In the journey of mental health recovery, it’s common for teens to feel overwhelmed by anxiety, depression, or trauma. To combat this, at our teen mental health IOP (intensive outpatient program) we teach skills grounded in evidence-based practice as well as rooted in some of the world’s oldest traditions. One of the most accessible, safe, and immediately helpful tools that satisfies both of these aims are breathing techniques. 

Through some simple breathwork exercises, teens and anyone else struggling with their mental health can regain calm in the moments when fear or sadness feels like they are overwhelming them. Breathwork can help to reduce anxiety or deal with acute anxiety attacks, ground us when things seem too much, and through sustained practice, transform our lives in profound ways. 

In today’s post, we’ll explore how breathwork can support anxiety treatment for teens and share a few specific breathing practices from around the world. These techniques can help regulate the nervous system, build resilience, and give teens and others respite when emotional turbulence arises. Here’s how breathwork for teen anxiety can help you.

Why Intentional Breathing Offers Help for Teen Anxiety

For many teens, anxiety shows up as a racing heart, shallow chest breathing, or a sense of suffocation. Depression or trauma can numb awareness and cause disassociation. Breathwork offers a gentle way to reconnect with the body and regain control of emotions and body functions. Breathwork can calm down both racing hearts and racing minds. 

Scientifically, breathwork has been proven to calm the nervous system, slow breathing, and keep practitioners from being overwhelmed. It’s used by everyone from Buddhist monks to Navy Seals to regain focus, calm the body and mind, and regain control of the autonomic body functions. 

One of the best parts about breathwork is that it’s portable. Unlike some anxiety treatments for teens, breathing is always with us. Many kinds of breathwork can be done silently in class, in your bedroom, or during a quick break. It’s there when you need it.

Breathwork for Teen Anxiety

We’ve selected three techniques for breathing that may be useful to you and offer help for teen anxiety. Remember, these are tools among many others in a toolbox. They should always be used as part of a science-backed, comprehensive treatment program, such as a teen mental health IOP. These are additions, rather than replacements.

Box Breathing

Box Breathing can be used anywhere. It’s great at helping calm the nervous system during acute anxiety or in stressful or scary situations. Here’s how to do it:

• Inhale through your nose for a count of 4. Let the air fill your lungs slowly and fully.
• Hold your breath for a count of 4. Keep your lungs full, staying calm and still.
• Exhale gently through your mouth for a count of 4. Release the air smoothly and completely.
• Hold your breath again for a count of 4. Stay empty, resting briefly before the next breath.
• Repeat the cycle for 4–6 rounds or as long as it feels helpful.

You can adjust the count to 3 if 4 feels too long. The key is keeping all sides of the “box” equal.

Why Box Breathing Helps With Anxiety:

Box breathing regulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps cause fight-or-flight responses when we are scared or anxious. It has also been shown to lower stress hormones like cortisol. This is a great way to calm down when you think a panic attack may be oncoming, or you are stressed. Perhaps best of all, it’s very discreet and can be performed almost anywhere.

Pranayama

Pranayama is an ancient yogic practice that involves intentional control of the breath. While its roots are spiritual, many of its techniques are now used in therapeutic settings to help manage stress, anxiety, and trauma. For teens in recovery, Pranayama offers a structured yet gentle way to connect with your body, regulate your emotions, and feel a sense of calm.

There are many forms of Pranayama, but this is a good one for beginners: 

• Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Keep the spine straight and shoulders relaxed.
• Inhale slowly through the nose, filling the stomach first, then the ribs, then the upper chest. Do this all in one full breath, but feel it rise in three parts, like a gentle wave.
• Exhale slowly and fully through the nose, letting the breath leave from the chest, then ribs, then stomach. Try to make the exhale slightly longer than the inhale.

Repeat for 5–10 rounds, keeping attention on the movement of the breath in the body.

Why Pranayama Breathing Helps With Mental Health:

Pranayama helps to balance the nervous system, and helps both the body and mind to rest as well as connect with one another. It helps to reduce emotional reactivity, especially for those who have been the recipient of trauma. It’s also likely this technique can help with sleep, and with almost all breathing techniques, helps to teach and reinforce emotional regulation.  

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Alternate Nostril Breathing has a long history. It’s sometimes called “Nadi Shodhana” and descends from yogic and Ayurvedic practices in India. It involves breathing in and out through one nostril at a time, alternating sides in a rhythmic pattern. In modern mental health settings such as teen mental health IOP’s, it’s increasingly used as a way to calm the mind, soothe anxiety, and promote physical and emotional balance.

Like Pranayama above, there are many different ways to practice this style of intentional breathing, but here’s a good one for beginners:

• Sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight and shoulders relaxed.
• Use your right thumb to close your right nostril. Breath in deeply, and slowly through your left nostril. 
• Use your forefinger to close your left nostril. Slowly and deeply breathe out of your right nostril. 
• Now, reverse the process. Inhale slowly through your right nostril. Exhale slowly and deeply from the left. 

Try practicing for four to six rounds.

Why Alternate Nostirl Breathing Helps Mental Health:

Alternate nostril breathing helps to ground you, focus attention, and connect the mind and body. This technique may reduce anxiety and overthinking, and encourages a gentle awareness of the body, mind, and breath. It has also been shown to slow heart rate. 

Science-Backed Anxiety Treatment for Teens at the Living Room

No matter which technique you choose, try one of these breathing techniques today. They can help regulate panic, connect the mind and body, ground us, and practiced regularly, create lasting relief from mental health issues. 

If you need more support, give us a call at (732) 327-1066. We offer IOP mental health programs for teens and much more. 

Sources:

Alternate Nostril Breathing. Cleveland Clinic

Exploring the Therapeutic Benefits of Pranayama (Yogic Breathing): A Systematic Review. National Library of Medicine.