How to use 4-4-4 breathwork to reduce anxiety

And how I did this in my second San Pedro ceremony

Have you ever found yourself on the edge of a panic attack overflowing with anxiety?

When you are unable to focus due to anxiety, fear dominates your mind and nothing seems okay - these moments of deep struggle are the most impactful times to reconnect with the breath.

In my second San Pedro ceremony at Gaia Sagrada this past April, I found myself in a downward spiral of fear and anxiety. Through 4-4-4 breathwork, I was able to pull myself out of this emotional rut. 

We were about four hours into the ceremony. The medicine felt strong. San Pedro grounded me in the present moment, making me feel at peace. It heightened my awareness of every sound, movement, and person in the surrounding environment. This heightened awareness was only a gift for my first San Pedro ceremony and the first half of my second ceremony.

My elevated awareness transformed into a curse midway through my second ceremony. One of the other participants commented about how deep they were in the medicine. Then, I transformed from a pleasant state to being deeply afraid for my life.

No threat was made. No aggressive action was taken. Still, my thoughts and emotional state spun up into a whirlwind I could feel building into an anxiety attack. After a few moments of being lost in the depths of the waves of fear and anxiety, I noticed what was happening inside of me. I was not choosing to feel this way.

This state of suffering did not serve me in any way. Nor the other participant, who I knew needed support at this moment. Yet my fear and anxiety threatened to consume me. Preventing me from feeling settled and showing up for my friend.

I closed my eyes and brought my awareness to my heartbeat and breath. My heart was racing while my breath was quick and shallow. It was time to remind my body I was in control. To shift from the sympathetic nervous system back to the parasympathetic nervous system. In other words, to get out of fight or flight mode.

Closing my eyes, I dropped into a practice of 4-4-4 breathing. To begin I exhaled sharply to clear out the lungs. Then, I inhaled for four seconds and held my breath for four seconds. To close the first round of breathing, I exhaled for four seconds.

While breathing this way for a few minutes, I noticed the intensity of the fear and anxiety diminished greatly. The wild thoughts of being concerned for my life drifted away into the bucket of memory where absurd dreams live - still in recent memory, but not consuming me anymore.

Upon opening my eyes, the fear spiked again as I came out of the deep state of protection and safety being fully enveloped in breathwork offered me. I knew I needed to continue breathwork with my eyes open. My breath continued to flow in this fashion until I found myself in a state of calm. Only then, did I release the practice.

After returning to this state of calm, looking back at what happened was a telling tale. I had been in a centered mental and emotional state. A trivial external stimulus was jumped on by my emotions. This internal reaction boiled up into a state causing a switch from rest and digest mode into fight or flight. The fear and anxiety were the strongest when I was fully consumed by fight or flight mode.

In the middle of fear and anxiety, I realized I had slipped from my state of calm. Deploying the 4-4-4 breathwork practice let me signal to the body it was okay. With enough breaths, I was back to the same inner calm as before.

It is both amazing and terrifying such a state of suffering can be brought about by one's unconscious reaction to an external event. This is why it is so important to acquire tools to regulate the breath. Then practice using them. I have been using 4-4-4 breathing to steady myself since being introduced to it by a powerful healer couple at HeartLight-Wellness in Santa Fe in the fall of 2020.

Through this breathing practice, I have repeatedly brought myself back to center from many encounters with fear, anxiety, and panic. Because of this, even being deep in San Pedro and fearing for my life did not prevent me from having access to my breathwork tools.

It is okay if this 4-4-4 breathwork practice feels foreign to you. If you find yourself speed counting, then extend each count by adding a word after each count of the breath. Pick your favorite word. For example - one motorcycle, two motorcycle, three motorcycle...

When first practicing 4-4-4 breathing, it can be helpful to put on some calming music. A secondary benefit of this is to create an association between the feeling of the calming music and breathing in a 4-4-4 fashion. For many months after I stopped regularly playing music when I did this breathing practice, I would still 'hear' the music playing in my mind.

For those of you like me and appreciate having someone guide you through starting, I will provide a guided meditation two weeks from today. Until then, remember to check in with your body and your breath whenever you find yourself being swept away by emotions. In those moments, breathe in. Breathe out. Remember this too shall pass.