Since my early teens, I’ve felt left to my own fears and was scared of my own fear and stress. Previously, I’d been completely alone with all my fears, but now I have a tool — my breathing. Fears don’t scare me anymore. That simple knowledge makes me calmer, I am now much more capable of dealing with stress, and I deal with stress in a completely different way. Before, when I breathed shallowly, high up in my chest, and didn’t use my diaphragm, I became stressed, then scared and worried, and soon I felt anxiety and panic attacks. Fears are contagious, and one thing led to another, and I was scared of more and more things.

I developed social phobia and was scared of just about everything

The stress triggered the fear, and fear creates phobias. I was very sensitive to large groups of people and loud noises. For example, I couldn’t ride the bus. Today, I love riding the bus, I don’t find anything else quite as relaxing.

In January 2015, I read about a man who got rid of his crippling anxiety, which had plagued him for years, by improving his breathing. I then bought the book Conscious Breathing and began taping my mouth shut at night.

After a couple of nights of taping my mouth shut, I felt a lump in my midriff that I hadn’t felt earlier. I had never really examined my stomach before, and I think I had come into contact with my diaphragm.

The difference it has made in my life is indescribable

I began doing different breathing exercises that are geared toward the diaphragm, and all of a sudden, more and more of my fears disappeared. The difference it has made in my life is indescribable. It feels like a miracle to know how to handle the petrifying fear that used to rule my life.

I am 52 years old and had developed social phobia by junior high. All these years I’d had a lot of contact with healthcare and psychiatry, but no one ever spoke to me about my breathing. Medication worked very well in the beginning, but after a while, my body got used to it and the effect decreased.

Imagine if I had received this knowledge on the importance of your breathing earlier. I would have had a completely different life. I try not to be bitter and instead look forward to experiencing the rest of my life able to handle stress and fear with the amazing tool that is our breathing.