Abdominal Breathing: A way to reduce Anxiety and Stress

One of the original blog entries for this site was on the topic of how abdominal breathing helps to reduce stress and anxiety.  You can read that blog entry here  Abdominal Breathing: Your Secret Weapon Against Symptoms of Anxiety

Because that blog was so popular, it’s clear that many people are interested in information about using abdominal breathing to help them reduce stress and anxiety, and it’s a good thing, because it works very well.

Many times people will try abdominal breathing and feel it’s either too hard, or they will judge themselves and believe they are doing it wrong.  Usually, the reason it feels difficult or wrong is because stressful breathing has become habitual at that point and most likely has replaced natural and normal breathing patterns.  You could say that the unnatural breathing has become the new normal, or at least what feels normal.  Un-learning the bad form of breathing will feel unnatural at first, even difficult, but you can become better at it with practice.

It helps to understand that the diaphragm is a muscle that sits below the rib cage and when you flex your tummy, the tight muscles push the diaphragm upward and into the bottom of your lungs, thus crowding the lower part of the lungs.  This pressure under your lungs leaves less room for air to enter, so you get less air and tend to breathe more into the upper chest, which is more like hyperventilating than really breathing in a relaxed way. 

If you relax your tummy instead, and even let it pooch out a little when you breathe in, this lowers the diaphragm and allows the lower part of the lungs to relax downward and fill with more fresh air.  This brings more oxygen into the body with every inhalation, and takes more toxic carbon dioxide out with each exhalation.  For a while, you may have to consciously work at extending your tummy each time you breathe in, and consciously push your tummy inward each time you exhale, just until this starts to become more natural and the new normal.   

Take it slow and be patient with yourself.  Most of all, stop believing those false social norms that say you should suck or hold your gut in or try to flatten your stomach by holding your breath or flexing your stomach all the time.  Those false beliefs only make you more tense and perpetuate even more unhealthy breathing.

Thanks to Robert Couse-Baker for the great photo - The Winds of Spring

Feng Shui: A Creative way to Reduce Stress

According to the ancient art of Feng Shui,  how you arrange your living environment and how it works in harmony with you, has a strong influence on your level of well-being and relaxation.  This can range from the selection of a building's location, to the design of a garden or living room.  Everything from the choice of color, to the location where an item is placed may have an influence on the overall energy in a given room, building, office, or landscape.

Basically, it’s all about how you arrange, position, and design your surroundings and the things in the environment in which you dwell.  The belief is that you can improve the flow of energy in these environments and bring balance and harmony into the areas in which you spend time, which subsequently then influences other areas of your life—like relationships, health, and professional success.

There are some key things you can try that target stress reduction and ways to enhance relaxation.  For instance, it has been found that using the color blue in your room design can lead to a soothing feeling for occupants.  In addition, including aspects of nature results in a feeling of relaxation, such as including plants, water fountains, or canvas wall hangings of nature.

Be sure to de-clutter your rooms and put things away as the clutter is only a reflection of a mind cluttered with thoughts and worry.  Using candle or natural incense is very powerful as many scents have a strong influence on mood, memory, and thought.

When it comes to relaxation, your environment should be arranged so as to bring about a quiet and peaceful setting for everything from reading to meditation.  You will definitely see a difference in your level of stress and worry when you take the time to be mindful about arranging your surroundings.

Thanks to Tanaka Juuyho for the photo - Japanese traditional style house

Biofeedback for Stress and Anxiety

Biofeedback has been around a long time and is a great way to become more aware of how your body reacts to stress and anxiety.  It also helps you discover what you can do to train your body to respond differently and in ways that are less stressful for both your body and mind.

When you are learning Biofeedback, you are hooked up to various sensors—such as a sensor to measure perspiration, or a sensor to measure muscle activity—that then feed this information back to recording or measuring devices that you can see or hear.  These devices let you know how you are doing and can be viewed on a computer screen or light, or perhaps via an auditory response like a tone or other sound.  Many times the feedback might just be a number to let you know how high or low, good or bad, strong or weak a signal is.

One example of biofeedback is to have a headband of electrodes placed on the forehead that measures the muscle activity in the face.  This is a great method for discovering if you hold tension in your facial muscles and can help you realize subtle things, like that you squint your eyes when you are thinking too hard, or it may pick up on activity that allows you to know that you clench your teeth when you are asked about work, which could explain the tension you keep having in your jaw or the headache you keep coming home with each night.

Once the biofeedback information is known, then you have data to help you zero in on specific relaxation techniques that can be used to remedy the problem.  For instance, if you discover that you clench your jaw, you can begin practicing activities during your day that help you stay aware of your jaw clenching and how to release the tension there frequently and repeatedly throughout your day.

There are biofeedback counselors across the nation who are trained to help you with your stress and anxiety.  Some can be found via the "practitioners" link through The Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Inc., or you can find a number of devices to monitor your own biofeedback by doing a Google search for "biofeedback home units". 

Gaining insight into the way your body might be unconsciously reacting to stress is extremely helpful in knowing what steps can be taken to remedy the problem.

Thanks to Faraz Kahn for the above image - Biofeedback

Reading for Relaxation

It is well known that many people can’t seem to shut the lights off and go to sleep at night unless they’ve first sat back and relaxed with a good book.  Something about that down time helps to get the body calm and in “sleep mode”.  But the calming results from reading are not just for bedtime.  Taking a good book with you on your lunch break, while passing the time at the library, or just sitting at the park, is a great way to settle the body down and relax.

The entire process of reading a good book requires that we slow down physically, hold still, and settle the body into a relaxed position.  As we read, our heart rate begins to slow down, breathing slows and stabilizes, and muscle tension begins to relax as our attention is captured in the story line of our reading material.

In addition, the process of reading directs the mind to a point of concentration, which prevents distraction by all of the other potential worry thoughts that compete for our attention throughout the day. 

When selecting reading as your mode of relaxation, be picky of the material you choose.  There is a time and place for taking in the news of the day, or reading other business or personal information that has the potential to upset you.  But when choosing reading material for your relaxation time, be sure it is something you enjoy.  A novel, a magazine of special interest, or poetry if that is what relaxes you the most.  What matters is that it's material that captures your mind and soul.  

Thanks to Nadine Heidirch for the great photo - Reading

Reducing Stress with Mantra Meditation

Meditation is a way of clearing the mind by focusing one's attention on a single thing.  There are many forms of meditation, such as seated meditation, standing meditation, walking meditation, visualization, and chanting meditations.   

Mantra Meditation is a form of meditation that uses the power of words to direct the mind to one single point where the use of a key word, or words, helps the individual to focus on a specific issue, topic, or area of personal growth.  The word, or words, can be thought of internally, or chanted externally, depending on the preference of the person meditating.

An example of Mantra Meditation, which was described by Thich Nhat Hanh, is to think or say the word "calm" while inhaling during meditation, and then think or say the word "smile" while exhaling.  Another mantra that can be used while doing your seated meditation, or throughout one's day while driving or working, is to repeat to yourself, "I am calm and peaceful".  

One of the most well known and most ancient forms of Mantra Meditation is to chant, say, or think the word "Om" while meditating.   Om is considered to be one of the most sacred mantras and is frequently used at the beginning of other sacred prayers or mantras, such as Om mani padme hum, a well known mantra used in Hindu and Buddhist prayer and meditation.

The great thing about using Mantra Meditation is that you can customize it to your personal needs.  For instance, if you are working on building your self esteem, you can meditate while focusing on the phrase, "I value myself.  I value others.  I value the world".  Or if you are working on your own anger management you can use a metta meditation which goes something like this:  "May all beings be happy.  May I be happy.  May all beings be peaceful.  May I be peaceful.  May all being be free.  May I be free", etc.  You get the picture.

Mantra meditation is very powerful.  One of the most powerful things it does is keep you from running the usual flow of negative thoughts that may traditionally run through your mind.  It's a very conscious and intentional practice and with time you can get very good at it.

Thanks to Hartwig HKD for the great photo - Amitabha 

Qigong for Stress Reduction

Two things that have always helped stress and anxiety are exercise and relaxation.  So to find something that has a combination of both is quite a treat.  

Qigong is a form of Chinese mind/body exercise that traces back some 2500 years (although some records indicate much longer).  These exercises use breathing, meditation, movement, and sometimes visualization to improve the flow of “qi”.

Qi means “spirit, life energy, or breath”, and gong means “work, or working with”.  So Qigong means to work with the life energy, or to work with the breath, or spirit.

There are some classic Qigong forms like “The Eight Brocades” and “Healing Sounds”, but it’s believed that there are over 7000 different qigong exercises throughout the world.  Many have been handed down from one generation to the next and have roots that trace to the martial arts and spiritual practices of Taoism.

In his book, The Way of Qigong, Ken Cohen explains that there are different sub-areas of qigong study:  Medical Qigong, External Healing Qigong, Meditative or Spiritual Qigong and Martial Arts Qigong.  All are  simply called, Qigong.

Finding the area of Qigong that is best for you is not about fitting yourself into one of these categories, but simply finding where they fit into your needs and your intentions.  You can begin by reading a little bit about Qigong (such as the book mentioned above), or finding a local class and seeing if it resonates with your stress and anxiety reduction needs.

You can also find many videos online of various forms and practitioners.  Here is a wonderful demo of one of the many versions of the Five Animal Qigong Form, done by a practitioner of the Wudang school of study:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Up2Mnq7JSM 

Thanks to Edwin Lee for his great photo - The Opening Lotus 

Slowing Down for Stress Reduction

In today’s modern world, the pace of life seems to be getting faster and faster.  That’s why it’s important to make a point to intentionally slow down sometimes and not feel the need to always keep pace with the increasingly, unrealistic demand for speed.

Let's face it, if you accomplished the daily-recommended suggestions of nearly everything society claims to believe you should do, you'd have to give up relaxation completely.  Whether you are walking the dog, working out, brushing your teeth, or trying to fit in the recommended number of hours for sleep, it's not realistic to believe it can all fit into a single day.  Yet, we all try, and that is what contributes to the world's rising levels of human stress.

One idea for facing off with these external demands is to not let them become internal demands because, in the end, the final push to meet unrealistic demands eventually comes from ourselves.  We can blame the boss, spouse, and kids, but the lack of boundaries are actually our own.  If the "shoulds" take hold from the inside, then the ongoing drive to meet the demands of the world come from no one but ourselves.

In addition, when it comes to trying to slow your schedule down a little bit, big decisions may need to be made.  You may have to decide if you really have enough time to be a pet owner, or if the amount of time you devote to TV may perhaps need to be reduced.  Maybe you are devoting far more hours every week to your job than you are actually getting paid for, or maybe you are discovering that you are just not getting enough sleep to make it through each day.  In fact, if your schedule is so full that you find yourself getting up long before you are done resting in the morning just to keep up with tasks and events, then there may be several items that need to come off your plate in order to allow you to get the rest you need.

It's not necessary to race through life at warp speed.  Not much of any of those days can really be enjoyed or savored when you are hitting each event just lightly enough to hurriedly move on to the next thing.  Reducing unrealistic internal drives and setting healthy boundaries is a good start to finding more time in your day for relaxation.  It doesn't change overnight, but gradual progress can be made by trying one new thing each day that helps to reduce your load.

Thanks to Dennis van Zuljlekom for the great photo - Slowing Down