I found a really cool blog on breathwork (Dennis Lewis). He says this about our culture, and works with the breath to help us come back into balance:
“We live in a culture in which everything is continually speeding up. This puts an ever-increasing load on our brain and nervous system. This means that our nervous systems are constantly on alert. Now the nervous system, which is extremely flexible and adaptable, eventually learns to adapt to this faster way of living and the enormous strain it puts on our perception. It adapts to this higher level of stress as though it were a normal thing. But the problem is that while this higher level of stress occurs and our nervous system adapts to it, the health of the body is being undermined and the immune system is being undermined. We need to become convinced of this fact.”
Take a moment to just notice your breathing right now. Can you feel the air come in through your nose? Is there a sensation of breath in your throat? Chest? Ribcage? Belly? What parts of your body move with your breath? Is your breathing short, shallow, easy? Are you aware of any particular emotion when you tune into your breath?
Here is another post of his with a simple breathing exercise for anxiety.