AnxietyBlog #1

AnxietyBlog #1

Welcome to the Anxiety Blog. So you have symptoms, sensations... like tingling in hands, feet, arms, legs; upset,”butterfly stomach”; tight chest, feels like you can’t catch your breath, we feel our heart race, breathing is high in the upper chest and shallow,  hands, we sweat, our neck and face become red, we can’t think, concentrate or focus, access to memory is limited.

Essentially we feel awful. 

What is really going on in our bodies? 

ALL of these symptoms are simply a result of not enough oxygen in our system.

The key to lowering stress and getting rid of anxiety reactions is simply getting more oxygen in the body.

The simple fact is: You cannot be excited, anxious and fearful, and at the same time that you are relaxed, calm and peaceful.  (Try it. Try to feel those two groups of emotions at the same time. It simply is impossible. The body cannot do this.)

How do we get more oxygen in the body when we need to, or choose to be, more calm and relaxed?

The following Relaxation Breathing exercise is the answer. You can choose to be as calm and relaxed as you wish, when you wish, anytime, anyplace. You can be in control of your level of relaxation.

You have a muscle that crosses your body, beneath your lungs, called the diaphragm. When you breathe in this muscle pulls down, drawing air into the lungs like a bellows or a plunger. This muscle helps you take air into your lungs. When you walk fast, or run, or do physical work, you can feel this muscle automatically kick in, and you feel your belly expanding so you can inhale more air. This happens normally and naturally. This is the natural breath you were born with.

Learning to use this muscle with each deep breath is the key to your relaxation.

Follow this exercise and learn how to be a more relaxed and calm

person, as relaxed and calm as YOU choose to be.

Once you know how, this Relaxation Breathing exercise should be practiced 6-8 times per day, until it once again becomes automatic, natural, the breath you are born with. Practice at bedtime to use it to fall easily asleep. Use anytime, anywhere, whenever you feel the slightest feeling of stress. Good times to practice: standing in line at the store, at a stop light in your car, in the waiting room of an office, on commercial breaks while watching a movie.

Relaxation Breathing Exercise:  Sit or lye down, make yourself comfortable. Place one or both hands on your belly, just above your naval, and below your rib cage, start your breath here. 

Take a Deep breath, allow your belly to initiate or start the breath. Allow your belly to fully expand with your intake of breath. You may notice your lower back expanding slightly as you inhale.

Then on the exhale allow your belly to gently push the air out of your lungs. Allowing the belly to start and gently force the air back out of your lungs.

Notice that with your hands on your belly you can feel your belly expand on the inhale and contract on the exhale. As you breathe deeply and slowly, simply observe and feel your belly gently move in and out.

Repeat this exercise for 10 Breaths. Practice for 10 breaths every night at bedtime.

This will help you fall asleep. Also use daily many times, 6-8 times a day.

You can use this breathing technique to reduce stress and anxiety wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Use it sitting, standing, walking, driving, sitting at a stop light, waiting in line…

The more you use it, the better it works. The more you use it the faster it works.

The more you use it, the less likely you are to have an episode of anxiety, panic or stress.

The more you use it, the body and mind learns to quickly and immediately go into relaxation.

Remember: the body cannot be excited, anxious and fearful, at the same time it is relaxed, calm and peaceful.

What is Anxiety??

Anxiety is a physiological reaction to not enough oxygen in your system.

It’s as simple as that.

Anxiety is a “flight or fight response”.  Sometimes this response is left over from some past experience, and it has then generalized this experience to other things. Things technically not related to that fearful experience, but that may have been present in the environment when that fearful event took place.

When we are stressed and anxious, we feel our heart race, breathing is high in the upper chest and shallow, we get upset stomachs or “butterflies”, hands, fingers and feet become numb and tingly, we sweat, our neck and face become red, we can’t think, concentrate or focus, access to memory is limited.

ALL of these symptoms are simply a result of not enough oxygen in our system.

The key to lowering stress and getting rid of anxiety reactions is simply getting more oxygen in the body.

The simple fact is: You cannot be excited, anxious and fearful, and at the same time that you are relaxed, calm and peaceful.  (Try it. Try to feel those two groups of emotions at the same time. It simply is impossible. The body cannot do this.)

How do we get more oxygen in the body when we need to, or choose to be, more calm and relaxed?

The following Relaxation Breathing exercise is the answer. You can choose to be as calm and relaxed as you wish, when you wish, anytime, anyplace. You can be in control of your level of relaxation.

You have a muscle that crosses your body, beneath your lungs, called the diaphragm. When you breathe in this muscle pulls down, drawing air into the lungs like a bellows or a plunger. This muscle helps you take air into your lungs. When you walk fast, or run, or do physical work, you can feel this muscle automatically kick in, and you feel your belly expanding so you can inhale more air. This happens normally and naturally. This is the natural breath you were born with.

Learning to use this muscle with each deep breath is the key to your relaxation.

Follow the exercise on the next page and learn how to be a more relaxed and calm

person, as relaxed and calm as YOU choose to be.

Relaxation Breathing / Diaphragmatic Breathing / Belly Breathing 

Once you know how, this Relaxation Breathing exercise should be practiced 6-8 times per day, until it once again becomes automatic, natural, the breath you are born with. Practice at bedtime to use it to fall easily asleep. Use anytime, anywhere, whenever you feel the slightest feeling of stress. Good times to practice: standing in line at the store, at a stop light in your car, in the waiting room of an office, on commercial breaks while watching a movie.

Sit or lye down, make yourself comfortable. Place one or both hands on your belly, just above your naval, and below your rib cage, start your breath here. Take a Deep breath, allow your belly to initiate or start the breath. Allow your belly to fully expand with your intake of breath. You may notice your lower back arching slightly as you inhale.

Then on the exhale allow your belly to push the air out of your lungs. Allowing the belly to start and gently force the air back out of your lungs.

Notice that with your hands on your belly you can feel your belly expand on the inhale and contract on the exhale. As you breathe deeply and slowly, simply observe and feel your belly gently move in and out.

Repeat this exercise for 10 Breaths. Practice for 10 breaths every night at bedtime.

This will help you fall asleep. Also use daily many times a day.

You can use this breathing technique to reduce stress and anxiety wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Use it sitting, standing, walking, driving, sitting at a stop light, waiting in line…

The more you use it, the better it works. The more you use it the faster it works.

The more you use it, the less likely you are to have an episode of anxiety, panic or stress.

The more you use it, the body and mind learns to quickly and immediately go into relaxation.

Remember: the body cannot be excited, anxious and fearful, at the same time it is relaxed, calm and peaceful.

Research recently supports Diaphragmatic Breathing as neuromuscularly connected to the basal area of the brain. The same area where our Flight, Flight or Freeze response originates.

Our Flight, Flight or Freeze response, is a normal and natural response that occurs to protect us from possibly dangerous situations. It only becomes a problem when it is overreacting. When we have too much trauma, drama, or stress in our lives, or it goes on for too long, then we begin to breath in a  Flight, Flight or Freeze response breath, which is shallow and high in the chest. This causes a deficiency in oxygen and a feeling of anxiety. This type of breath can become a habit.

When there is not enough oxygen in our blood, our heart rate has to speed up to get more blood to our organs, because there is less oxygen in the blood; thus a racing heart rate. We get sweaty and tingly hands and feet because our body withdraws blood from extremities to feed the major organs better. We can’t focus or concentrate because we aren’t getting enough oxygen to the brain. In extreme cases one could pass out.

Flight, Flight or Freeze Breathing, shallow breathing, causes all the symptoms associated with anxiety, anxiety attacks and panic attacks. It causes a release of the stress hormone cortisol. 

Cortisol is said to damage organs and cause aging to the body.

Diaphragmatic Breathing, the use of the Diaphragm muscle sends a message to the basal area of the brain to relax the body, relax the mind, and to lower the release of the stress hormone Cortisol in our system.

Diaphragmatic Breathing, Relaxation Breathing is a way for us to take back control of our level of relaxation, naturally.

Labels: Cortisol hormone, anxiety, anxiety attack, panic attack, belly breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation breathing, Social Anxiety

Perfect Yoga Pose for Relaxation and Anti-Anxiety

Magarasana:  Crocodile

The Perfect yoga pose for retraining your body to Relaxation Breathing Naturally.

Breathing normally and naturally is Very important to your level of relaxation and calmness; very important to your overall health.

When we breathe high in the chest area, we are not getting a full natural breath. Even if you breathe faster or slower, if you are breathing high in your chest (your upper chest, ribs and shoulders are moving when you breathe) you are not getting enough air. This will contribute to your stress, anxiety and fear level.

Normal Natural breath is a Diaphragmatic Breath or a Relaxation Breath, as I like to call it. This breath originates from the diaphragm muscle, which is located  across the body below the lungs. When you are breathing normally your stomach area below the rib cage and above the navel will rise and fall. The Diaphragmatic Breathe originates here.

For example, when you watch a toddler running around in their diaper, you will notice that their nice round little belly is easily and freely moving in and out. You do not see their upper chest, ribs and shoulders heaving up and down, right?
This is because they haven't yet experienced any trauma or drama in their lives. Observe this phenomenon the next chance you get.

Some people have been breathing so long in a "Fight, Flight or Freeze" breathe that they have difficulty getting back to a normal breath. For those people there is a simple exercise:
The Crocodile

This is a simple Relaxing yoga pose that anyone can do.

1.    First lay on your belly on the floor.  Put your legs about a few feet apart. Drop your heels inward,                     or move your legs to what is a comfortable position for you.

2.    Next put you arms in front of you, so that your upper chest is off the ground and hold onto your elbows, making a square with your arms. Rest your forehead on you top arm. Close your eyes and Relax, Breathe.

3.Notice that you feel only your legs, hips and lower abdomen on the floor.

This position provides a gentle compression to your lower stomach and abdomen that provides you with physical feedback on your diaphragmatic breathing. It helps you learn to do this correctly.

The gentle compression is very soothing and comforting. Slow and deepen your breathing.

This is a beautiful yoga pose for Self Calming and Restoring Natural Relaxed breathing. It is helpful for headache relief and calming digestion.

Strongly recommended for the treatment of Stress and Anxiety.

Amelia Hasenohrl, LPC, CHt.                  April 7, 2016

Meditation and Hypnosis

Meditation is a wonderful thing and quite like the experience of hypnosis.

Jon Kabat - Zinn, Ph.D., neuro-scientist, University of Massachusett Medical School found meditation shifts brain activity from the right frontal cortex, which is more active when a person experiences stress, to the left frontal cortex, which is more active when a person is calm. This shift decreases the negative effects of stress and mild depression and anxiety.

Dr. Adrian White, University of Exeter, showed people who meditate have increased electrical activity in the frontal cortex, which indicates they are experiencing lower anxiety and a more positive mentall state. Meditation also reduces activity in the amygdala where the brain produces fear.

Anxiety and Relaxation Breathing

(Diaphragmatic Breathing, Belly Breathing)

Anxiety is a physiological reaction to not enough oxygen in your system.

It’s as simple as that.

Anxiety is a “flight or fight response”.  Sometimes this response is left over from some past experience, and it has then generalized this experience to other things. Things technically not related to that fearful experience, but that may have been present in the environment when that fearful event took place.

When we are stressed and anxious, we feel our heart race, breathing is high in the chest and shallow, fingers become numb and tingly, we sweat, our neck and face become red, we can’t think, concentrate or focus.

ALL of these symptoms are simply a result of not enough oxygen in our system.

The key to lowering stress and getting rid of anxiety reactions is simply getting more oxygen in the body.

The simple fact is: You cannot be excited, anxious and fearful, and at the same time you are relaxed, calm and peaceful.  (Try it. Try to feel those two groups of emotions at the same time. It simply is impossible. The body cannot do this.)

How do we get more oxygen in the body when we need to, or choose to, be more calm and relaxed?

The following Relaxation Breathing exercise is the answer. You can choose to be as calm and relaxed as you wish, when you wish, anytime, anyplace. You can be in control of your level of relaxation.

You have a muscle that crosses your body, beneath your lungs, called the diaphragm. When you breathe in this muscle pulls down, drawing air into the lungs like a bellows or a plunger. This muscle helps you take air into your lungs. When you walk fast, or run, or do physical work, you can feel this muscle automatically kick in, and you feel your belly expanding so you can inhale more air. This happens normally and naturally.

Learning to use this muscle with each deep breath is the key to your relaxation.

Follow the exercise on the next page and learn how to be a more relaxed and calm

person, as relaxed and calm as YOU choose to be.

Relaxation Breathing

Once you know how, this Relaxation Breathing exercise should be practiced at least once per day. Practice at bedtime to use to fall easily asleep. Use anytime, anywhere, whenever you feel the slightest feeling of stress.

Sit or lye down, make yourself comfortable. Place one or both hands on your belly, just above your naval, and below your rib cage. Take a Deep breath, allow your belly to initiate or start the breath. Allow your belly to fully expand with your intake of breath. You may notice your lower back arching slightly as you inhale.

Then on the exhale allow your belly to push the air out of your lungs. Allowing the belly to start and gently force the air back out of your lungs.

Notice that with your hands on your belly you can feel your belly expand on the inhale and contract on the exhale. As you breathe deeply and slowly, simply observe and feel your belly gently move in and out.

Repeat this exercise for 10 Breaths. Practice for 10 breaths every night at bedtime.

This will help you fall asleep. Also use daily several times a day.

You can use this breathing technique to reduce stress and anxiety wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Use it sitting, standing, walking, driving…

The more you use it, the better it works. The more you use it the faster it works.

The more you use it, the less likely you are to have an episode of anxiety, panic or stress.

The more you use it, the body and mind learns to quickly and immediately go into relaxation.

Remember: the body cannot be excited, anxious and fearful, at the same time it is relaxed, calm and peaceful.