it into thinking that everything is good it will help the body to deal with it and produce positive results. Think of it, if I say everything is fine with me, the brain thinks that to be true and will do things to help in that direction. If I think that there is something wrong inside me the brain will believe it and produce something which will make that true. Maybe a pain here or that anxiety feeling there.

Breathing — the basics

Having steady breathing inside our body is very important. If we look around us, a dog that breathes so heavily lives for 15 years. A tortoise that breathes slowly lives for 100 years. Observe what happens when we are anxious, our breathing increases. Whenever we overthink things, we start breathing more rapidly. So, the reverse also holds. If we slow it down and control our breathing in such a stage it will help us calm down.

4–7–8 method

4–7–8 is a usual method we can try. The gist of it is that we inhale for 4 seconds, hold our breath for 7 seconds, and then while our mouth is open, we exhale for 8 seconds making a whoosh sound. Repeating it several times in a cycle of 4. Start with 4 times and as you get better at it increase it by 4. It must be done at least 2 times a day and can be done any number of times as needed. People with heart disease, pregnant women, etc. should not hold their breath and should practice the second method below.

Anulom Vilom — Alternate nostril method

In your right hand, fold your index and middle fingers inwards, and with your thumb close your right nostril and breathe out completely through your left nostril. Place your hand just right, not too high or too low, something comfortable for you. Take a long breath through the left nostril, with your middle fingers, close the left nostril now and release your long breath through the right nostril. Don’t breathe from your chest but breathe from your abdomen. Focus all your attention on that breath. Repeat it for a cycle of 1 min. Do it in an increment of a minute at a time. Initially, you can do it for a couple of minutes. 
Once you practice it for a few days and are comfortable with it you can go to 5 and then 10 to 20 minutes.

Bhramari — Humming bee method.

Close your ears with your index fingers or use your thumb and push your ear tragus inside to close the ear. Inhale deeply and then exhale while making a humming sound through your throat with your mouth closed. Prolong the exhale as long as it is comfortable without going out of breath. 5–10 seconds could be the starting point and can be increased as you practice and become more comfortable with it. This helps calm our brains and lower hypertension. It can be done 2–5 times a day.

There are a few more pranayama like Kapal Bhati, Bastrika, and Ujjayi that can be tried but maybe that is for some other post.