Breathing, Mindfulness and Meditation
by Bronwyn Parkes, Social Worker/Counsellor
Some simple strategies to calm your Heart and Mind
At Heart and Mind Counselling we often see clients that are struggling with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, panic and stress. We are here to help you to understand your anxiety and work together with the aim of reducing these symptoms. In session, we often explain what is happening to our brain and nervous system during these heightened moments and ways in which we can almost “trick” our body to bring it back down to a regulated, relaxed and calm space.
One of the simple strategies that you can try at home during sessions is breathing exercises. Practising deep breathing often and paying attention to what your body is feeling and your own self-talk at the time (both before and after these exercises) can provide some understanding and relief. It’s good to practice too at different times of the day to get your body used to being in a deeper calm.
Plan for also doing breathing and/or meditation at different times of the day where you can add it to be intentional but not causing further stress by trying to “fit it in”. It’s also very useful to do too when you feel your anxiety is rising to help calm your nervous system at a time of increasing panic and stress.
There are lots of different breathing exercises and some take more practice than others. A simple one that I like to suggest and use myself at times is the following:
TAKE 10 BREATHES SLOWLY – breathe in through your nose for 3 counts and breathe out through your mouth for 5 counts.
You can play with the length of breath. The most important part is that your breathing out needs to be longer and through your mouth, which will kick your parasympathetic nervous system and help you to calm down. Some people like to use guided breathing and you can find many online and here is just one website that provides some support for beginners.
Another strategy that we recommend is the use of Mindfulness, which involves noticing where in your body you are feeling most anxiety. Paying attention to what is happening to you physically and observing your heart rate and how when we are paying attention to calm our body down, our heart rate slows down and our breathing becomes deeper. Once you are aware of where your anxiety is in your body you can try telling yourself “it’s okay, I’m just feeling anxious right now” or “I’m having an anxious day today”.
Some of our clients practice meditation regularly, which is a way of training the mind in their attention and awareness. This can be used to help provide clarity and emotional stability and a lot of people use it daily as a conscious activity to help reduce stress and increase concentration on their day-to-day. Meditation doesn’t have to be long and whatever activity or strategy chosen should be manageable for the individual person and an add on to their everyday, which doesn’t cause more stress and anxiety of trying to “fit it in”.
Try out relaxing strategies that will work for you and different times and locations that you feel comfortable with and can allocate the required time. The main focus is about taking the time for yourself and being present. It allows you to give you mind (and heart) a break from everything else. If you are a beginner, then guided meditations can be perfect for you as they talk you through exactly what to think and do step-by-step. All you will need as a quiet space, your phone and perhaps some headphones too. There are lots of free information on the internet or on phone app’s. We just recommend that you be careful on some of them, as they often have hidden in-app purchases and subscriptions. Here are a few that we recommend, have a look through and see which ones seems to be best for you and give it a try – we look forward to your feedback!
Bloom – has guided mediations and very simple to follow
Calm – This will help with soothing g you and great and easy to listen to. There is a “take a deep breath” section, or simple quick meditations called “calming anxiety” for anxiety which are a great way to start out with and to take note on how your body calms into the process after a few minutes. You might then want to do a longer meditation once you get used to it
Insight Timer – This app helps to calm the mind and is suitable for both beginners and experts.
Headspace – this app was designed by former monk and mindful expert Andy Puddicombe and has lots of meditations on there designed to decrease stress and anxiety.
Smiling Mind - this one is also great to use with kids of all different ages – mindfulness, meditation and breathing is an important skill that can be learnt very early in age, why not try it out with them together?