Do you train...your parasympathetic nervous system?

[MrMoonlight]

I have my dog that brings me back down and back to reality.

That's awesome man, very fortunate. Service dogs are so expensive but very happy to know you have one. Do you do any exercises through your day? Anything that is calming, relaxing, meditative?

 

[Rainman8772]

That's awesome man, very fortunate. Service dogs are so expensive but very happy to know you have one. Do you do any exercises through your day? Anything that is calming, relaxing, meditative?

Walk 5-10 miles per day weather permitting. That keeps me in shape and cures her desire to track since I chose a hound to make a service dog. They are great dogs but difficult to train. You can not ever get the hound out of them.

 

[Sideways]

2 part process.

Part 1: practice noticing myself getting distressed.
Can't do anything about it if you don't notice. Super easy to practice though. I'm currently using the Moody app to track my SUDS twice a day (the $8 upgrade was gold), which is training my brain to notice how distressed I am at any given time, and what different levels of distress look like for me.

Part 2: Deep breathing
There's loads of methods that have been shown to help switch the body physiologically from being in an escalating state of the sympathetic nervous system, to switching that off and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system. Most of them, directly or indirectly (like exercise), involve regulating the breath.

I do exhale-focused breathing exercises to help me get to sleep each night. Like any skill, it's a case of practicing regularly when you're not distressed. Exhale-focused breathing is great for sleep, because the exhale breath is the one that the heartrate drops on. Which helps me get to sleep.

For the same reason, it's just a fantastic way of forcing the heartrate to drop. Which is perfect when I need to force my ParaSymp Nervous System to engage. Heartrate is forced, by the slower breath, to slow down.

Once respiration and circulation are regulating, that in turn has a cascade effect on all the other nervous system elements (like getting non-vital organs back online, normalising hormone levels, re-engaging higher brain processes etc) that I can't control.

One of past psychologists put it simply as your breath is like holding a remote control to your nervous system. Which is an analogy I really love.

After a lot of practice, noticing I'm panicked, then controlling my breathing, has got me safely out of situations where I would previously have ended up doing something reeeeally embarrassing (like puking or wetting myself!) or unsafe in public.

And it helps me get to sleep.

Win win!

 

[Deanna]

I have my dog that brings me back down and back to reality. My kids used to yell at me from across the room if I had a flashback before getting my dog. Most of my flashbacks come from smells. I can feel it coming sometimes. Other times I can’t, luckily my dog senses it much better than I do. Truthfully my service dog has been what has allowed me to have somewhat of a “normal” life again. That combined with finding a medication combination that works for me.

I've never known a normal life but a couple of cats keep me calm because they are calm and take things in stride ( rarely! Lol! ?) Really though, they help me chill out.

Walk 5-10 miles per day weather permitting. That keeps me in shape and cures her desire to track since I chose a hound to make a service dog. They are great dogs but difficult to train. You can not ever get the hound out of them.

I exercise in the evening as well. Job is physical but no job lately. I need to file for disability but put it off. I like to be busy.

 

[Mach123]

The massage therapy discovery was a result of a bartering community I discovered in a near by town. A happy accident I guess you could call it, @MrMoonlight . It is set up where participants exchange hours/goods/services rather than cash. It allowed me to dip my toes into several arenas I wouldn't have otherwise had access to. Prior to that, I always thought massage was like getting your nails done, just a luxury that was in no way necessary, which is what I'd been taught from childhood.

Prior to meeting a massage therapist within that arena, as well as my first neurofeedback/acupuncture practitioners, master herbalists, master gardeners, etc., I had only had very unpleasant massage experiences. Leaving me feeling as if I'd been in a bar room brawl the the day after and never really helping me feel relaxed, but rather making me feel on guard even more. Initially I was seeking pain relief, and damn sure didn't find it in those other places, but eventually discovered that relieving the various pains helped me clear mental space to help myself in other ways, too. These were pains that medical practitioners repeatedly told me they could not find the roots of and just wanted to keep masking by medicating rather than eliminating.

I discovered someone who was trauma informed, highly trained, extremely mindful, incredibly patient, and amazingly effective in helping me fully relax and allow myself to be touched by a stranger at my pace with every comfort-inducing tool I needed compassionately in place. It was a very gradual progression in which I started out fully clothed in a tank top and shorts, as I couldn't handle the thought of being nude and vulnerable in any way, shape or form. It took several sessions to finally feel comfortable enough to fully disrobe. I am always in the room alone when I do, and the sheet covers every part of my body except for what is being massaged in the moment. There's no uncomfortable exposure or touch ever occurring that makes me feel uneasy. That was a huge step based on my trauma history.

My initial therapist relocated, but I was twice fortunate in finding one even more attentive to trauma responses/needs, pain relief, and more active in her continuing education across the board, and then some. She provides Swedish, ashiatsu, acupressure, myofascial release, deep tissue, trigger point, craniosacral, and reflexology, as well as having a warming amethyst bio-mat on the table for each session. She also incorporates various forms of sound healing and aromatherapy during each session.

I haven't been able to go the last two and a half months, and counting, because it isn't deemed essential. My body, after a couple years of once a month appointments, or at least once every other month, begs to differ. My fascia is pissed and my functional flow is definitely interrupted. Part of me still feels guilty for being able to experience the benefits at all because I know so many others who suffer worse than I do and don't have access. Another part tries to convince me I somehow earned the right to receive compassionate relief being offered to me via many hellish paths it took to get there. Mental tug of war sucks.

Our governor refers to the professional therapeutic practices as massage parlors, and as we all very well know, language/words can quickly create a judgement call that instantly block a lot of folks from ever learning anything beyond the pre-programmed perception of the terminology alone. Many commenters responding to the article in which he called them that referred to massage parlors as being the old school rub and tug type of establishments, which lead to many others harshly discrediting all of them.

Here's a few links I found helpful that take a look at how massage therapy helps multiple body systems, how it can help ease anxiety and panic disorder, and the trauma-informed massage skills from a massage therapist's point of view, if you're interested:

Effects of Massage on Body Systems: Muscular, Nervous, Circulatory ...

How Therapeutic Massage Can Help Ease Anxiety

These 4 Essential Skills Will Help You Practice Trauma-Informed Massage

Thanks I’m interested to read these as I know there are traumatic memories in my body I can’t access.

 

[MrMoonlight]

I do exhale-focused breathing exercises to help me get to sleep each night

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience, glad it's so effective for you. I used square breathing for a time...I know there are many exercises. I'll search youtube for something that feels right.

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

As far as the breathing techniques are concerned, in my personal experiences, a friend helped me frame the benefits of breath in my mind a little more concisely so I can (hopefully) more smoothly shift my awareness of it in the moments I need to the most.

His approach/philosophy after years of practicing many forms of breath work is that the breath controls the emotions and emotions control behaviors. That "feels" right to me after having observed my breathing patterns more closely based on moments of anxiety/grief/depression/joy/etc., etc. and after learning various breathing exercises through the years. There's many different aspects to that as a whole, but that's the general idea.

Another way I help remind myself of the importance of breathing on purpose (rather than just taking for granted my body will keep doing it just fine on its own, as I used to do, because, hey, I'm still here and my body is still doing it, right?!? lol) on a regular basis, not just when I'm stressed, etc., is by silently repeating a little mantra to myself, "Shallow breaths = shallow thoughts."

Jim Donovan, former drummer for the band Rusted Root, was my first breathing instructor at a summer rhythm retreat I visited right after resigning from my job of over 13 years. Life changing in so many ways. The extended exhale is one he taught that helped me with insomnia back in the day. I've posted some of his stuff here in various threads, for sure in the You Tube University thread. He included the rhythmic part of it, which helped my brain want to dive in deeper. Once I experienced the benefits of it, I was super pissed that it isn't being taught to every child right along with reading writing and arithmetic.

None of it was comfortable to start out with, though, especially after having been smothered in various ways while living through domestic violence and sexual abuse scenarios, but practicing by just counting to 2 instead of 4, or doing just 1 or 2 alternate nostril breaths at a time then taking a break, etc. helped a lot.

I called it my sample breaths vs. breathing practices at that time because I needed to just sample what I would be practicing in baby steps, and that didn't feel as intimidating. Not allowing myself to dwell on the thoughts that I was somehow failing and talking myself into just saying f*ck it and giving up while I worked through the discomfort was tricky, but glad I didn't talk myself out of it.

I practice while I'm driving, bathing, walking, cooking, reading, jammin', watching tv/surfing the net, standing in line, sitting in traffic, while eating - I practice mindful chewing, etc., too, and whenever I think of it. Each morning I thank my body and my breath as soon as I wake up and do several deep diaphragmatic breaths before getting out of bed, along with several stretches that help keep me focused on the breath, and I thank them again at night before I drift off to sleep.

May you find practices that click with your psyche and jive well with your flow that helps bring your brain and body relief with all the things you're already freely equipped with. Finding those particular therapeutic paths are priceless. It adds a certain level of control back into your life that has been repeatedly stolen by various forms of traumatic experiences and tons of misguided information we get fed through the years.