Can yoga actually stop a panic attack in the moment? Need tried and tested solutions!!
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Hey everyone!
I’ve been struggling with anxiety and occasional panic attacks. It’s been getting a little more overwhelming these days with work-related stress and year-end deadlines. Lately, I’ve been wondering if yoga or breathing exercises can actually help in the middle of one?
When I’m having a panic attack, everything feels so out of control. My heart races, I can’t catch my breath, and it’s like my body has forgotten how to function.
I’ve read that yoga and breathwork can help me calm down, but I’m not sure if that’s something that works in the moment.Has anyone here used yoga, breathing, or grounding techniques to get through a panic attack while it’s happening?
I’d really love to hear real experiences or gentle guidance from teachers or anyone who’s experienced panic attacks. Please help me understand how to use these tools better when things feel really intense.
Thank you! -
Hey Liza, it’s incredibly brave to talk about and I want to start by saying you are absolutely not alone in this. That feeling of being completely overwhelmed and out of control is terrifying and it’s a very real, very human experience. To answer your big question: Yes, absolutely. But maybe not in the way people think.
You’re probably not going to be able to roll out a mat and do a full vinyasa flow. In the middle of a panic attack, the goal isn’t complex poses. The goal is to use the core tools of yoga, breath (pranayama) and anchoring (grounding) to send a signal to your body that you are safe.
A regular yoga practice (when you’re not in a panic) builds your ‘calm’ muscle. But here are the “in case of emergency” tools that I and many others have found actually work in the moment.
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Definitely. My husband has had panic attacks. He went through a phase of having them years ago, always while driving by himself and of course he had to pull over and stop. And he thought it was to do with his heart and immediately I think he was in a vicious circle because this made him worry about having a heart attack. He had all kinds of tests at the hospital and was assured that his heart was fine and stopped having them. Then about 20 years later he had one again when we were out for a walk during covid, and we came home right away and when he relaxed at home he felt better. A couple of weeks later, again out for a walk, he had another one. This time I made him sit on a seat and we did long slow breathing together, with me counting, and after a few minutes he was fine again. He hasn’t had one since so maybe that’s because he knows they can easily be controlled. But I’m not sure what would happen if he had one when by himself.
But I think if you practiced something regularly like yoga or martial arts over a period of time, you’d stop getting them.
