Being stuck at home with little social contact can affect your mental wellbeing - no matter how laid-back you usually are. And if the uncertainty surrounding the current coronavirus outbreak is lingering in the back of your mind, you’re likely to feel a little (or a lot) more anxious than normal.
Whether that anxiety makes you feel on edge, irritable, nervous or panicky, breathing exercises are a quick way to make you feel calmer.
Here’s a quick breathing exercise you can try when you feel stressed or anxious today. It’s a yogic breath control practice known as alternate nostril breathing.
Here’s how to do it.
- Sit in a comfortable position.
- Lift your right hand towards your nose.
- Breathe out gently and press your right nostril closed using your right thumb.
- Breathe in through your left nostril then close it with your right index finger.
- Lift your thumb off your right nostril and breathe out.
- Breathe in through your right nostril then close it again with your thumb.
- Take your index finger off your left nostril and breathe out through it.
Repeat this for 5 minutes.
How do you feel?
If you think you may have coronavirus, you can use our COVID-19 Symptom Mapper to check your symptoms and compare them with others around the world.
This should give you a better understanding of how the illness is affecting you and will help us to map the spread of the outbreak.
Try the COVID-19 Symptom Mapper