Tag: breathing

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Managing Anxiety by Respecting Your Nervous System

Here are things to try if you are feeling anxious. It’s important to notice, as you learn these interventions, how anxious you are so you can calibrate the intervention to your degree and type of anxiety.

Small amount of anxiety= Breathing intervention 
If you’re feeling a little anxious, try slowing down your breathing on purpose. This looks like taking a deep breath in through the nose for a count of four, drawing your breath in and letting your belly poof out, then pausing (holding your breath for a couple seconds), then very slowly breathing out through your mouth, pretending you’re breathing through a small straw. (This is a basic mindfulness technique.) Breathing works, but only if you do it in the early phases of getting more anxious. You should aim to breathe for at least three minutes in a row. Use a timer.

Negative thoughts making you anxious=Cognitive Restructuring(CR)
In this scenario, you need to use Cognitive Behavior Techniques to help you rewrite your negative thoughts effectively, so that every time a very negative thought creeps up, you can answer it back with a more positive spin. This too takes practice (and likely won’t help if your anxiety has gotten pretty intense.) Here’s a good quick overview of CR on Psychology Today. Here’s a longer Positive Psychology article covering all the ways humans typically self-sabotage with negative thoughts and several steps you can take.

Slightly larger amount of anxiety=Change setting and go for a walk outside
If you’ve tried breathing and your anxiety isn’t budging, and your anxiety isn’t particularly related to any negative thoughts, try taking a break and going for a quick walk around the block. Walking has been proven to improve people’s moods.

Really anxious=Fight or Flight! (You need to move!)
Next time you have a major surge of anxiety, or a panic attack, remove yourself to safety (if you can) and allow your body to be active. Safety might mean a single stall bathroom in your office building, or going outdoors so you can do jumping jacks, run, jump in place, or whatever movement brings you some form of relief. Follow your nervous system! It knows what it needs. If you’re stuck indoors or in a car, at the very least allow your legs to bounce up and down to release your energy. Your body has mobilized to act, so honor your body’s needs, and give it some safe, healthy action, so the nervous system can return to a resting state.

Basically, the nervous system only has four states: Flight, Fight (both part of the Sympathetic Nervous System–and not within our control) or Freeze (Parasympathetic Nervous System, Dorsal Vagal Complex–not within our control) or be Social (Parasympathetic Nervous System, Ventral Vagal Complex–can be influenced somewhat), let’s work with them!

We tell children to go run and play and spend some energy. I don’t know why we don’t say the same to adults. Same body.

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Article: Creating a Self Care Plan, Part I: Using your Body

Using your Senses to Care for Yourself

Rather than tell you what steps you should take to take care of yourself, I’m going to help you craft your own self-care plan. This approach allows your wisdom and expertise in the topic of you to shine through.  With my approach you can engage your wisdom, resources, friends and mentors, body and spirit, to manage your well-being.  Pick a calm day to do this activity. When you’re calm and centered you can think more clearly. The goal is to plan for a bad day when you’re having a good day, so you can prepare the path.

Red tugboat, Marlborough Sound, South Island, New Zealand

We don’t always have friends available to support us through our difficult moments in life. That doesn’t mean you can’t get some urgent relief when you’re feeling stressed or anxious.

Use your Senses

First step, do an inventory of ways you can use your senses to bring you joy, calm or comfort. It can be very helpful to know that there are many ways you can comfort yourself, on your own, when you need a little break, or some extra support as you go through your day.

  1. Touch: List three things you like to touch. Maybe that’s a favorite blanket, a comfortable sweater, fuzzy slippers, a leather jacket or pajamas. Maybe it’s a silky garment. Make a plan to put one of these items on when you get home. If someone you trust is present, ask for a long hug. If you can, schedule a massage, or some acupuncture–or any other bodywork practice that helps you.
  2. Taste: List three things you like to taste. Enjoy a spoonful of Nutella, or a square of your favorite chocolate. I like olive oil and salt on a piece of toast.
  3. Smell: List three things you like to smell. It might be the smell of soil, the smell of grass, your favorite lotion, or the smell of books. I like the smell of Earl Grey Tea. Make an appointment with yourself to smell something nice.
  4. Sight: Think about things you enjoy seeing. List at least three. Do you enjoy videos with puppies or kittens in them? Do you have a favorite movie that makes you laugh? Look at picture albums or favorite photos on your phone. Pick up a favorite book, or lookup famous quotes spoken by your heroes.
  5. Hearing: Make a list of friends, mentors, or family members who are particularly kind and nurturing. Call one of them. Make a “calm playlist” and “joyful playlist” on your phone or computer. Make time to listen to your favorite song or soundtrack. Sing along.

Take time every day to give yourself a few moments of physical joy and comfort.

Use your Imagination

Wherever you go, your brain goes. Your mind is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Think back to a time and place in your life where you felt particularly safe and cared for. Where were you? If you can’t think of a particular memory that creates that safe, loved or joyful feeling, consider your dream vacation. Look up pictures of your dream destination. Take some time to imagine the following in detail. Really linger on each aspect of the picture you draw in your mind:

  • Where are you? Are you indoors or outdoors?
  • Are you alone? If not, who is there with you?
  • How much light is there? Is it a sunny day, are there any clouds in the sky? or nighttime?
  • Are you standing or sitting or doing something else?
  • What outfit are you wearing?
  • What can you hear?
  • What are you looking at?
  • What are you doing?
  • What is the feeling in your heart?
  • Does your body feel joyful or calm and settled?
  • Is there a particular smell in the air?

Take time every day to go on this mini vacation in your mind. (This practice is a type of meditation called guided imagery, the benefits of which are covered in this Mayo Clinic article. Guided imagery’s helpful impact on heart rate was tested in spaceflight simulations according to an article in BioMed Research International.)

Use your Breath

The breath is one of the more powerful and immediately accessible tools at our disposal.  Just three to five minutes of deliberate breathing can make a huge difference in calming down your nervous system and helping you feel more grounded and calm, and able to think more clearly, and feel less fear or anxiety.

First, either sit down comfortably, and let your body sink into the chair, and your feet sink into the ground. If you’re feeling too much energy in your body to sit, stand up and feel the energy flow down through your legs and feet and into the ground that is supporting the weight of your body.

Second, follow this breathing practice: Inhale through your nose for a count of four or five, letting your lower belly expand. Pause your breathing for a second or two. Then exhale slowly through your mouth, pretending you are breathing through a small stirring straw, and trying to lengthen your breath and exhale for as long as you can. Try doing this for at least 10 breaths. You should feel some level of increased relaxation in your body.

(The journal Science published preliminary research in mice that starts to validate what a lot of traditions have been saying for a long time: breathing really helps. Other scientists have gathered proof of the technique’s power reports NPR. Here’s more info on the science of breath as reported by The New York Times and Psychology Today.)

Put the Plan to Use

Daily practice is your best option (doing two or three of these). The more ingrained these behaviors become, the stronger they are as tools in your coping tool belt, and the more effective they will be the day when you must call upon them. In a period where you’re feeling more stressed or fragile than usual, acknowledge that you’re slightly more vulnerable and carve our more time for self-care. If you can, do five of these techniques a day.

(I also really like this comprehensive article on self-care written by the UN Refugee Agency for its staffers.)