Good Morning Stemmians:
Another Mindfulness Monday!! I thought I would continue on with some more Mindfulness Exercises. As you can see from the title, we're going to cover breathing. There actually a couple of different methods. With all the different exercises we discuss, there is no 'set' way, as in you don't have to try the Senses Self Soothing then the breathing. Use what you feel comfortable with. I know many that the Senses Self Soothing doesn't work, so breathing might work or some of the other exercises will. I know it sounds like a lot of trial and error, that's because it is. Again I don't want to kid you or lead you astray by thinking 'instant' fix.' As one of my therapists had mentioned to me, "How many years in the making have you had? Let's say 10 years. Why would you expect it to take 1 year to be 'cured'? I was also reminded at that time, there is no cure only control.
Step back for the rules. You are not allowed to get down yourself because something is not working. No negative self talk... it defeats what you are trying to do. You are allowed to get angry, you're just not allowed to hurt yourself or someone else. You are allowed to feel the emotions that you do and any thought that goes with it. Again you're not allowed to hurt yourself or anyone else. Your first step everytime should be change your thoughts. That is where the exercises come in. Sometimes you can just tell yourself NO and do something crazy like sing your national anthem. Sometimes that's enough.
Our whole purpose of Mindfulness is to keep issues from the past from disrupting our daily lives. To keeps issues you're currently going through from disrupting our daily lives. To not let the feelings, anxiety and depression associated from those issues or those caused by PTSD to control our lives. This enables us to take back our lives. Above all if you are having issues from something that you know has happened to you, please get good quality therapeutic help. Having a therapist that specializes in helping people with the same issues as you is immensely helpful. Especially if its a major trauma. That is not something you can handle on your own.
Ok now on with our exercises.
The 4-7-8 (or Relaxing Breath) Exercise
The 4-7-8 breathing exercise is simple, and nothing special, just a few moments of time and can be done anywhere. This exercise in any position,the best position to start out with is sitting with your back straight. Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth, and keep it there through the entire exercise. This will seem strange until you get used to it.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
- Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
- Hold your breath for a count of seven.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
Repeat this process 3 more times. You want 4 complete cycles.
Focused Breath
- Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight(you can lay down for this one.
- Place you hand on your abdomen(belly). Just resting not holding on.
- Let out a large exhale. Next you will inhale as normal (Do not take a deep breath)
- As you inhale feel you abdomen gently rising.
- Exhale and feel your abdomen gently fall.
*Once you feel the gentle rise and fall of your abdomen and your breathing is regular, then close your eyes(Not mandatory but it helps) Focus on the rise and fall of your abdomen. Is you inhale breath as long as your exhale breath? - Try to stay in this process for about 10 minutes. If you feel your mind wander, bring back to focus on your abdomen. Don't concentrate hard. You want you focus just enough to where it helps your mind from wandering.
- At the end of the 10 minutes, open your eye and take a deep breath.
If at anytime you feel your tongue smashed up against the roof of your mouth, allow it to relax. No part of your body should be tight or tense during this exercise.
Counted Breaths (7-7-7 Breathing)
This one is very similar to the first exercise.
- Sit with your spine as straight as it can be.
- Sit so your feet touch the floor.
- Close your eyes.
- Inhale for the count of 7. ( This can be quiet or you can make sound)
- Hold that breath for a count of 7 (Don't worry if you cannot do this first off, it takes some conditioning)
- Exhale for the count of 7. (This can be quiet or you can make exhale sounds)
- Repeat 7 times.
Lastly, it sounds crazy. YouTube search for mindfulness breathing exercises. Some are guided. Some are background music. This is a good time to tryout Solfeggio frequencies (We will be covering those soon) There is such a variety.
Again it's trial and error to find what works for you. I wish everything worked for everyone, but our bodies, minds, stresses and traumas are all different. What works for one person may trigger another. Sometimes it takes a few tries to see if it a good fit for you. And by all means...find a few and mix them up. Learning breath will help with mediation. (That maybe next week).
If you find something that works well or know of anything else I have not listed, please by all means share. This works the best when we support each other. Just to know that someone cares to help can be enough, but knowing you have several different people you can refer back to is a network.
Until next Monday
In case you want to catch up:
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