Consider Using Breathing Practices to Manage Anxiety
- Getting a prostate cancer diagnosis and weighing treatment options and decisions can be overwhelming, but there are ways to help target stress when you feel those racing thoughts coming on.
- Dr. Kysa Christie, a clinical psychologist at the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center says a simple breathing exercise — placing one hand on your stomach and another on your chest, breathing in and out slowly — can help reset your body and calm your focus.
- Envisioning a balloon as you perform this belly breathing exercise can be helpful, bringing more awareness to your breath, aligning your body and mind.
As a veteran, talking to a mental health professional regularly is important, especially when going through cancer, but there are things you can do on your own to give your body and mind a pause when needed.
Read MoreHow Can ‘Belly Breathing’ Help Stress
“So when people are feeling anxious, nervous, a little emotionally overwhelmed, there’s a few strategies that take less than a minute that you can do,” Dr. Christie explains. “One of my favorites is belly breathing, so kind of putting one hand on your belly, one hand on your chest, let your shoulders relax, and if you’re standing, kind of really notice where your feet are touching the ground. If you’re sitting, notice where your butt and legs are connected with the chair, sink in for a second.”“The belly breathing is designed to, as you breathe in, your hand should lift up a little bit like a balloon, and as you breathe out, your hand goes down. As that balloon deflates, what that’s doing is giving your body a chance to reset,” Dr. Christie says.
“So when we’re nervous, when we’re scared, we tend to breathe from our chest, and those breaths tend to be more shallow,” she continues. “So if you’ve got one hand on your chest, one hand on your belly, you can notice where is this breath coming from and try and breathe from your belly.”
“Let that lower hand rise and then let it fall. If you notice it’s coming from your chest, these more shallow breaths. Just again, try and focus your attention, bringing your attention to your belly, where your hand is, and breathing in, and then breathing out.”
So essentially, performing this belly breathing exercise can help curb those thoughts, bringing an awareness to your breath and also the visual element of the balloon can be helpful, aligning your body and mind.
If the anxiety you’re feeling is at a level where this is not helpful for you, you can try another exercise.
“Sometimes if your thoughts are racing so much, it can also be helpful to do some grounding exercises, and that’s a way of getting your mind kind of focused on the present rather than wherever it’s racing off to,” Dr. Christie says. “So you might think, okay, let me come up with 20 sports teams and I’m just going to sit here and rattle ’em off. Give yourself a minute or two to do that. Then let me come up with 20 different things I see in this room.”
“Again, it’s a way of getting your mind here where you are in the room, rather than the worries that are starting to carry those thoughts away,” Dr. Christie adds.
Ready to try out some more meditation practices? Start with the below simple, guided meditation.
A guided meditation for the SurvivorNet community.
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