Breathing Technique

Are you stressed out? Are you sitting at work or home feeling tension?

Try this breathing technique I learned.

* Relax your entire body, while sitting upright in a chair.
* Concentrate on your breathing - watch your chest moving up and down, taking note of every single breath you take.
* Now, squeeze your toes as hard as you can, keep them squeeze until they get tingly.
* Now release them, you will feel tension and anxiety releasing them self through your ankles, up to you calves, in your knees.
* Now, squeeze your thighs together as tight as possible, still taking note of every breath you take.
*Now, release your thighs, you will feel the same anxiety and tension leaving your thighs.
* Now (this is the funny one) squeeze your butt together, as hard as you can.
* Now release and you will again feel the tension coming up through your hips and stomach, then your chest, eventually your shoulders.
* Now, squeeze your hands together as tight as possible, tight, then release them, you'll feel the same stress, tension and anxiety leave your body.
* Now take a DEEP breath.
* Now let it out through your mouth.


Feel better?
I hope this helped relax someone today - I do it before each session and sometimes after. She recommends doing it whenever you can at home (almost impossible with 3 kids here!) or work.

I hope this helped someone!

Wasting time & the anxiety relief sheets.

I'm wasting time until bedtime for the kiddos. They're busy watching Madagascar the the millionth time. It's good the first few times, but after that, punch me in the nose, please!

I've had a few e-mails about my anxiety relief pages, and I got the website... It's:

Coloring Castle - you can search through tons of pages of pictures to find 'the one' that helps you I didn't look through all of them, but just click on a category that best suits your "happiness". Mine is definitely hearts. :)

Have fun!

My next appt. is tomorrow - I can't wait, I get to do some art therapy and hopefully release some of this tension and anxiety that has been building up!

Session 2 .. diagnosis

Today was session 2.

A lot more talking, it felt good to be able to open up to someone who "got it", it felt really good to feel understood for once.

After discussing all of my fears, etc, she did diagnose me [officially] with General Anxiety Disorder & Borderline Panic Disorder. Now, I knew I had both of these for years, but never attempted to do anything about it - until now. I'm so happy I took the first step. It feels great to think that some day, maybe soon, I may have control over my life - something I have not had in so many years. It feels wonderful. She also thinks I have another disorder to do with hypochondria, which I know I *do* have...more info on that as I talk to her more.

My counselor gave me the official date of when I should be "cured", ha! Or doing a lot better anyways. 24 more sessions - which puts up at May 2009. Fine by me.

We did a really, really, amazing 'exercise' today, where we tighten a certain part of our body, focus on our breathing, and then release. We did this to all parts of our body, including our butts, amazingly enough, it helped. I felt the tension just escape little by little. This is a tough thing to do for me because I cannot focus on my breathing for long, I seem to take shorter breaths than what I am suppose to. I guess that is all anxiety related as well.

At the end of our session she told me we will be doing that same exercise at the beginning of every session so we can practice that exercise until I master it... And I hope I do soon! I'm sure I'll feel a world of difference once I get the hang of it.

I was also notified that my next session she will finally introduce the art therapy to me - I can't wait. I think I will really release a lot of stress and anxiety that way.

Friday is my next appointment. :)

Session 1

Session 1 was basically a meet and greet. I went up the elevator, heart pounding, nervous as all heck, filled out numerous papers with a thousand questions on my mental health. I felt so crazy filling out answers to some questions that scared me. ex- "Do you think about ending your life?". My immediate response was "OH MY GOSH, NO!! I'm scared to die!"

So, off I went into my counselors office. She is very nice, very understanding, very helpful.

I shared with her my fears about...well...everything. From my trust issues with family, friends, kids, etc, to my health - and my fears of taking medication. Deep down I want to get over these fears, but I know it will take a lot of time.

Towards the end of the session my counselor talked to me about art therapy for 'calming' and 'relaxing' my mind. In all honesty, if I hadn't had an open mind about this - I would've thought she was INSANE. But I went in with a clear mind (shockingly enough), and think art therapy will really benefit me.

She gave me some really neat sheets with a bunch of different patterns on it, and they're suppose to relax you, and calm you down.

I tried the sheets out after getting home - and low and behold, they do work. I just stand there and stare at them.. It's a great feeling for me to be able to just not think about anything for a minute. My mind wasn't racing, I wasn't thinking about what if, why, what could possibly happen. It was great - I recommend them to anyone that needs a calm, relaxing minute. Let me know if you want a copy of the ones I've got.

First session was wonderful, couldn't wait till my 2nd session.