Focusing on breathing? Not so relaxing.
A lot of anxiety resources tell you to focus on your breathing and center yourself with it. There are mindfulness and meditation walk-throughs that tell you similar things, too: in, out, slow breathing, etc.
My issue is that one of the things that makes me anxious is thinking about breathing. Some of my forms of anxiety attacks leave me feeling like I can't breathe, even though I'm breathing in plenty (sometimes hyperventilating). I feel like I'm not getting enough air, like my lungs won't inflate sufficiently, like I'm drowning in nothing. This usually results in me getting sore sides from attempting repeatedly to breathe beyond my maximum lung capacity.
Does this mean that most of the anxiety audio self-help is going to be problematic for me? Are there any mindfulness, meditation, even self-hypnosis types of tracks to reduce anxiety that don't include a strong focus on breath? I'm annoyed that so many of them seem counterproductive. I get that this is my issue, and not everyone's, but I can't be the only one with this problem.
You might want to try a technique called progressive muscle relaxation. This involves tensing up and releasing various muscles in your body and doesn't focus so much on breathing. Here's a script off of youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFwCKKa--18 . Hope this helps!
@VinylFly
Thank you for providing a specific example. I will go ahead and check that one out, and see how it works for me. That sounds similar to a technique that I think someone was trying to teach me when I was much younger, and while I remember being unimpressed with it, I was probably about EIGHT at the time, so it's not unreasonable to think that something that did not work then might actually be viable as an adult ;)
thank you!
When meditating you don't necessarily have to think about breathing. It's more about becoming aware of the breath, observing it. Just letting your breathing fall into a natural pattern without changing or thinking about it, and feeling the sensations that the breath brings. Maybe you feel it in your nostrils, where the breath enters. Or maybe you feel it in your belly. Whatever works for you is fine.
Ofcourse, meditating doesn't have to involve being aware of your breathing. It just makes it easier because the breath slows the body down and relaxes it whilst also connecting you to the now. That being said, you can still meditate without doing this - it's just going to be more of a challenge.
I don't know about any recordings on this site that don't include atleast some form of focus on the breath, though what I often do is I go on YouTube and search for ''Alan Watts guided meditation''. And then just meditate while listening to him speak. This is a cool one.
@Cheeney
my problem is that any sort of focus on any part of breathing is like a reminder; even if it's not specifically speaking about any aspect that troubles me, I inevitably end up thinking about being unable to take in enough air. It's like the challenge people give, where they say "think about anything except for purple elephants". Even if it's irrational, all that they will find themselves thinking about will loop back to the thought that they are trying to avoid-in this case, purple elephants. In my case, the issues I have where I feel like I'm drowning.
I will try and check out the specific guided meditation that you have suggested; I very much appreciate the suggestions that people have been offering here.
@duckyreads I understand. That must be tough. I'm still thinking about purple elephants.
Another idea that might work: binaural beats. Binaural beats are a type of music with a very low frequency. What's interesting is that it generates two different tones and frequencies: one for your left ear and one for your right ear. There's usually a very small difference between tones, but enough to trick your brain into hearing a third tone, floating between the two original tones. This third tone is called the binaural beat.
Example: if one tone has a frequency of 150 Hz and the other one has a frequency of 143, the binaural beat will be 7 Hz.
This binaural beat creates an altered form of consciousness. There are many different uses for certain frequencies:
> 40 Hz = Gamma waves: Higher mental activity, including perception, problem solving, fear, and consciousness
13–39 Hz = Beta waves: Active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition, and or paranoia
7–13 Hz = Alpha waves: Relaxation (while awake), pre-sleep and pre-wake drowsiness, REM sleep, Dreams
8–12 Hz = Mu waves: Sensorimotor rhythm Mu_rhythm, Sensorimotor_rhythm
4–7 Hz = Theta waves: deep meditation/relaxation, NREM sleep
< 4 Hz = Delta waves: Deep dreamless sleep, loss of body awareness
As you can see, 4-7 Hz is the sweet spot for meditations. Listening to a binaural beats recording can help you get into a deep meditative state, without having to pay attention to the breath whatsoever. Just listen to the recording, sit and relax.
I like to use this one myself. There are LOTS of them on youtube though, simple enter ''binaural beats meditation'' into the search bar and you're set.
@Cheeney
I have actually checked these out before! My understanding is that peoples' mileage may vary, and some people even say that MP3 quality binaural beats would not be effective, because the highest ... precision?... of sound would not be reached, therefore not creating the effect.
I also remember being amused that some people did not understand why headphones would be required.
I find the theory behind them pretty cool, if somewhat over my head. I will check out the one that you linked to. Previously, I have mostly looked into them for things like focus when studying, and elimination of headaches. I don't know for sure if they work for me or not, or if it is simply the power of suggestion/the placebo effect, but regardless, these are things that I actually have used and appreciate! :)
I tend to agree with you...when I am in the midst of an attack, deep breathing is not all that helpful. However, that is why its been recommended to practise mindful breathing a few times a week or everyday. That way when you DO feel an attack coming on, you will be better equipped to combat things like hyperventing.
I understand. A lot of sites I've gone to have offered breathing as a technique to manage anxiety, stress and severe panic attacks. I still haven't gotten the hang of my panic attacks and finding a solution to always help shorten them...but sometimes it helps if I watch videos of asmr or I put my phone on silent and watch videos of animals happily running around. The noise has made things worse for me ironically when it comes to happy videos.
@braveCoconut
One of the only times that I have heard about ASMR videos was actually when someone was suggesting them to another person who said that they were actually more likely to trigger their anxiety than help them. (The particular example that had been given was listening to a video of someone whispering, or something, which I admit sounded a bit creepy to me, too. When I actually looked them up, though, ones that I found included things like the sound of someone sketching, or sifting through a bucket of Legos, both of which seemed much more Zen to me then something like someone whispering.)
I wonder what it is about different peoples' minds that makes it so that what soothes one person can terrify or discomfit another. I assume it has something to do with subconscious association or development, but I have no idea.
I am sorry to hear that I am not the only one who has trouble with things that most other people would declare relaxing, though. Not that ASMR is necessarily a mainstream/common recommended remedy, but the principle still stands.
Yeah I can relate. As someone with health anxiety, telling me to be even more focused on my body is reeeeally counter-productive.
Because once I get focused on my breathing, I "forget" how to breathe, if that makes sense...
@Alystem
it makes complete sense! If you tell someone "just act natural", weirdness ensues. If you tell someone to blink at a normal rate, they won't know how much to blink or not blink/at what rate to blink, because they're used to it being autonomous.
Anything that we normally regulate to "muscle memory" becomes awkward when we are concentrating on the process.
I got interesting information from this site on Binaural Beats and Binaural Beats frequencies.Many thanks for all this valuable information. Thanks, I appreciate your sharing this!
@duckyreads
Obviously, not all anxiety relieving methods work for everyone. If diaphragmatic breathing doesn't help you, I reccomend counting, listening to soothing music, distracting yourself with a particular sound or tune(e.g. the sound of cars passing by) or imagery. Imagery is when you distract yourself looking and concentrating in great detail at a particular scenaorio or situation or even scene(e.g looking at a painting, looking at the colors, the texture, the shape of the painting, the symbolization, etc).
Hope this helps!
@duckyreads
Welcome! Im Lizzy and Im currently a trained listener and intern. I hope you find what you are looking for here in 7 Cups. Please feel free to message me whenever. I will usually reply within the day and if Im online, you should expect a reply straight away! I specialise in anxiety, panic attacks and loneliness mostly but you are always free to message me for other reasons!
http://www.7cups.com/15248074