Recommended Breathing Techniques?

[Deleted member 34424]

My therapist and I have worked out that I need to relearn how to breathe because whenever there is a negative emotion and/ora trigger, I feel like I'm getting punched in the chest, my whole body tenses, and then I stop breathing. For a good portion of the day and night, I'm not breathing.

So, for anyone that does breathing exercises or techniques (or anything similar), what are the names of them? I know the breath of fire and the 5-5-5 breathing, and breathing in and out of my mouth, focusing on the out breath but there than that, I don't know any other techniques. I would love to know more!

 

[Freespirit1974]

I do what I call conscience meditation. When I am stressed with someone and I can't get out of the situation, I tend to control my anxiety, by conscientiously breathing. I focus on my stomach and let it go in and out, while I am talking with someone. It has been a hard thing for me to learn or teach myself, to multitask that way. Sometimes, I fail at it, if I go from 0-60 to fast with a trigger. Try Jon Kabat Zinn's body meditation. I am personally having to go back to it to work on some depersonalization that has taking over these last few months. It has helped this last week, he is easy to find on the internet.

 

[Freespirit1974]

How does anyone deal with not wanting to leave the house? This last week , I have been going to a local coffee shop and doing my own version of exposure therapy. Since I have some depersonalization issues, I have learned how to deal with not always being able to hear in public places. Today is an example, I was waiting for my order, which is typically called out in a restaurant. So I checked to see if it was ready at the counter, which it was not. So I noticed the girl behind the counter making it. Thought to myself, female voice, listen for a female pitch. Did not understand what she said, but I got lucky and it was my order. Relief. Sometimes, its the small accomplishments in life that you celebrate. Coping is hard some days, especially with being out of work and searching and feeling that no one will hire you. You want to hide what is going on with your life, because you feel that it is no ones business, but yours. People make so many assumptions, because I can do something one day and I can't the next. Sometimes you cope for one thing and another sometime pops up and you are stuck and you feel like hiding or melting, but you can't give up.

 

[The Albatross]

I started slow, broke it down really small. A cup of coffee or tea on the back step, then the front step, then too the mail box, then for a drive around the block... as things normalized... and I framed it all as exposures and wrote or replayed each successful thing I started stretching boundaries. I can go anywhere now and unless there's an unexpected trigger... I'm okay.

 

[hodge]

I found a really easy breathing technique on the Cleveland Clinic website. It's really good for those of us with impaired concentration or attention span who have trouble counting: just breathe normally and on every exhale say a word or phrase to yourself that you find calming. I use "shh" and "calm." But you can use whatever works best for you.

 

[ms spock]

There is a lot of free stuff on the web:

"The Three Minute Breathing Space" - (you can download it for free from franticworld.com - and a whole stack of other meditation audio) it is also on youtube
The Mindful Way Through Depression has breathing stuff you can get it on youtube for free.
The Mindful Way Through Anxiety - you can download their audio for free from the website of the book.
Kristin Neff's "Self Compassion" Website - you can download all of her audio for free - perhaps look at "affectionate breathing"
Instant Mindfulness (dbtselfhelp) had a whole page of guided imaginary if you are that type of person and there is one on breathing called "Be Mindful of Breath"
The one nailing for me is Eric Harrison's "Shorter Meditations Explained" and you can listen to those for free on the Perth Meditation Centre.

Like you I am having to totally relearning breathing - it increases my anxiety SO much - so I am still on my L's with this one.

Good luck with it - it is a fair bit of work to get there for me - but I am doing it. So 3 minutes each and every hour that I am awake and doing it when I waked up during the night.

 

[ShodokanJenn]

I do square breathing. It's what we do while doing meditation at the beginning of every martial arts class. I'll describe the whole process, so you can see what it's like when it all comes together.

First, sit or kneel comfortably. Hands should be in fist form, resting on your thighs. Back should be straight and head should be relaxed but upright. Eyes should be closed. Envision a white, empty space, with you in the middle. Envision yourself perfectly relaxed and safe, with nothing but white space around you. Open your mouth slightly. Breathe in through your nose for a count of five. Hold your lungs full for a count of five. Breathe out through your mouth for a count of five. Hold your lungs empty for a count of five. If anything is bothering you or distracting you, picture the white space washing it away. We then proceed to continue with the breathing, and envisioning ourselves doing techniques perfectly in the white space. For a non-martial artist, envisioning doing any physical skill perfectly would work. It helps you connect to your body. This state is maintained for 3-5 minutes. At the end, you are left feeling calm, focused, and energized.

 

[Freespirit1974]

I do square breathing. It's what we do while doing meditation at the beginning of every martial a...

Thanks, I am going to try that.