Jack Bare

Practice · Source: Bare Breath · Kindle B0GT5P822J · Paperback B0GV418M7N

How to Breathe When You Are Anxious

Anxiety is already a sensation before it is a story. Tightness in the chest. Heat in the face. Weight in the belly. Managing the story does not reach the place that is contracted. Breathing toward that place does.

This is the Breath of Feeling, from Bare Breath. Use it in the middle of something difficult. Anxiety, anger, grief, fear. You are not performing calm. You are bringing the breath to where the body has closed around something real.

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Do not manage it

The usual move is to settle the feeling from above. Name it, explain it, wait until it is small enough to breathe. That is still management. The breath can be with the feeling while it is still large. That is the practice.

You are not trying to dissolve it. You are not trying to win. Within a minute or two the feeling often changes. It does not disappear. The tight thing loosens a little. The overwhelming thing becomes merely large. The unbearable thing becomes bearable.

The Breath of Feeling

One practice. A minute or two. Any time the feeling is present and unwelcome.

When: In the middle of it. Sit if you can. If you cannot sit, stay where you are and do the same thing with the eyes soft.

How:

  1. Close your eyes. Leave the story about the feeling. Find where it lives in the body.
  2. Name the sensation, not the explanation. Tightness, heat, or weight. That is enough.
  3. Place your awareness there. Do not move it off because the place is unpleasant.
  4. Breathe toward that location. On the inhale, feel the breath moving toward the contraction. You are not forcing the air there. Your attention is.
  5. Stay. A minute, or two. Let the feeling change if it changes. Do not require it to leave.
  6. If it becomes too large, open your eyes, look at the room, and breathe normally. Return when you are ready.

The breath can be with anything. That is the instruction. Not a longer inhale, and not a count to hide behind.

Questions

What do you do when anxiety is already in the body?

Do not manage the feeling. Find where it lives as a sensation, not as a story. Breathe toward that place. You are not trying to make it leave.

What is the Breath of Feeling?

Sit if you can. Close your eyes. Find the tightness, heat, or weight. Place your awareness there and breathe toward it. Stay a minute or two. The feeling may change. It does not have to disappear.

What if the feeling gets too large?

Open your eyes. Look at the room. Breathe normally. Return when you are ready.

The rest of the practices

Bare Breath holds six practices. This page is the Breath of Feeling only. Morning Breath, the Body Scan, the Exhale Practice, the Walking Breath, and the Night Breath are the same instruction in other hours of the day: stop standing in front of the breath that is already happening.

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