This quick breathwork exercise could help calm morning anxiety in just two minutes

I’ve recently been waking up with morning anxiety—as soon as my alarm goes off my brain starts reminding me of all the things I need to do.

I play over worries from the day before and start feeling stressed about what I have to get done.

And I know it’s not just me. According to the American Psychiatric Association, nearly half of American adults say they are more anxious than they were a year ago.

“Morning is a particularly interesting time because our physiology naturally shifts into an active, alert state around waking, including changes in cortisol [a stress response hormone] and other systems involved in preparing us for the day,” says Olivia Wynne, somatic breathwork and personal development coach at HumanOS.

“That doesn’t mean morning anxiety is ‘just cortisol’. Thoughts, expectations, sleep quality and the anticipation of the day can all contribute.”

One tool that may help is slow breathing, particularly techniques that emphasise a gentle, extended exhale.

I decided to try this myself and spoke to Wynne to find out what actually happens in the body.

What happens in your body when you feel anxious?

“Anxiety overestimates the threat and underestimates our ability to cope,” says Wynne.

“When we feel anxious, the brain interprets something as a potential threat and the sympathetic nervous system increases our state of arousal.

“Heart rate and breathing can increase, muscles may tense, digestion can change and attention becomes more focused on detecting danger.

“From a somatic perspective, anxiety isn’t just a thought—it is a whole-body state, which is why working with the body can sometimes help shift the experience. We can’t always ‘think’ our way out of anxiety.”

How can breathwork help calm you down?

When you’re anxious, your body can activate its threat response but slow breathing exercises—including techniques that use a gentle, extended exhale—may help reduce feelings of anxiety.

“Breathing obviously happens automatically, but we can also consciously change it. When we deliberately slow and deepen the breath, we can influence cardiovascular and autonomic processes involved in regulation,” says Wynne. “This includes heart rate variability,” referring to the tiny variations in time between heartbeats.

Using breathing techniques can be a powerful way to reduce the intensity of anxious feelings.

“Slow breathing can increase heart rate variability, while also reducing subjective stress and anxiety,” she says. “A longer, gentle exhale can encourage a slower overall breathing rate and is associated with the cardiovascular patterns we see during parasympathetic [resting state] regulation.

“I often tell my clients to imagine their breath like a wave, when they breathe in the sea is coming up to the shore, and when they breathe out the wave is moving back out to the ocean again.”

A quick breathwork technique to try—and how it can help

In an attempt to regulate my nervous system first thing in the morning, I tried a long exhalation breath practice.

Mindfulness coach Travis Eliot recommends starting with a four-count inhalation, two-count hold, then a four-count exhalation and a two-count hold again. You then increase the length of your exhalation by one count each round.

He doesn’t mention whether you should exhale through your nose or mouth, so I did what felt comfortable for me.

While it’s not a magic cure for morning anxiety, I found that having a self-care ritual to do on waking helped shift me from panic mode to a calm(er) state.

Wynne says breathing exercises could help you feel less anxious within a matter of minutes.

“Someone could genuinely notice a shift within a few minutes, maybe even a few breaths. Although the size of the effect varies considerably between people.

“Slow breathing produces measurable changes during a single session, including changes in heart rate variability, so it doesn’t necessarily require weeks of practice before experiencing anything.

“This is different to meditation [which requires single-pointed focus], as my clients find that breathwork works quicker than meditation.”

Crucially, Wynne says breathwork should be a tool to help regulate the nervous system, not a replacement for treating the underlying cause of anxiety.

“If anxiety is persistent, significantly affecting someone’s sleep, relationships, work or ability to function, or they’re experiencing recurrent panic attacks, intrusive fears or avoidance, that’s the point where professional psychological or medical support is important,” she says.

“Breathwork can sit alongside that support rather than being presented as a cure.”