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When trying to calm myself down using the breathing i kept having struggles. I was breathing slow and thinking relax, relax. It wasn't the most effective.

I've recently started mindfulness meditation classes and what they teach is to focus on your breath. If a thought comes up then you accept whatever the thought is and any feelings that accompany it and bring your focus back to breathing. This i have to say works alot better than just breathing and trying to relax. That expectation just adds much more pressure and it's actually harder to relax that way. Anyways I was thinking about this today and I felt that i needed to share that with you.


Mike

Mike
I had a rough experiment out with hubby last night. We took a short test drive and I had a horrible time with my breathing and calming myself down with the technique. I have been using it all the time. The 1001, 1002 inhale and then the 1001-1004 on the exhale and it was not helping.I think I may start looking around to see if there's any other relaxation/breathing techniques as well. What is the mindfulness one you mention?
Thanks

Jill~

The mindfulness one is actually to just focus on your breathing. You don't try to slow it down, that happens automatically. Focus on the breath without trying to relax yourself so you take away the expectation. It happens on it's own as well. You may have feelings come up and so you accept them and bring yourself back to the breathing. That's the jist of it.


Mike

Thanks Mike I am going to try that when I am in the car next time. I have to try something.
I have heard a few times now about Driving With Comfort and I think I may buy that this weekend. I heard good things about it.
Thanks again
Jill~

your welcome.

I never even heard of that book.


Mike

Mike
Hi again. Yeah that "Driving with Comfort" is a CD that Carolyn has created for those of us who seem to have this car battle.An extra little
somethin somethin

J~

Hi guys/gals -

I have to agree with you both. I have never followed the breathing instructions on the relaxation CD verbatim. Instead, I just try to focus on taking in deep, abdominal breaths and make sure that I exhale fully. Like Mike said, the rest I just let happen naturally. If I try to time my breaths, it just makes me more nervous. This is especially true since my slow breathing rate is much slower than Lucinda's suggested rate (more like 6 seconds in, 10 seconds out).

I also learned breathing and meditation techniques from a book and cassette combo (it's probably on CD now) called "Learn to Meditate" by Patricia Carrington. It teaches "clinically standardized meditation" and is easy to practice. I'd recommend it to anyone having difficulty relaxing.