By being more conscious of my breathing, I have noticed that when my body stresses out over a negative thought, my breathing stops. It’s as though I breathe in and forget to breathe out. One example is when I’m driving my car and a squirrel runs out into the middle of the street. I notice that my body literally jolts, causing a pain in my stomach, a sense of an increase in blood pressure, a minor inhalation of breathe and a freeze in my breathing that stops me from fully breathing in. This also happens if I think that I forgot something from home while I’m driving to work. I’ll panic immediately after having the thought.
When I think about the issue afterwards, I recognize that it really is not a big deal if I forgot something from home. I have options such as driving back home, stopping at the store to buy the necessary item or just live without it for the day. I feel as though I have trained myself to react in this negative way because I have unconsciously acted this way for so many years. I am only recognizing these symptoms now because I am making a conscious effort to sense what I’m feeling both mentally and physically during these stressful moments. Identifying how my mind and body are working under these self-imposed stressful situations is the first big step in being able to make changes in how I react to thoughts that I perceive as negative.
In addition to focusing attention on the breath, it may be helpful to focus on a word or phrase, such as the word ‘one’ on the out breath. Yet sometimes I find that too much time goes by to wait for the out breath, so I will silently recite a word or phrase on both the in breath and out breath. My most used words are ‘in’ as I inhale and ‘out’ as I exhale. These one-syllable words work best for me when my mind is empty of thoughts. When my mind wanders, I find that reciting phrases fills up more space, which lessens the ability for thoughts to enter the mind.
However, even during times when I follow my breath and silently recite a word or phrase, my mind may still wander. In these instances I add a third focus. As I silently recite the word or phrase, I visualize the letters one by one, as though I am writing the word down in my mind. This additional step really helps. Also, I may recite the words out loud. Hearing my own voice seems to keep away the thoughts sometimes as well.
Completely eliminating thoughts is not necessarily the objective, although this task gets easier with practice. If a thought pops into your mind after a period of silence, this thought could be a clue that you have an un-reconciled issue to resolve. That’s because thoughts produce energy. So if we have un-resolved issues, it is possible that our bodies are carrying around this negative energy, which depletes our overall energy bank, leaving us tired and unable to focus fully in the present moment.
During stress, our sympathetic nervous system goes into full alert if we let the stress take over. Breathing exercises, meditation and other practices assist to strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system, which de-stresses the body. Daily breath work or meditation is necessary to strengthen the ability of the parasympathetic nervous system, and thus contain the sympathetic nervous system from over arousal. And with practice, the relaxation response can be implemented earlier on in stressful situations to retrain ourselves how to remain calm, and thus able to handle the situation in a productive manner.
What a helpful post! I’ve found myself holding my breath as I play the piano in front of people. Yes, playing in front of people is stressful, but it’s equally enjoyable contributing at church. Needless to say, with less oxygen, I start to make mistakes. 🙂 I could easily say a phrase, or the words to the song, in a barely audible way, and that would make me remember to breathe… Great ideas. Thank you!
Hi Lori. Thanks for commenting. How awesome that you share your music with others. Another idea is to try Dr. Andrew Weil’s 4-7-8 breathing exercise right before your gig. Inhale for a count of 4. Hold breathe for 7. And exhale for 8. Do these steps four times. By exhaling longer than the inhale, more carbon dioxide will leave the lungs, freeing up space for fuller breathes of air. Continued success in your musical endeavors.