How to Breathe!

Learning to become mindful about how you breathe is essential to mastering stress.  Unless you are a vocalist or public speaker, you may not have learned how to breathe in a stress reducing manner.  When you breathe with shallow, chest focused breaths, you may be even increasing your anxiety and feelings of stress. When you breathe correctly, using your diaphragm, you will find that your feelings of anxiety and stress are reduced.   It does take practice to learn how to breathe correctly. In this article, I’ll take you through the first steps in learning how to breathe from the diaphragm.  After you’ve mastered the first steps, in my next article I’ll give pointers and next steps on how to become your own expert in deep, mindful breathing to reduce stress.

You have probably heard about mindfulness – a stress reduction intervention that includes diaphragmatic breathing.   Researchers studying mindfulness, including mindful diaphragmatic breathing techniques, are finding positive results for people struggling with stress, trauma, PTSD, anxiety, pain, depression and other diagnosis.  Even if you are not diagnosed with a condition but struggle with managing stressors in your life, mindfulness and diaphragmatic breathing can help you cope and master your stress.

Your first step in learning diaphragmatic breathing is to choose a time and place where you will not be interrupted by noise, people or circumstances.

Next, you will need to find a place where you can lie down on your back. If your disability prohibits you from doing this, position your body in the most relaxing open posture you are able.

When lying down on the floor on a rug or blanket, take on a “dead body” pose – legs straight, relaxed, slightly apart, toes pointed outward, arms at your side, not touching your body, palms up and eyes closed.

Focus attention on your breathing – place your hand on the spot just beneath your rib cage. Note where your body rises when you breathe. If your are breathing from your chest, make note and see if you can instead breathe from below your rib cage.  Scan your body for tension -  your chest, abdomen, throat and neck.

 Begin Deep Breathing.

Draw your legs up so that your knees are bent in a way that is comfortable to you. Your toes should be turned outward.

Scan your body for stress/tension.

Place one had on your abdomen and one had on your chest.

Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose into your abdomen.  The hand on your abdomen should rise as you inhale. Your chest should move very little.

Exhale through your mouth, making a quiet, whooshing sound.   Relax your mouth, tongue and jaw.  Take long, slow deep breaths, focusing on your hand rising on your abdomen (focus just below your rib cage) with each inhaling breath and lowering with each exhale.  Focus on the sound and feeling of your breathing.  Do this 5 minutes at a time to begin with.  As you become more comfortable and familiar with mindfulness breathing, increase your time to 10 minutes or longer.

At the end of each breathing session, scan your body for tension.  Compare your feelings of stress and tension at the end of your session compared to when you began. Journal your progress.  Practice these steps for as long as it takes to master.  You will know you have mastered diaphragmatic breathing lying down -  when your chest rises very little and your abdomen rises most. Your diaphragm is then doing the work it should be doing!

After practice, remain in position, let go of your focus and concentration, relax and congratulate yourself for a job well done.

Tips for Making a Change for the Better!

If you are contemplating making a change for the better, perhaps losing weight, improving your eating habits, getting help for anxiety or depression, or resolving issues in a relationship, you are at a stage of awareness.   But what you need to really move forward and begin doing rather than thinking about change is a level of emotional arousal and emotional energy. Use emotional energy to garner the momentum you need to make the change.  We know from research that knowing facts about a problem or dilemma is not enough to create behavior change. So stir things up a bit.  Here are some suggestions:

Create your own promotional materials.  Film yourself YouTube style and monitor your progress with a succession of videos.  Or paint or draw or create posters that are unique to your goals, post them at home and work and ramp up your emotional energy.

Start a group or join a group. There is a reason why joining and participating with a group of people with similar goals is a successful endeavor for many.  Participation can be emotionally energizing via the support you get from others in the group.

Use meditation, visualization and imagination. Take time out each day be in the moment, to reflect, visualize your goal and imagine how you will feel.   The emotional release you may experience may help you to move forward with the needed momentum so that you will be successful in reaching your goal.

Related articles

• Mindfulness-based Anger Management Online via Skype (psychologytoday.com)

Newest research on Stress

At the American Psychological Association National Convention, August, 2010, Dr. Janice K. Kieolt-Glaser presented some of the newest behavioral medicine research on stress entitled "How stress kills: Assessing the damage and various remedies."
(Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, Jean-Philippe Gouin, MA, Nan-Ping Weng, MD, PhD, William B. Malarkey, MD, David Q. Beversdorf, MD, Ronald Glaser, PhD; Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, Ohio State University College of Medicine).

The study investigated the effects of stress on individuals who reported having experienced childhood adversity in a sample of adults who are caretakers of a parent or spouse diagnosed with  Alzheimer’s disease. Conclusions based on this research suggest that childhood adversity worsens effects of stress, adding to current hardships. In other words, children who experience trauma  - be it physical abuse, sexual abuse or neglect, may be more prone to entering a cycle of negative emotion, i.e., depression and anxiety that may lead to problems in later life and possibly precipitate early death.

For example, children who experiences highly stressful events – such as death of a parent, witnessing severe marital problems or experienced abuse, may be more vulnerable to stressors as adults.
The research suggests that childhood adversity may for some,  have a long term, negative affect on health.  These childhood stressors may also contribute to inflammation and cell aging much earlier than for those who did not experience the stressful events in childhood.

The average age of the men and women who participated in the study was 70 years.  The participants were a community sample of 58 caregivers for a spouse or parent with Alzheimer’s disease or another progressive dementia.  The participants depression levels,  report of childhood trauma and biochemical markers of stress were analyzed and compared to a control group.


The researchers measured several blood inflammatory markers: cytokines interleukin (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) and telomere length. (Telomeres are the ends of strands of DNA. Shorter telomeres have been linked with aging, age-related diseases and death. IL-6 and TNF-a have also been linked to a number of cardiovascular, including diabetes, autoimmune and infectious diseases).

Conclusions from the study found that " childhood adversity was associated with shorter telomeres and increased levels of inflammation even after controlling for age, caregiving status, gender, body mass index, exercise and sleep," said Kiecolt-Glaser.
"Inflammation over time can lead to cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.“  Childhood abuse and caring for an ill spouse or parent was also associated with higher levels of depression, she said.


Clearly, results of this study suggest the importance of early intervention to prevent the stress effects as well as undertaking immediate  interventions in those affected - for the  reduction of symptoms and increased ability to cope.  These interventions should include psychological treatment for depression and anxiety as well as the building of coping skills, encouraging regular exercise and instruction and practice in mindfulness.

Depression and what you can do about it.

Almost everyone gets the blues. Who hasn't felt sad at one time or another? But what if the blues hang on and on, affecting you day after day? What if a persistent sadness permeates all aspects of your life: your ability to perform, how you eat, how you sleep, and how you deal with friends and family? It could be that depression may have you in its grip.  Many times, with help from a psychologist- especially one who works from a cognitive behavioral perspective - you can work through your depression, get relief from your symptoms and find proactive ways to prevent re-occurrence.   Sometimes, medication plus cognitive behavioral therapy is the most helpful treatment. Here are some markers and symptoms that may be a sign of clinical depression:

•    You feel sad or cry a lot, and it doesn’t go away.
•    You feel guilty for no real reason; you feel like you’re no good; you’ve lost your confidence.
•    Life seems to have no meaning. You feel like nothing good is ever going to happen again.
      You feel  pessimistic or it seems like you have no feeling at all.
•    You don’t feel like doing a lot of the things you used to enjoy like listening to music,
      playing sports, being with friends, going out and you want to be left alone most of the time.
•    It’s hard to make up your mind. You forget lots of things, and its hard to concentrate.
•    You get upset easily. Little things make you lose your temper; you overreact.
•    Your sleep pattern changes; you start sleeping a lot more, or you have trouble falling asleep
      at night. Or you wake up really early most mornings and can’t get back to sleep.
•    Your eating pattern changes; you lose your appetite, or you eat a lot more.
•    You feel restless and tired most of the time.
•    You may be starting to feel so badly that you start to wonder if life is worth living, you think
      about death, or may even have thoughts about committing suicide.

If you experience symptoms of depression for more than two weeks, it's wise to talk to your doctor or a mental-health professional even if you think the symptoms are caused by something else. Most importantly, don't be afraid to ask for help.

How to BEGIN to Think SMART and Feel BETTER

Many people think that when we feel bad and experience symptoms of depression or anxiety, then our feelings “make” us think negative and sad or angry thoughts. Actually, what we now know is that often, people who are experiencing depression or anxiety have the negative thoughts FIRST. These distorted, negative, pessimistic thoughts then begin to produce the ‘bad’ feelings; the feelings in turn produce more distorted thinking, making the symptoms even more difficult to overcome. The important thing to note here is that the distorted thoughts are usually ‘automatic’ in nature. This means that the person is probably not even aware of his or her automatic, distorted thoughts, but that these thoughts automatically enter the thinking patterns in a continual manner and across different situations in life.

Put more simply, your automatic thoughts and interpretations of a situation or circumstance can have a very big impact on how you feel. Psychologists have identified several negative thinking patterns that are common to people who struggle with feelings of anxiety and depression.

Three common types of negative thinking patterns are identified and described below. Review these and begin to identify which ones may be impacting how you feel.

1. Catastrophizing: When something happens, you blow it completely out of proportion and think of the worst possible outcome.

The boss told Jenny that the budget is tight and there would no longer be funds for hiring an intern. Mary thought, “This is awful. She probably wants to fire me and this is her way of prepping me for the bad news.”

2. Black or White Thinking: You view people or situations, or even yourself as entirely bad or entirely good—nothing in -between.

When Mark presented his proposal to his dissertation committee, they interrupted so many times with questions, he went over his allotted hour for the presentation. Mark immediately thought, “They didn’t like my ideas; I barely got to finish the presentation.”

3. Judging:  You are overly critical of your self or others; your use of should have, ought to, must, have to, and should not have is very frequent.

Jan made a sales presentation to a client. The client was very attentive and made comments about being impressed with the product. Jan thought, “I spent too much time trying to explain myself. I should have been more prepared.”

Remember to review these and begin to identify which ones may be impacting how you feel. Knowing how and why you feel bad is a first step to feeling better!