Psychotherapy for Anxiety and Relationships: Philadelphia, PA.
Are you troubled in your relationships?
Do you feel gripped in a vicious cycle of anxiety and unending worry?
Feel free to use this site, including this self-reporting anxiety severity test and my writing as a source of education and healing.
When you are ready to stop suffering and take action, pick up the phone or send me a request for a consultation by filling in the form to the right.
I specialize in working with individuals struggling with anxiety, and with couples working to find peace and satisfaction in their relationship. I have been practicing as a psychotherapist since 1994. Several years ago I moved my practice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from the Upper West Side in New York City.
| Breathing Technique for Stress Reduction |
| Written by David Steinberg, PhD |
| Thursday, 05 June 2008 13:25 |
|
Below I offer an exercise borrowed from Donna Farhi's
"The Breathing Book" for breathing into your organs
that you can practice at home or in the office. If you
practice this simple, yet powerful exercise, please feel
free to send me an email and tell me what you
discover. (read more...)
Allow at least 5-10 minutes for this exercise. Take a
seated position on a chair or the floor. If sitting
on the floor, make sure your hips are at least even if
not higher than your knees. The most important thing
in this exercise is that your spine is upright and
straight
from tailbone to the crown of the head. When you
bend
your spine, you create blockages of energy flow. Be
sure to not use the back of a chair as support. Sit on
the
edge with your feet firmly placed on the ground. If
sitting upright is too difficult, you can lie down on your
back on the floor.
The organs are very much related to the parasympathetic (calming) part of the nervous system. Whenever you have a "gut" feeling about something, it comes from sensations in the organs of the abdomen, for example. Perhaps due to our externally focused minds, we tend to be more aware of our musculoskeletal system. This is common in people who are stuck in the fight or flight mode (overactive sympathetic nervous systems). Breathing awareness into the organs slows the breath down, and triggers the parasympathetic (calming function) nervous system to activate. The art of this practice, is learning to breath from the inside out, instead of the outside in. Once you have a comfortable seat, or are lying on the floor, close your eyes and take a few deep inhalations, exhaling with a good strong sigh. Making sound can help release tensions as you exhale. Tune into the space right behind your belly button. All of the major channels of energy intersect at this point. By not breathing into this all-important area, you are depriving yourself of valuable energy. Your body is a vessel of energy. Think of your muscles and skin as the container, and imagine that the organs are softly floating on the inside. As you breathe in, know that the second diaphragm connected to your heart tissue, expands down and umbrellas out into the organs, giving them a massage with every breath. Breathe into the softness, and notice the breath as it expands from the organs to the connective tissue, muscles, and finally skin. Let go of any worries you have about your belly sticking out. From very early on, we pick up images from society telling us that we have to have flat stomachs. We then hold our stomachs in , depriving our organs of energy and flow. As you breath in, feel the diaphragm expand down and out. By breathing into your core, you are giving the secondary respiratory muscles (trapezius, pectorals, scalenes, and sternocleidomastoids) a much-needed break. People who over-use these muscles tend to have very tight shoulders and necks. Chest breathers in general are very goal-oriented individuals whom are often consumed with fears of not being good enough, or not accomplishing enough. People whom have been sexually or physically abused can tend to be chest breathers because they learned very early on how "dangerous" their world is. After a few minutes of breathing into the organs, notice if your state of mind has changed. Are you more relaxed? How do you feel? Ask yourself this as you breath into the soft organs in your abdomen, and see what they tell you. Now that you have breathed into your core, shift your awareness to your chest and the muscles and skin of the upper body. Breathe with this external awareness for a few minutes and notice the difference in the quality of how you feel. Your extremities are more connected to the sympathetic (excitation) nervous system. Notice the difference in how you feel. Now shift awareness back to the organs and breathe into your power center, feeling the organs as they get a beautiful massage with each breath. Take some time to fully process the significance of this exercise before moving onto the rest of your day. The next time you are feeling particularly stressed out and short of breath, tune your awareness to the belly and invite the moon energy of the parasympathetic nervous system to bathe you in its soft soothing light. |
