Self-Defense and Church Security: Breathing and Mental Techniques to Reduce Anxiety
When stress and anxiety take hold during life-threatening criminal or terrorist self-defense and church security encounters, your body can feel like it’s working against you—your heart races, your chest tightens, and your mind starts spinning. But one of the most powerful tools for calming your body and mind is breathing.
[ Read the SemperVerus article, Concealed Carry Daily Prayer ]
Spiritual First Aid™ has created two complimentary resources to help you regain your composure in critical incidents.
1. Breath-Based Grounding Techniques: 3 Evidence-Based Exercises to Reduce Stress and Restore Calm introduces three evidence-based breathing skills to help bring you back to a state of calm and focus:
- Box Breathing — a structured method used by Navy SEALs to regulate stress.
- Resonance Breathing — a rhythmic pattern to balance the nervous system.
- Coherent Breathing — a slow, steady technique that promotes relaxation.
For example, here are the steps in the Box Breathing Pattern:
Imagine if your driver’s license was not officially recognized in USA states other than your own. That would mean every time you drove across state lines, you’d be violating those states’ laws. Now imagine if some states accepted your state’s license, but they added on traffic laws that your state didn’t have. That would mean you’d have to know each state’s particular laws as you drove through them, or you could be ticketed or jailed.
