A Mindfulness Response

Breathing Techniques

Breathing Techniques

            Find a comfortable place to practice breathing techniques. Notice where you hold tension and try to relax those muscles.

Acknowledge and notice any feelings, images, sensations, or thoughts, and just let them be there. Do not judge them.

            Try to roll your shoulders and neck or do shoulder shrugs and loosen muscles in your body. Slow your breathing down. Take deep breaths from the abdomen or your belly button.  These breaths help circulate the blood to the body and the brain. Anxious, shallow breaths are from the top of the lung and do not circulate the blood to the body. Like blowing up a balloon, your stomach will fill up with air.  Do the breathing for five to ten minutes. Stand still or sit or lie down. A quiet room helps you feel more relaxed. Focus on the breath and not on any work, TV show, movie, or chore.

Box Breathing

            This technique uses the four parts of a square to represent the technique. It counts to four seconds for each segment. Use a second-hand watch for timing.  Try ten rounds of breaths. It demands your attention.

            Not every group therapy participant liked the counting. Those who did said they liked how it re-focused their thoughts on the process and the counting.

Each segment has four seconds.

Inhale, two, three, four

Hold, two, three, four

Exhale, two, three, four

Pause, two, three, four

One Nostril

            This technique can be done when your nose is not congested, plugged, or runny. It uses the thumb and another finger to do this. When you inhale one side of the nose, you will plug the opposite nostril.  When you exhale out the other nostril, you plug or place your finger over the opposite nostril.

Take a slow, deep breath. Slow down your breaths.

Plug one nostril with a finger and inhale through the open nostril.

Release the finger and plug the opposite nostril.

Exhale and plug the opposite nostril from which you had just inhaled.

            Repeat at least ten times. Try to do this for five to ten minutes.

Ocean Roar

            As you practice this breathing technique, you will notice a sound that mimics when you put your ear to a large conch shell. Your breath is the rhythmic roar of the ocean waves crashing on the beach. 

The ocean waves roar coming from your mouth when you exhale.

            Take a deep breath from your abdomen. Inhale through your nose while taking a slow, deep breath. You will hear the air rushing into your lungs.

When you breathe out, you will make a haaaaaaaah sound or wave crashing on the sand and rocks.

Inhale through your nose deeply.

Exhale out your mouth. Exhale and push the air out of your lungs for as long as possible. You will hear the sound of air as you exhale. Continue to exhale and push the air out of your lungs for as long as possible.

            Repeat slow, deep breaths for at least ten breaths. Try to do this for five to ten minutes.

Practice Mindfulness

            Mindfulness is used to help us clear our minds, be able to hear what we are thinking and understand ourselves. This helps us reduce depression and anxiety by enabling us to understand what feelings we have and what negative thoughts or thought distortions we have.

            Try for 10 minutes to do deep breathing from your diaphragm. Hold your breath for a count of three and then release the breath and push it out of your lungs. Listen to calm music, or sounds, or your breathing. Slow yourself down. Slow your life down and slow the negative thoughts down so you can re-focus. Mindfulness can be done by sitting still or moving. Everyday actions and chores can be done mindfully if we learn to become present and observe what our body is doing, what our thoughts are doing, our feelings, and how our bodies react to the thoughts and feelings. We can choose how to react. We can redirect our negative thoughts.

Observe the thoughts that you have during a mindfulness practice

What are they? _____________________________________________________________

How do I feel at the end of the day? _____________________________________________________________

Mindfulness of Emotions

            Acknowledge symptoms that are thoughts, feelings, sensations, or images, and observe and notice them. Accept that the symptoms are there. Write down any thoughts, images, sensations, or feelings that may come while observing them and bring them to therapy.

            Practice for up to ten minutes each day. Do deep breathing and focus on your breath. Other mindfulness practices include yoga, tai chi, walking, stretches, learning activities, and staying in the moment.

Body Scan:

Do a body scan to determine where you hold tension. Start from the head and move down to the toes, taking time to observe and feel what is in your body.

Self-Kindness:

            Do not judge yourself.

Try not to judge others.

Do not call yourself names

Do not swear at yourself.

Be patient with yourself.

Be patient with the healing process.

You will improve, but this is a team effort, and you do not do this alone. Have a support person listen to your symptoms and help you do reality checks.

            It takes time and practice to become nonjudgmental. You do this by observing negative thoughts, moods, and intense feelings. This helps you gain inner knowledge by observing how you tend to react the way you do. It also helps you learn to use different skills to manage distress.

            People who have deep depression, recurrent mental health symptoms, or self-persecutory thoughts will need a support person to help them challenge those thoughts and realize that they are deserving of love, friendship, family, education, jobs, or being part of a community. Medications help people lower their symptoms and be able to reduce the despair that they feel.