Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice to Calm Anxiety and Strengthen Your Faith

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Breath and Prayer combined are medicine for the nervous system and the soul — and have myriad health benefits

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I love Jesus. But I also struggle with anxiety. One of my favorite tools I’ve discovered to help manage my anxiety while also strengthening my faith is breath prayer.

Christian breath prayers have been around for centuries, but they aren’t common in a lot of faith communities, so you may not be familiar with them. And depending on your background, you may be a bit leery of breathing techniques or contemplative prayer practices like breath prayer, as they may seem at first glance to be too much like a new age, humanistic, or Eastern spiritual practice.

I’d like to help demystify these simple but potentially powerful prayers for you.

Christian breath prayers combine the practice of deep breathing with prayers of meditation on God’s Word to help calm your body while focusing your mind on truth.

Breath prayers have been practiced by Christians throughout history. Some believe breath prayers began with the repetitive prayers of the Psalms. Others attribute the first breath prayers to the desert fathers and mothers as early as the 3^rd century. After years of intense persecution when many Christians were martyred, these men and women went out to the Egyptian desert to pray and meditate on God’s Word, often praying breath prayers throughout their days.

One of the earliest known breath prayers prayed by these early Christians, is known as “The Jesus Prayer” and is based on Luke 18:13: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” Breath prayers like this one have been carried through the centuries by Christians around the world, particularly the Orthodox Christians in Russia and Greece. (A more thorough history of breath prayers can be found on p.18 of Pray Like You Breathe, by Houston Heflin).

Breath prayers are typically based on Scripture and are very short, broken into two halves, and prayed in rhythm with the breath: the first half is prayed while inhaling, and the second half while exhaling. 

Breath prayers work as an effective tool for calming anxiety because they combine two powerful practices: breathing and prayer.

The practice of deep breathing techniques, or breathwork, has many proven physical health benefits. Numerous studies have shown its effectiveness in reducing stress and assisting with pain management, as well as reducing anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Breathing is often called the bridge between the brain and the body. Breathing gives us a direct connection to the vagus nerve in our parasympathetic nervous system — the system that regulates our stress response. Changing our breathing by taking slow, deep breaths can directly affect the signals being sent from the vagus nerve to the brain, telling the brain that we are not in distress and easing the body’s stress response.

In his book, Anatomy of the Soul, Dr. Curt Thompson writes, “By controlling our breath, we can willfully influence the brain and the autonomic nervous system and literally change our mind-body state. By changing the pattern of our breathing, we change the pattern of the information being sent to the brain. In other words, how often, how fast, and how much you inflate your lungs directly affects the brain and how it operates.”

Just as breathing is critical to our physical health (we literally cannot live without breathing), prayer is critical to our spiritual health.

Prayer gives us a direct connection to God. Breathing may be a bridge between the brain and the body, but prayer is a bridge from our heart to His.

In many ways, prayer is like a spiritual breath:

Breath has a rhythm to it, a cadence of inhales and exhales. Prayer has a rhythm too, a cadence of inhaling God’s grace and exhaling our fears.

Breathing can help reset & realign your nervous system. Prayer can help reset & realign your soul.

Deep breathing can calm the brain & the body. Prayer can calm the mind & the soul.

When you connect breathwork to prayer, you have a powerful tool that can bridge the brain, body, mind and soul, especially in times of stress. We slow down our breathing because this literally calms our physical body, and we focus on God’s Word because this reorients our mind toward Christ.

And the best part? Breath prayers are simple and easy to learn. If you can breathe, you can pray a breath prayer.

Want to give a breath prayer a try?

Begin with the breath:

Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose for 5 seconds, then exhale slowly and fully through your mouth for 5 seconds. Repeat this a couple of times as you focus on the slow and steady rhythm of your breath.

Now, begin to pray. You can start with one of my favorite breath prayers, from Psalm 23:1:

Inhale: Lord, You are my shepherd,
Exhale: I have all that I need.

Breathe in deeply as you focus your thoughts on: Lord, You are my shepherd.

Exhale slowly as you focus your thoughts on: I have all that I need.

Repeat this several times, keeping your breathing slow and steady and meditating on the words of the prayer. Try praying this breath prayer throughout the day. Meditate on the words and listen to what God may be telling you through His Word as you pray to Him.

Give breath prayers a try for a few days in a row and pay attention to how they are affecting your overall mental health. Breath prayers aren’t a cure for anxiety, nor are they a replacement for professional medical treatment or therapy, but they can be a powerful tool that benefits your physical, mental, and spiritual health. So go ahead, take a deep breath, and discover that every breath can be an invitation to pray.

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You may also enjoy reading Breath Your Way to Better Health, by Natasha Zolotareva.