Breathing & Meditation
So, we’ve gone over some of the basics of our bodies reactions to stress and trauma.
Fortunately, there are a few physical ways to tell your body you’re safe when your body is in a stress response. One of the easiest is breathing exercises.
When you’re facing a tiger your breath becomes fast and shallow, ready for explosive moves. When you notice you’re feeling stuck in stress mode, slow deep breathing tells your body that it’s ok.
When you are safe (and you don’t want to lie to your body about this) or safe enough at least, you can gently let your body know it is safe by deliberately slowing and deepening your breath.
There is a super simple breathing technique that is said to be like a natural Prozac. It’s free and easy and available to you anytime, anywhere. It’s called 4-7-8 breathing.
4-7-8 breathing
All you do is inhale silently through your nose as you count to four.
Hold your breath as you count to seven.
Then exhale slowly, fully, and audibly through your mouth as you count to eight.
Repeat these steps three times in a row (only).
If it occurs to you, also try to mentally sit yourself back down on the riverbank and watch your feelings pass by. Remember that even the worst feeling feelings can last as little as 90 seconds if you let them roll on by.
For best results, do this little exercise once or twice a day in lower stress moments and it will make it even more potent when you use it in a hurricane feeling moment.
Meditation
If you can, work up to spending 15-20 minutes once or twice a day practicing mentally sitting by the riverbank and watching and naming your emotions and letting them roll by. This is a powerful form of meditation that will train your brain to help you more and more.
Or, if that is too hard for now, try sitting or lying down for 10 minutes and simply count your breath. Inhale, one, exhale, two...up to ten. And then start over. Inevitably you will start thinking of other things and lose count, or you’ll find yourself on 16. No worries. Just start over at one again and keep going. This may sound easy but it’s not. :) It’s a powerful way to train your mind.
It also does wonders to help me fall asleep at night when my mind is racing.
I love how breathing exercises are so powerful and also 100% free and always available. Kinda hard to beat!
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