Catching My Breath

Written by F. A.

For people experiencing stress, so that they can use calming techniques to manage anxiety and find moments of peace in their day.

I had a tough time adjusting to my first semester in college. I’ve had many people in the past tell me that ‘college is more flexible’ and I’ll have ‘more free time to do things since there’s no school on Friday’, but this was not the case for being in a commuter school, especially if you had my schedule.

In my first semester, I had 3 in-person classes every day, except Fridays, where I still had two—one in-person and one remote. Every day I left my house at 7:40 am and arrived home around 6:40 pm. On Fridays, I would have to leave the building right after I finish class to catch the upcoming train, in hopes of getting home early to do my online class.

Elementary, middle and high school were all a 5-minute walk from my house, so commuting was a lot to take in for someone who had just gotten used to taking the trains. It was a stressful routine but one technique that helped me get by was focusing on my breathing.

I didn’t think catching the upcoming trains was very important until entering college. There have been a few times when I didn’t swipe my card efficiently causing me to miss the train or just simply didn’t have enough time to make it.

After checking the transit app to see the next train, I realized it was coming in 10 minutes while I was still trying to catch up with my breathing. Now that I was out of breath and internally panicking about making it to class on time, the anxiety was creeping in faster than I expected.

In this situation, I find myself doing a breathing technique that I once learned in a YouTube video. Lamaze Breathing is a breathing technique that is used for reducing pain in labor. While what I experienced was not remotely close to how painful labor is, I started to feel at ease while closing my eyes, and focusing on the pace of my breathing.

Other breathing techniques, such as timed ones have also worked out for me whenever I have trouble sleeping or need to calm my heart down. The 4-7-8 Breathing has been very helpful for calming me down whenever I panic over an exam the night before.

These breathing exercises have been really helpful in calming me down, especially as taking my time to slowly exhale makes it feel like I’m letting go of any tension and stress while also catching my breath.

Let us know in the comment section if you have other breathing techniques that has been helpful to you!