I find that breathing is something I like to do each day and even at night , however according to my wife my nighttime breathing can be louder than my daytime ……although I have no evidence of this as Im asleep , dreaming of coffee.
Now I thought having done this breathing thing all my life , I would be pretty good at it now , I don’t seem to have forgotten to do it and or had to add it to my journal , “don’t forget to breathe”, it just sort of happens. I only mention it as my dog and elderly Border Collie is now finding it a bit hard to breathe when the summer comes and it gets hot . A quick look at the Apple App Store reveals a wealth of different apps that purport to help us breathe , now Im wondering if I might have got this take a breath.. in and then out ..and hold your breath if there is a nasty smell thing all wrong . I started to watch my breathing yesterday , Ive had a bit of a hard time at school last week and I noticed that I was breathing and sort of whistling at the same time . How can I describe it ? Im quietly whistling tune to take my mind from thinking about what is worrying me and breathing in and out in the same process , weird right! , so Im taking more shallow breaths than I might normally do and that’s probably not great .
Psychology today 31st march 2022 written by Rubin Khoddaqm Ph.D says we should practice breath work at least twice a day ( I hope Im allowed to breath in-between , seems a bit harsh ) one of those practicers should be before we go to bed.Rubin points us to Apps like Headspace or Calm and some free advice on YouTube . Rubin also advises a quick exercise , let’s try it now …ready ( Im in a crowded coffee shop so that should make this interesting) He says to take a normal inhale ( Doing it )…….now take a long exhale …and at the same time saying “calmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” or the word relax works as well, ( a mother with two young children is now staring at me ……….. it ok , I’ve just told her I’m on a Skype call) Rubin says repeat as many times as you like , I might wait until I get home , but you go ahead…feel free.
Rubin also talks about box breathing , this does not involve placing a cuboid of cardboard over your head but breathing in for 5 , hold for 5 out for 5 and repeat after another 5 seconds. Before you take any deep breaths though you might want to read another article from the same publisher this time in August 2022 written by Amanda Ann Gregory ,LCPC a Chicago based trauma psychotherapist. .She points out that taking a breath isn’t always the answer for trauma survivors , confused yet ? Ahhh, I see now , she is describing a situation when an individual is having a panic attack , here your body is hyperventilating and you have more oxygen and less carbon dioxide so a deep breath is counterproductive , better to take a deep sigh . Interestingly and something I hadn’t thought of Amanda points out that some trauma survivors feel unsafe when concentrating on their own bodies , when they focus on their bodies it can make them feel less safe and therefore also be counterproductive.Amanda reminds us that some trauma survivors sometimes have feelings of self shame , lack of self worth and shame and can feel they are failing at yet another thing , this time breathing.
Another interesting area surrounding this subject ( I love to find things that are a bit off the beaten track ) is contained in an article about the possibility of looking at old recorded interviews and testimonials of people talking about their traumas , these might include different languages , different traumas such as abuse , Tsunami, Massacre, Holocaust and many more . The reason to study these , amazingly, is to spot the span of speech, silence and breathing periods , they were looking for a common breathing pattern for trauma survivors.The breathing patterns were annotated and charted giving a visualised record. They did find differences , however the research in this area is in its infancy , it is more likely that this might be used in conjunction with other signs of trauma rather than using only this single-feature solution . The full citation is in my citation section under the heading ” The sound of Silence published in October 2021.
Breathing is quite a big area for Trauma Survivors , I think as part of my research for my book , Im going to add breathing exercises to start trying and see if there is anything in it , in the meantime Im going to take a deep breath and take my old dog for a quick walk as its raining and his breathing is less laboured today .
Anyway , have a great day , catch you again …..
Update , sometimes I just like to go over my past posts and update them , sometimes I change them ., you know just to keep them fresh . So six months on from writing this I thought Id add some thoughts .
Ive noticed that a lot of my anxiety comes from my breathing pattern. I seem to shallow breath and breath faster , that cannot be good . At the end of December 2023 The World Health Organisation ( you know that small outfit centred in New York ) published a paper from The Imperial College London . The Lead scientist Dr Sarah Elkin looked at COVID -19 and anxiety . They found that Covid survivors can sometimes be left with disordered breathing . This can also happen in non Covid cases where disordered breathing leads to the same outcome. Dr Elkin showed that stress for a long time can change the way that we breathe , these changes then become the norm and the brain adapts to breathing that way. We don’t yet know why but this over breathing g can lead to symptoms of anxiety . A treatment has been devised and copied in other countries for addressing this disordered breathing .This involves multi disciplines within the health service as well as ( wait for it ) the National Opera singers!. Dr Elkin shows that 80% of participants show improvement in their breathlessness and similar improvements in anxiety levels. Individuals report having more energy , tightness in the chest had disappeared . Details can be found by searching the ENO Breathe programme , I know its aimed at Covid survivors but I thought it might be of interest to us anxiety sufferers as well .
Many thanks for spending time with me , if you like my free posts please spread the word.
