concentrating on breathing

[kennethman1]

sometimes i'll be sitting there and i'll randomly start concetrating on my breathing taking too many breaths, also sometimes i associate my shortness of breath with wierd situations i'm too embarrsed to say on here. like whenever that spcific situation comes, it's like my brain automatically shifts to shortness of breath. how do i cure this ?v

[aprilmoon]

Distraction
Anything else that absorbs your mind.
Pick something up,in a shop,anywhere,and count all the vowels in the writing,when you've done that,look at all the different colours in the patterned carpet,count them,get my drift?
Your breathing will regulate while your minds occupied
Keep doing it to I'll you feel calmer

[LiveAboveIt]

Honestly wish I knew. I struggle with this problem also. But I feel like the habit is so ingrained, it's become an everyday thing. Extremely annoying.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Manual breathing and breathing monitoring is very common with anxiety.

It seems you have some trigger events so are these stressful to you? If so, it sounds like some level of anxiety or panic which will make you breath faster. Do you intentionally breath faster or it subconscious? If the latter, you have a trigger event that causes you some level of anxiety or panic.

Aside from those events that you won't want to discuss (prefectly understandable, but there are many embarassing things and social unacceptable thoughts discussed on here, so feel free if you want to) you need to understand that breathing is controlled subconsciouly from borth to death and you can't forget how to do it. I remember having thoughts like that "could I forget to breath" and honestly you can't because it's a function that is controlled for you.

I suggest starting exercises that make you think about your breathing such as Calming Technique (7/11 breathing), Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) and Mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is the best as it uses various breathing inductions to get started and asks you to really 'feel' your breathing and then it asks you to surrender to it as you move on in the meditation.