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Mind Hack: Combat Anxiety with This Breathing Technique | Big Think

Big Think | September 30, 2025



Mind Hack: Combat Anxiety with This Breathing Technique
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Most people are familiar with the technique of taking deep inhalations to relax themselves, but one breathing technique is more effective at returning your body to a naturally calm and connected state.
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JANE MCGONIGAL:
Jane McGonigal, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Institute for the Future and the author of The New York Times bestseller Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. McGonigal’s newest book is titled SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient–Powered by the Science of Games. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Wired, and The New York Times and on MTV, CNN, and NPR. She has been called one of the top ten innovators to watch (BusinessWeek), one of the one hundred most creative people in business (Fast Company), and one of the fifty most important people in the gaming industry (Game Developers Magazine). Her TED talks on games have been viewed more than ten million times.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Jane McGonigal: A lot of people are very familiar with the technique of slow breathing or deep breathing to try to relax. But it turns out there’s a breathing technique that is more effective than that. I call it the power breath. And the way you do it is that you exhale for twice as long as you inhale. So you might inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of eight. If you’re really kind of worked up maybe you can only inhale for two and out for four when you get started and then you kind of slow it down more as you go. Maybe inhale for eight and exhale for 16 once you get really good at it.

And it turns out that the reason why this works so effectively to calm yourself down is that it triggers a switch in your body’s nervous system from sympathetic nervous system state to parasympathetic. And parasympathetic is a nervous system state that’s associated with what they call “rest-and-digest.” Some of that I think is for more like “fight-or-flight.” So if you’re in a kind of fight-or-flight state, and you don’t want to be feeling that way, you can do this power breath: inhale for four, exhale for eight, and switch. Just you get to decide whether you’re in fight-or-flight or rest-and-digest.

Or another one is “connect.” They call them “calm-and-connect” state. And this has been used effectively by people for all sorts of things for stopping a panic attack, for reducing the symptoms of a migraine, for dealing with muscle spasms or muscle cramps. Anything you can do to get your body to switch into that calm-connect, rest-and-digest state it can help with that.
There’s a simple reason why this form of breathing helps switch your body into that calm-and-connect, rest-and-digest state which is that when you are naturally calm, when you are naturally resting and not thinking about your breathing, that is the breathing pattern that your body adopts. So you’re basically fooling your brain and body into thinking that you’re already calm and connected, that you’re already at rest by breathing the way you would be breathing if you were naturally in a state of calm and connection.

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Written by Big Think

Comments

This post currently has 48 comments.

  9. @balsahota8719

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    wow ! never knew it. And, how did you come to know about this. For god sake,  give some credit to where it belong – a good old Pranayam practice. Its so easy to become an expert of something just by copying something from somewhere. Its not mind hack, its a '"yoga hack" ….

  10. @samueljackson9397

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    I don't understand all the comments about her appearance. I find this in most YouTube videos that there are some people that can't focus on the actual message the video is sending out. instead people make comments about someone's speech appearance the background the sound the picture quality it's all b*****. who cares about all this. I just take what I need and leave the rest behind

  13. @ZZZ111-A1

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. BELIEVE THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST.

    Revelation 14:11
    And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

    If a person receives the Mark of the Beast, which is a microchip implant or an electronic tattoo, or worships the beast, which is the Roman Catholic Church, or the image of the beast, which is the church-state union that will be formed in the United States, when religious laws are enacted or enforced, then they will be tormented forever in a Lake of Fire.

    The worshipping of the beast and image of the beast will take place in churches on both Saturday and Sunday. Do not be deceived into thinking that the worship of the beast and image of the beast will take place only on Sunday.

    Revelation 13:16-18
    16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
    17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
    18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

    The children of the devil, many of which compose much of the two-thirds of the world that claim to be Christian, are not concerned about professing Jesus Christ because they know that if a person receives the mark of the beast of worships the beast or image of the beast then that person will be tormented forever in the lake of fire.

    Many false teachers and individuals will talk about either the mark of the beast or the beast or the image of the beast but will not admit all three because they know that receiving the mark of the beast or worshipping the beast or worshipping the image of the beast will cause the receiver or worshipper to be tormented forever in a lake of fire.

    Many, if not most, of the inhabitants of the world today worship Satan, and not God. Most of those who claim to be in the body of Christ are liars. They are not truly Christians, but instead are liars who deceitfully try to lead others down a broad path to eternal torment.

    Matthew 7:13-14
    Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
    Because strait the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

    Revelation 20:4
    And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years
    Read Revelation 22

    Copy and save for your own use.
    Copy and paste this into as many videos as you can. Share on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

    The prophecies of Revelation in greater detail. (Copy into document and add verses)

    Revelation 17:6
    The Roman Catholic Church has killed over 50 million people throughout the course of history.

    Revelation 17:7-9
    Rome sits on seven hills.

    Revelation 17:10-11
    The seven kings refer to the seven pontiffs since the Church regained civil power in 1929, the eighth being Pope Francis.

    Revelation 17:12-18

    Revelation 13:11

    Revelation 13:12

    Revelation 13:13-14
    The fire that will come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men will most likely be some sort of fake holy ghost that will be used to deceive many. There will then be a church-state union formed in the United States.

    Revelation 13:15
    Those people who refuse to worship will be killed.

    Revelation 13:5
    The United States will give power unto the church-state Union that will be formed in the United States and will cause those who refuse to worship to be killed.

    Revelation 13:7-8

    Revelation 6:9-11

    Vicarius Filii Dei, which means “Vicar Son of God” in Latin, is the the title of Pope Francis.

    Revelation 13:18

    1 Corinthians 1:10

    2 Corinthians 6:14

    Matthew 23:9

    Romans 1:17

  31. @jackstacks3989

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    There is no substantial evidence beyond a double-blind trial that this works better than  a placebo. This is just more acupuncture trendy psudeo science from the social sciences. They are simply trying to justify their over stretched and saturated field by inventing more trendy psuedo science. Im really disappointed in the direction big think is going. They used to have philosophers, physicist and people who are really making a difference.

  32. @atypical_moto

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    Same technique used in freediving. It works to calm you by lowering your heart rate and also clears a safe amount of Co2 out of the blood stream. Both help to increase your breath hold time. Nobody is more in a Zen state than a freediver 1-2-300ft deep with only the air in his lungs to get him to the surface. One wrong thought can be fatal.

  39. @Antifadiva

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    trying to imagine what I feel like breathing when I'm gone… Realized that when I'm calm I never really remember to take note of how I feel or how my breathing feels… Mind blown

  47. @merilaine6618

    September 30, 2025 at 1:43 pm

    I want to try this method so that situations that usually cause my anxiety will feel neutral again. but what exactly does it mean? 4 and 8? do I wait 4 seconds and then exhale or do I exhale for 4 seconds?

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