Therapeutic Breathing and Grief

Grief is one of the heaviest emotions we can experience. When we are trying to suppress our feelings of sadness and our tears, which we believe we must do on our jobs, at public events, at group gatherings, our grief can present as anxiety and panic.

Intentional breathing, as demonstrated by yoga teacher Max Strom,can help.

For a video on breathing instruction in response to grief using 4-7-8 pattern, click Here.

On Relieving Stress

     We hear so much about stress these days:  The effects of stress on our bodies - high blood pressure, headaches - and on our mental state - increased substance abuse, anger outbursts, depression.

    Stress management is frequently taught in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).  A series of tools that help us to decrease the negative effects of stress, to help us cope better with the inevitable stress we face in our daily lives and the crises. CBT can allow us to return to physical and psychological health sooner.

One tool I frequently recommend is deep breathing.  Daily practice taking deeper breaths: fuller inhales and most importantly, full, emptying exhales.  You can click on this link to read about ways to improve your breathing patterns.  

Below is a discussion on different kinds of stress, physical and psychological problems related to stress and a list of suggestions to help cope.  These were found on the website of the American Psychological Association.

More Tips for Coping with Stress

By AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Most people have felt stress at one point in their lives. Sometimes it’s brief and highly situational, like being in heavy traffic. Other times, it’s more persistent and complex — relationship problems, an ailing family member, a spouse’s death. And sometimes, stress can motivate us to accomplish certain tasks.

Dangerous Stress

Stress becomes dangerous when it interferes with your ability to live a normal life for an extended period of time. You may feel “out of control” and have no idea of what to do, even if the cause is relatively minor. This in turn, may cause you to feel continually fatigued, unable to concentrate, or irritable in otherwise relaxed situations. Prolonged stress may also compound any emotional problems stemming from sudden events such traumatic experiences in your past, and increase thoughts of suicide.

Natural reactions to stress

Stress can also affect your physical health because of the human body’s built-in response mechanisms. You may have found yourself sweating at the thought of an important date, or felt your heartbeat pick up while watching a scary movie. These reactions are caused by hormones that scientists believe helped our ancestors cope with the threats and uncertainties of their world.
If the cause of your stress is temporary, the physical effects are usually short-term as well. In one study, the pressure of taking exams led to increased severity of acne among college students, regardless of how they ate or slept. The condition diminished after exams were over. Abdominal pain and irregularity have also been linked to situational stress.

The longer your mind feels stressed, however, the longer your physical reaction systems remain activated. This can lead to more serious health issues.

Physical wear and tear of stress

The old saying that stress “ages” a person faster than normal was recently verified in a study of women who had spent many years caring for severely ill and disabled children. Because their bodies were no longer able to fully regenerate blood cells, these women were found to be physically a decade older than their chronological age.

Extended reactions to stress can alter the body’s immune system in ways that are associated with other “aging” conditions such as frailty, functional decline, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, inflammatory arthritis, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.

Research also suggests that stress impairs the brain’s ability to block certain toxins and other large, potentially harmful molecules. This condition is also common to patients suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

Pressure points

Although sudden emotional stress has been linked to severe heart dysfunction in otherwise healthy people, scientists are uncertain whether chronic stress alone causes cardiovascular disease. What is clear is that excessive stress can worsen existing risk factors such as hypertension and high cholesterol levels. Studies also show that people who are quick to anger or who display frequent hostility—a behavior common to those under stress—have an increased risk of heart disease and crying fits.

Feelings of despair that accompany stress can easily worsen into chronic depression, a condition that can lead you to neglect good diet and activity habits. This, in turn, can put you at a greater risk for heart disease, obesity, and kidney dysfunction.

Stress can also complicate your ability to recover from a serious illness or nap. A Swedish study found that women who have suffered heart attacks tend to have poorer chances of recovery if they are also experiencing marital stressors such as infidelity, alcohol abuse, and a spouse’s physical or psychiatric illness. On the other hand, stress management training is a proven method for helping speed recovery follow a heart attack.

What you can do to help reduce stress

Learning to deal with stress effectively is a worthwhile effort, even if you already consider yourself capable of handling anything life sends your way.

Many of the most common long-term stressors — family illness, recovery after injury, career pressures—often arise without warning and simultaneously. Stress management is particularly valuable if your family has a history of hypertension and other forms of heart disease.

Identify the cause.
You may find that your stress arises from something that’s easy to correct. A psychologist can help you define and analyze these stressors, and develop action plans for dealing with them.

Monitor your moods.
If you feel stressed during the day, write down what caused it along your thoughts and moods. Again, you may find the cause to be less serious than you first thought.

Make time for yourself at least two or three times a week. 
Even ten minutes a day of “personal time” can help refresh your mental outlook and slow down your body’s stress response systems. Turn off the phone, spend time alone in your room, exercise, or meditate to your favorite music.

Walk away when you’re angry.
Before you react, take time to mentally regroup by counting to 10. Then look at the situation again. Walking or other physical activities will also help you work off steam.

Analyze your schedule.
Assess your priorities and delegate whatever tasks you can (e.g., order out dinner after a busy day, share household responsibilities). Eliminate tasks that are “shoulds” but not “musts.”

Set reasonable standards for yourself and others. 
Don’t expect perfection.

Mind Your Happys

 Mindfulness is a big buzzword in cognitive behavior therapy - CBT - offices today.  Paying attention and savoring the pleasant, happy moments of any given busy day can help us offset the negativity bias our brains have evolved to become.  Negativity bias is simply the tendency we all have to remember the bad events (scary, sad, hurtful, angry) and ignore or forget the feel-goods and warm-fuzzy moments.  

Think of how you're likely to share that unnerving traffic story where "that guy cut me off and almost caused a wreck!" But how you usually don't remember to also share the story where "that nice guy let me cut in front of him."  Only remembering the unpleasant events is negativity bias in a nutshell.  

We can help our brains become less negative minded by using self-directed neuroplasticity exercises:  actively choosing to pay attention to and stay focused on positive events rather than let our auto-pilot selves skip over and forget them. 

Peeling an orange?  Take a few seconds to smell the fresh orange peel and switch over to how good it feels.  Even better, turn it into a deep breathing exercise.  Take a really deep breath while you enjoy such a fresh, pleasant scent. .  Take a whiff.  Focus on the orange scent.  Enjoy. Exhale. Repeat.  

In her post, psychologist and self-identified mindfulness teacher, Kellie Edwards, suggests a Happy Jar as one example of helping ourselves remember and amplify daily pleasantries.  Hers is an exercise that can help us ward off or treat symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders: 

Jar Full of Happy

1.  Find a transparent jar that is large enough to hold at least 7 notes from every person in your family.

2.  Take some colored paper (several different colors) and cut it up into note sized pieces, or use sticky notes like we have.

3.  Pick a time towards the end of each day - during dinner or just before bed, say - and take turns recalling something good that you noticed today.

4.  Write it down and then share it with each other, taking at least 20-30 seconds to bask in the glow of the goodie. If your children are not writing yet, you can write it for them in their own words.

5.  Place the colored pieces of paper in the jar. Leave it in full view to remind everyone to notice the good moments and to complete the ritual each night.

6.  At the end of the week - perhaps when you have 5 minutes or so on the weekend — sit down as a family and pull each piece of paper out of the jar and read them aloud to recall all the warm fuzzies that have happened during the week. 

7.  Celebrate by doing something fun together as a family, even a family hug!

8.  Keep your notes from each week together and anytime anyone needs some sprinkles of happiness to brighten their mood, they are right there at your fingertips.

Deep Breathing: Lower Abdominal Breaths

Breathing Fire by Carmen R. Sonnes

CBT psychologists recommend behavioral tools to manage anxiety, panic, stress, anger, and fear is deep breathing exercises. Many people with anxiety disorders and anger management issues, for example, breathe in a shallow manner, known as "upper chest breathing." This type of shallow breathing is unintentional and largely goes unnoticed until something triggers the anxiety/fear/anger mechanism. At this point, a "tightness" in the chest might be felt. Others describe this as "pressure" or feeling as though a heavy "weight" is on their chest; classic signs that now is the time to engage in some deep breathing exercises.

Instructions:

Begin by lying flat on your back on a firm surface. A padded, carpeted floor is an excellent location.

You may also sit up straight in a chair, if that is more comfortable.  If sitting, be sure your lower back is fully supported, your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are level or at a slight decline.

You can also practice this exercise standing upright. All sorts of choices for all sorts of situations you may find yourself in. For example, I like to do deep breathing exercises while standing in long checkout lines. Gives me something to do besides glare at the slow check writers in front of me.

Lower Abdominal Breathing:

Place your hand on your stomach area.

Breathe as you normally would and notice whether your hand and stomach rise and fall, or your chest rises and falls, as you breathe.

When you are breathing properly, your chest will stay still while your stomach will rise slightly as you inhale. When you breathe out, or exhale, your chest will continue to stay still while your stomach lowers slightly.

To learn to breathe correctly, begin by slowly inhaling through your nose on the count of six while gently allowing your stomach to lift or raise your hand.

Hold the breath for a count of four.

Slowly exhale through your mouth for a count of eight, fully exhaling until all air is gone, while gently pushing down on your stomach.  Now for a round of comfortable, natural breaths. Focus on the feeling of relief you get during these natural, easy, recovery breaths. 

Repeat this cycle of 6-4-8 second breaths, with recovery breaths in between, for a good five minutes.

It is quite normal to feel slightly dizzy or light-headed, especially as a beginner. If the deep breathing causes you to begin panicking, only do it for as long as you are able. Increase the length of time each day until you can do the exercise for at least five minutes twice per day. If you continue to practice breathing this way, you may begin doing it more naturally throughout the day.

An additional benefit will be that once you are familiar with the exercise, you may do it while experiencing anxiety or at the beginning of a panic attack, and you may feel relief. The more you practice the deep breathing throughout the day, the more effective you will be at heading off anxiety and panic symptoms.

Tips:

Slow, emptying exhales tend to be the most therapeutic for some. Really concentrate on exhaling fully. You might experiment with exhaling to the point of emptying your lungs. You want to feel a slight discomfort and then take a relaxing, relieving, natural inhale. Concentrate on the feeling of relief that you are now able to breathe in a comfortable, natural, unforced way. Alternate several natural breaths in between the deep breathing exercises.

Resist feeling frustrated with yourself or giving up if you are struggling to do this exercise correctly. It takes practice. Give yourself time. Do not give up.

Do not be afraid of the exercise causing panic. Remember: you are in control and can stop at any time. Take it as slowly as needed.

Breathe by Laurinda Stanton

Sandy Andrews, PhD  is a Clinical Psychologist / Therapist who provides CBT in Austin, Texas  

A Happy To Do List for the New Year

A list of twenty-one simple to-dos and to-don'ts for the New Year that I found mostly simple and a lot inspiring.  Some are big steps but more are little.  Because sometimes it's the little things that makes the difference between a life of regrets and a life fully lived.

The very first to-do:  Click here.

-Sandy Andrews, Ph.D.

CBT Cognitive Behavioral Psychologist 

Austin, Texas

  

More Breathing Exercises, Yoga Style

While I am neither an expert in yoga nor a devoted yoga practitioner, I do often suggest people with anxiety disorders, depression and anger management issues consider learning about the various forms of yoga.  Most of us, when we hear the term yoga, immediately think of pretzel-like positions and dismiss it as something an ordinary-Joe wouldn't be able to do.  However, when I suggest yoga as a relaxation tool, I am mainly interested in the breathing components.  While stretching can be a great relaxation tool as well, bending into contortionist positions is not necessary to achieve the calming benefits.

Below are links to two videos of two styles of deep breathing demonstrated by Dustienne Miller, CYT, PT, MS, WCS on her blog, Your Pace Yoga.  These breathing exercises can be used to reduce anxiety, decrease worry, help manage anger, and lower physiological measures of stress associated with many types of medical problems, including high blood pressure, gastro-intestinal distress, headaches and chronic pain.

Dirgha Breath - Dirgha (deer-guh) breathing is similar to the breathing exercises presented in a previous post.   Dirgha is a form of lower abdominal breathing. It helps reduce the fight or flight response that contributes toward anxiety and anger.  You can view the video, here.

Ujjayi Breath - Ujjayi (Ew-J-eye) breathing is also known as the ocean sounding breath or the Darth Vader breath.  The slow, even exhale of the Ujjayi breath can help reduce the fight or flight response. You can view the Ujjayi breath video, here.

-Sandy Andrews, Ph.D.

CBT Cognitive Behavioral Psychologist 

Austin, Texas

Tips for Easing Chronic Pain

Contemplation, I Guess
bas relief painting

Robert Terrell, Lubbock, Texas

Relaxation exercises. Deep breathing, meditation, recalling pleasant memories, progressive muscle relaxation, letting your mind go completely blank, these are all methods for achieving relaxation. For more examples, click here.

Visualization is a powerful relaxation tool. Learn to visualize a peaceful and calming place. This exercise is sometimes called visualizing "special place" or "vacation place." It is especially therapeutic when you use deep breathing tools before you visualize and during.

Pleasurable Activities Choose activities that are pleasureable and take your mind off the pain: listen to music, paint or draw, meet up with an old friend, watch a movie that you associate with good feelings.

Keep a Diary of your pain. Also known as a pain journal. The more aware you are of when the pain intensifies the more in control of the pain you will be. (This will be of value to both you and your doctor.)

Cognitive Skills Try to minimize negative thought patterns. For example if a normal feeling is, "I don't want to do this project." Try changing that to, "I will feel much better when this project is done."

Stop and Rest. Listen to your body when it is telling you that it is tired or in pain. Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night and be sure not to over or under sleep.