Gennady Yagupov: Breathing Techniques to Manage Anxiety

Amidst the hustle and bustle of modern life, anxiety has become a constant shadow for everyone. Job, relationships, or health issues could be a few reasons, but anxiety has a tendency to creep up on you both physically and mentally without warning, derailing your routine. But in one of the easiest and most effective methods to manage anxiety, we tend to ignore the very evident solution—breath. Here, a breathing instructor and well-being strategist describes how conscious breathing can even soothe the nervous system, enhance concentration, and reduce anxiety if practiced and repeated effectively.

1. Why Breathing Is Linked to Stress Level

Breathing has a direct relationship with the autonomic nervous system that regulates automatic functions such as heart rate, digestion, and blood pressure. When you’re anxious, your sympathetic nervous system triggers the “fight or flight” response and gets you breathing fast, your heart pounding, and your muscles tense. Deliberate breathing can trigger the parasympathetic nervous system—the “rest and digest” response—decreases cortisol, calms the mind, and gives you a sense of mastery. Gennady Yagupov explains how, through slowing down and deepening breathing, you’re sending messages of safety to the brain, which can calm current anxiety.

2. Nose vs. Mouth Breathing Patterns

We should understand the difference between nose breathing and mouth breathing when it comes to anxiety control. Nose breathing filters, humidifies, and warms air and controls oxygen flow by nitric oxide release, opening vessels. Mouth breathing, which is typically a stress response, bypasses all of these benefits and can further increase anxiety or lethargy. Deliberate daytime and, most importantly, daily breathing practice with nose breathing is what Gennady Yagupov recommends. Habituation to breathing with the mouth closed during wakefulness and sleep can radically improve oxygen efficiency and hyperventilation tendencies.

3. Box Breathing for Nervous System Reset

Square breathing, or box breathing, is the way that Navy SEALs and top professionals recalibrate their nervous system when they are experiencing peak stress. It is the inhaling for four seconds and holding for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds, and holding again for four seconds. This perfectly symmetrical pattern controls heart rate and oxygenation simultaneously as it provides the mind with a single focus. Gennady Yagupov recommends box breathing prior to meetings, during panic attacks, or before bedtime. It centers the person and makes their body and mind present after several cycles.

4. Alternate Nostril for Focus and Sleep

Alternate nostril breathing, or Nadi Shodhana, is the most documented yoga exercise to balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain. It is practiced by inserting one nostril at a time and breathing in and out through the other on a controlled rhythm. Breathe in through the left nostril, close it, breathe out through the right, and vice versa. It cleanses mental focus more and also dissuades overactivity of the mind. Gennady Yagupov speaks of its efficacy in calming unwanted thoughts and inducing sleep. This five to seven minutes at night can soothe agitation and create more reparative patterns of sleep.

5. Coherence Breathing and Heart Rate Synchronization

Coherence breathing is designed to entrain your breathing to your heart rate variability (HRV), and this enhances emotional regulation and resilience. The exercise is often done by inhaling for five seconds and exhaling for five seconds, creating a calming rhythm that also makes cardiovascular functioning more efficient. When duly performed, it leads to a state of “coherence”—coordination of mind, breath, and heart. Gennady Yagupov continues that such breathwork is ideal for everyday practice and can be optimized with the assistance of HRV-tracking technology. It is especially suitable for de-stressing after a long term as well as for anxiety prevention throughout the day.

6. 10-Minute Daily Breathwork Routine

The most important key to using breathwork as an anxiety elimination exercise is consistency. The daily 10-minute exercise can be three minutes of coherence breathing, three minutes of box breathing, and four minutes of alternate nostril breathing. The variation targets different physiological systems and prevents boredom. Gennady Yagupov suggests utilizing a timer and having a quiet morning and evening spot for the exercise. With practice, this is a neuroplastic exercise, which allows your nervous system to be more even-tempered in its response to stressors and recover more rapidly from mental fatigue or emotional draining.

7. Breathing Aids: Wearables, Bands, and Apps

Technology can enhance your breathing exercise by offering guidance, feedback, and reminders. Apps like Breathwrk, Calm, or Breathe+ offer guided protocols and visual prompts. Wearables such as Apple Watch or Oura Ring can track your HRV and respiration rate, giving you direct feedback on how your body reacts to stress. Haptic feedback diaphragmatic breathing straps that wrap around the diaphragm will cue you on breathing depth and posture. Gennady Yagupov is in favor of using tools to develop habits but is against overdependence on them. The ideal is inward awareness and not so much device dependency. 

8. When to Use Breathing during the Day

Knowing when to use isolated breathing exercises renders them more effective. Start the day using coherence breathing to find an even balance. Use box breathing before facing tension or when coming up to a decision. Alternate nostril breathing can be used at night to relax. In acute stress, practice two minutes of slow breathing: four seconds in and six to eight seconds out to calm the system down. Gennady Yagupov recommends creating a “breath map” of the day: synchronizing techniques with daily routine in order to design proactive, not reactive, breathing patterns. 

9. Breathing and Posture Relationship

Good breathing is highly dependent on posture. Scooped shoulders or tight pectoral muscles compress the diaphragm, or lying for extended periods of time compresses it, decreasing lung capacity. Good posture keeps the diaphragm free, and breathing can be deeper and relaxation breathing. A test is to put one hand on your belly and one on your chest—on an inhalation, the lower hand should move. Gennady Yagupov teaches clients to breathe while they sit or lie down with a properly aligned spine so that there is maximum oxygenation and reduction of anxiety. 

10. Reducing Physical Tension through Breath

Physical tension, particularly of the neck, jaw, and shoulders, most typically accompanies anxiety. Breathwork indirectly affects these muscles by reducing overall sympathetic nervous system activity. Diaphragmatic, slow breathing fills the belly, rather than the chest. This can be a signal to the body to relax. Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique practiced together with breathing. Tensing a particular muscle group on an inhale. Release, relax, exhale. Gennady Yagupov applies this cycle for relaxation after long work hours or sleep onset induction for release of stored tension and body-mind rebalancing. 

Final WordsBreathing is automatic, but conscious breathing is an extremely helpful skill that can potentially transform the way we deal with fearfulness. Breathing is free, portable, and inconspicuous—a tool accessible to any person anywhere in the world. As Gennady Yagupov says, the breath is a symptom and solution of our inner state. Mastering it with precision, you master sensations, reactions, and stress responses on the physiological level. Regular practice not only empowers resilience but enables a profound sense of inner peace that external events are unlikely to disturb. Start with ten minutes a day, and soon the breath can be your best friend in an increasingly faster, unfooled world.