Carrie: At the end of every episode, I like to ask people a question, and when it’s a personal story, I like to go into, like, if you could go back in time, what encouragement or hope would you provide to your younger self? A little phrase that we’ve learned to remember how to breathe is to smell the flowers and blow out the candles so you always inhale through your nose and then exhale through your mouth slowly and fully. To access your eBook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read on your browser by logging into Glose.

Sometimes I use shorter pauses and longer breaths, and sometimes I don’t pause between inhaling and exhaling for a steady flow of air. Don’t worry so much about getting the words right—let it come out of a place of quietness and trust in God. For those who want to integrate their bodies even more, add a single step with each inhale and exhale. And for me, anxiety has become, instead of an enemy that I felt like I had to fight or hide from, it’s become more of just a reminder to me. In helping her learn to manage her anxiety and as we learned what anxiety is, how it manifests in the body and how to manage it, I had to get honest with myself on managing my own.

Breath prayers give you the words to pray when you don’t have those words to pray or when you’re feeling anxious in particular. In creating your own breath prayer, you might take several days of reflection to discover what is best for you. Rangan Chatterjee, The Four Pillar Plan: How to Relax, Eat, Move, Sleep Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life (United Kingdom: Penguin Random House, 2018): 25. To access your Streaming Video after purchasing, you can view instantly on your browser on StudyGateway.

To practice this technique, just breathe in while you utter or just think silently the first word or first few words, “Dear God …” and then exhale the rest of the phrase from your heart, “… give me patience today.We talk with Jennifer Tucker, author of “Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, And Renew Your Soul”. I love Jesus with all my heart but I see a therapist regularly and I take antidepressants for my depression because I know I need that extra support along with breath prayers every day. Whatever those worries are, whatever those fears are, with some truth from his word, then we are connecting our mind, body, and soul all at once to Christ.