Mindfulness of breath and disrupted breathing

[chrisfy]

Evening everybody,

I have been doing mindfulness for several months now with much personal success.

However, within the last two weeks I have had a disruption to my practice due to the unconscious altering of my breath by taking unnecessarily deep breaths almost continuously whilst practising. creating symptoms of hyperventilation. Whereas, my normal breathing tends to be very faint and shallow.

I suspect this behaviour is occurring as several months ago due to a string of panic attacks I became increasingly worried about my breathing and would consciously control it.

So in short, I am finding it difficult to do mindfulness of breath due to unconscious altering of my breath which makes me hyperventilate over time.

I was wondering if anyone might be able to offer some advice as I suspect this may be a common theme among people who have faced panic attacks.

Many thanks,
Chris

[piedwagtail91]

i've only met a handful of people who couldn't meditate on the breath. instead they used to meditate on the sensations in their feet, the contact with the floor noticing how the sensations changed from heel to each toe.. every session it was off with the shoes and socks , but it worked.

[Michael_79]

Hi Chris,
I find it also very difficult not to control my breath in a way or another when I am doing breathing meditation. If your hyperventilation symptoms are not extreme, you may try looking at them and at the accompanying anxiety with curiosity. When it become too overwhelming, you may try to refocus on other body sensations, sounds and visual things.
Best of luck and keep in touch,
Michael

[Gareth]

I am always surprised when mindfulness of breath is taught as the only way to meditate. There is lots going on in the present moment, not just the breath.

A big part of my practice is mindfulness of sound. Why don't you both try a meditation listening to the sounds around you, or some nice, ambient music. Just listen, and when your mind wanders, escort your attention back to the sounds. This way of meditating has always felt more natural to me than following my breath.

[chrisfy]

Hello everybody,

Thank you so much for your thoughts.

Through my own discovery, and what I suspect may be similar to other people who have experienced breathing issues related to panic. I found that I was going into a previous routine or behavioural pattern, which was very difficult to recognise due to its subtlety, I would have a thought/sensation of difficulty breathing which would then make me (subconsciously) breath harder, which further exacerbate the trigger thoughts, leaving me in a anxious and unmindful mental place.

Michael's suggestion of seeing it with curiosity triggered a cascade of memories of how I have been dealing with similar but more easy to recognise behavioural issues in a mindful way; that is to face towards it and welcome it.

I found that by facing towards the physical sensations of the hyperventilation and be more mindful of them, I could start to become more aware of the maladaptive behavioural patterns (my avoidant behaviour), and thus in a mindful way help to dissolve these behaviours. My own take on the process: by becoming aware of each stage in my behavioural pattern in a mindful way, it allows me to both hold and welcome the thought/sensation, and then choose another mental direction to take rather than going on the same trodden path.

For future readers whom this may have a similarity with, I suggest that the objective isn't to do mindfulness of breath per se, but more to do a mindful activity, and being mindful of the physical sensations, emotions and thoughts related to breathing is important as it is the only way that mindfulness can help you change these behaviours. Finally, I suggest that if the sensations of hyperventilation are extreme enough to stop, that you attempt to stop in a mindful way.

[SheilaB]

Hi there,

I can't comment on panic attacks but I just wanted to say that I struggled a lot with mindfulness of breathing at first. As soon as I focussed on my breathing I used to find I was trying to control it. In my case there were judgements attached around shallow breathing being 'bad' because it must mean I was stressed, and wanting my breath to be deeper.

What helped me most was accepting the breath just as it is in this moment, however fast or shallow. Over time my struggles with this particular practice subsided the more I was able to allow the breath to just do its own thing.

As Gareth mentioned, we don't have to stick with breathing meditation if it's too challenging. For me in the early days this wasn't the most beneficial type of practice when my anxiety was high - mindful movement helped me a lot at first.

Sheila

[jaypantera]

Hi there!
I have EXACTLY the same issue with you my friend. And yes previously i had some issues with some panic attacks and then i started to worry about my own breathing. But as i wrote before 'worrying' about it means that you had a traumatic experience like me and you bring images from the past into the now and feeling weird about them. I was suffering from maladaptive daydreaming and it was really really hard (still it is) to just focus on the now. Everything was looking very ugly i preferred my own fantasy world i was living. Until i got some panic attacks and that was it. I decided to face them i was tired to run away. I registered today to find an answer too why i try to control my breathing when I'm focusing on it. When i close my eyes and meditate it's fine but when i open my eyes i have this feeling of trying to control it. And I'm glad i can see lot of answers here i feel less alone now and yes i found helpful to focus on other sensations instead or how it feels the air when it pass inside the nostrils.