First, sit comfortably with one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest and breathe regularly. After about 30 seconds to a minute, note which hand moves. It should be the one on your abdomen.
Good breathing or the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide is diaphragmatic breathing -- in other words, as you inhale, the diaphragm moves downward and your abdomen will expand or "pooch out". As you exhale, the diaphragm moves up and the abdomen moves inward. If you have trouble with this, lay down on your bed ot the couch or the floor. Put a book on your abdomen. When you inhale, the book should move upward. When you exhale, the book moves down.
Once you've got the abdominal breathing part, sit somewhere comfortably the first few times you do this exercise. The reason is that you are likely to get dizzy or light-headed the first few times you do this. If you do then make sure you are exhaling completely.
If you are not a smoker, as you are seated inhale for a count of 4. Hold that breath for a count of four. Exhale for a count of 8. Do this sequence 10 times. If you get dizzy or light-headed, make sure you exhale completely. This clears the carbon dioxide and helps clear your mind. If dizziness persists, check with your physician. After 2 or 3 weeks, go to 5 inhale, 5 hold and 10 exhale because your breathing capacity should improve.
If you are a smoker, as you are seated inhale for a count of 3. Hold that breath for a count of 3. Exhale for a count of 6. Do this sequence 10 times. If you get dizzy or light-headed, make sure you exhale completely. If dizziness persists, check with your physician.
After a few weeks increase to inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 8 and do that 10 times. Your breathing will have improved and your capacity increased.
This breathing exercise helps with anxiety and/or panic. Attacks will be less intense and won't last as long.
Step Two: Relaxation Training is part of the Health Checklist. It is described in more detail in this blog called: Progressive
Deep Muscle Relaxation. If you have your own meditation or relaxation
technique, do that once a day, preferably before going to sleep at
night.
Step Three: Breathing Exercise - once a day as described in the Health Checklist
One through Three are to get your mood and anxiety stabilized and for you to have better energy and feel better.
Step
Four: DO the imagery for connecting with and Raising Your Inner Child
described in this blog. This keeps you focused on your needs and energy
while developing a more nurturing, disciplined parenting part of your
personality. copyright, 2009
Each of you is the star of a movie. Your movie was written by your little girl or little boy. Usually the decisions that created the movie you're now living were made at 5 or 6 years old.
Sure, 5 year olds are creative, cute, & nice but the decisions and the movie script that resulted are not consistently useful to grownups. Little kids don't have the experience base to write a rich & meaningful movie.
These old script patterns are revisited in times of grownup stress or difficulty. The visits are almost always unsuccessful repetitions of previous frustrations. I call these "the dance" - a well-rehearsed, predictable series of steps with familiar outcomes.
We all have to answer these questions -- Who am I?; Who are all these others?; What's happening?
Grownups have much more life experience and are supposed to be better problem solvers. It's important for grownups to be in charge of the movie and decision-making as well as raising kids.
Try out the following exercise in order for you -- the grownup part of you -- to be in charge.
First: Ask yourself if you're OK with being in charge of your own inner kid. Do you love and want him or her to be healthy and cared for? Are you willing to raise your inner child?
If you're willing to do this go to the second step. If you won't or if you have doubts, see a psychotherapist to explore your unwillingness further.
Second: Sit or lie down and take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly letting yourself relax. Get a picture or sense of you as a youngster.
Where do you see this child? What is your child doing? How is your child dressed?
Once you have a clear sense or picture of these things, approach the child and introduce you to the child as the grownup he or she became. Note the child's responses.
If you get resistance or fear, reassure and proceed. Tell the child that you are here to take him/her with you and that you will be taking care of her/him from now on.
You're doing this because you two are connected and that you love and care for him/her. Note responses and answer any questions or concerns.
Reach out and touch or shake hands with the child. See, hear and feel the child. As you get agreement, pick up the child or hug the child. Note the feeling and emotion of that contact. Let the child melt into you and become part of you.
Third: Once you have finished that part of the experiment, appreciate the connection and revisit that child on a daily basis. You, the "grownup you", are in charge of caring for that child, developing options and making decisions for the two of you because you know things, you have done lots of things and you're competent to take care of him/her.
Progressive Relaxation training is a method used to teach deep muscle relaxation in order to:
1. help you recognize the difference between tension and relaxation,
2. make your level of relaxation deeper.
3. teach you a method that is refreshing to increase your energy level.
Many people are much too tense. When you learn to relax, you save energy and enhance your quality of life. You will also find anxieties less troublesome when you are relaxed. Relaxation training readjusts your tension level and enhances your comfort more readily whenever you wish.
THE GOAL IS FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO RELAX COMPLETELY WITHIN A VERY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME -- from a few seconds to several minutes. Eventually, you will be able to simply use a word or an image to trigger your desired level of relaxation. It may take a few sessions or several weeks for you to achieve your ideal relaxed state. It will depend on how often you use the method, your tension level, and experience with meditation or imagery.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR TENSING AND BREATHING
When you begin the exercises, you will be following the procedure outlined below:
TENSION-BREATHING SEQUENCE
1. Tense your muscle system(see next page) without straining,
2. Take a full breath and hold it for a count of five while tensing the muscle system,
3. Notice the easy tension in those muscles as you hold your breath for a five count,
4. Exhale slowly and release tension allowing the muscles to return to a relaxed position (You may wish to use your trigger word or image here -- see below),
5. Notice the difference between muscles relaxed and when they were tensed, and do that with each muscle system
6. Repeat each muscle system as needed depending on your level of relaxation.
TRIGGERING RELAXED STATE After you are relaxed, decide what word and image you will use to signal your state of relaxed awareness. It can be a word like 'relax', 'calm', 'easy'. The image can be of lying on the beach or sitting in a meadow in the mountains with the feel of the sun on your skin and the sound of the wind or the smells around you or any comfortable, safe place you prefer. In addition to your image and word, as you are fully relaxed, squeeze the first 2 fingers and thumb of your left hand together for about 3 seconds.
Use your finger pressure, word, and image while you are fully relaxed. Then use them during the day as triggers for relaxation in other settings – home, work, school, etc.
To begin the relaxation, sit or lie comfortably, close your eyes, take a full deep breath, and exhale slowly. Notice your muscles as you inhale and exhale.
HANDS & FOREARMS. Make fists and tighten them without excessive strain. Notice feelings as you tighten and hold. Take a deep breath and hold it for a count of five as you notice the tension in your hands and forearms. At the five-count, exhale slowly as you release the tension, remembering the feeling as your muscles relax. Learn that difference between tension and relaxation with each muscle group.
UPPER ARMS(BICEPS). Tighten your biceps as you follow the Sequence.
NECK. Tense your neck muscles by pressing the back of your head against the surface you're on just enough to create an easy tension. Follow the Sequence.
SHOULDERS & UPPER BACK. Shrug your shoulders or press them backward against the surface.
ABDOMEN. Tense your abdominals and follow the sequence.
THIGHS. Press your legs downward without locking your knees and follow the sequence.
LOWER LEGS. Point your toes away from you or rotate your feet with toes toward your head. Repeat the sequence to achieve relaxation.
Now, review your body, see if there is any tension. If you notice some, focus on it and take a full breath, hold it for a five-count, then exhale slowly.
When you are at a maximum feeling of relaxation and comfort, use your word or image. The other thing to do is to squeeze your left thumb and first two fingers together for a count of 3. This finger pressure, the image, the word and the breathing can serve as triggers for relaxation during the day in various settings. During the day, trigger relaxation in various places at various times about 5-6 times. That way, you can relax wherever you are whenever you wish. When people practice at least once a day, they notice an overall improvement in well-being, energy, tension and, if applied to specific fears, a reduction in anxiety.