Stick to your ABC’s

Before I go into my piece about meditation, let me just say this:  I get it.  I’ve heard it.  I know.

I KNOW the hot gal from high school who magically profits from posting pictures of herself in her sports bra doing hand stands on random beaches while the rest of us sit on our asses at our 9-5s as she’s #gettingherzenon.  No, I’m not bitter.

I know that I’m a stereotypical asshole.

But…what I also know is that meditation changed my life.  Hell, not even meditation but deep breathing.  If you are new to meditative practices specifically geared to ebb your anxiety – I want to introduce three basic activities that helped me immensely (and remember, it’s OK to start small):

---

1. 4-7-8 Breathing

Many have heard of this technique, which serves to calm the body and keep you from hyperventilating during times of panic.  Here’s how to do it:

-Start by taking one deep breath in through your mouth while counting to four.

-Hold for 7 counts

-Breath out for 8 counts (if you feel comfortable enough, through your nose)

-Repeat for roughly 2 minutes

This little trick has many benefits.  First, it helps to keep you from hyperventilating, building up carbon dioxide in your bloodstream and eventually plummeting to your unavoidable death (kidding…about the latter).  As you begin to panic, you shallow and quicken your breaths.  As you notice yourself doing this you panic and quicken your breaths even more.  4-7-8 breathing slows your breath and calms the body.

Next best thing about the good ol’ 4-7-8?  It lowers your heart rate.  As you freak out your sympathetic nervous system (think fight or flight) kicks in, quickening your heart rate and tightening your blood vessels.  Pretend you are a caveman and see a big ass tiger – your body needs to prep you to run the fuck away.  Fast.  The modern-day panic attack has evolved to you prepping to run the fuck away from something much smaller than a tiger.  In fact, many times you don’t know what you are prepping to run away from at all (we will acknowledge this phenomenon in a later blog).

Last, this activity is easy to hide.  If you find yourself having a panic attack during your 4:00 sales meeting, you can calm yourself amidst your coworkers with no second looks.

---

2.  Grounding

Grounding is the act of pulling yourself out of the anxiety spiral and into a simple circle of reality.  As your panic attack progresses, your mind goes haywire.  You can’t turn your brain off.  Your thoughts ricochet off one another into a snowball of worry and…you’re fucked.  I like to call it tangent thinking.  I was particularly affected by this phenomenon at night.  Usually this was followed by physiological symptoms – numbing of my hands, shortness of breath, dizziness.

There are SO many different grounding techniques that help you to hone in on everything that is happening around you AT THAT MOMENT by using your senses.  Here are a couple easy ones to try:

-Use your five senses to describe what is going on around you.  For example, right now I see a bright computer screen and black keyboard; I hear sounds of RJD2 on my Spotify playlist coming from my phone; I taste mint on my lips from my chapstick; the keys on my keyboard feel smooth; it smells like the sesame chicken lean cuisine I made a half hour ago.

-Keep something near you that you’re familiar with.  I had a “Hang loose” wooden keychain my friend brought me from Hawaii.  I always had my keys with me or near me, and when I felt panic set in, I found it comforting to hold the familiar object in my hand an describe it.  It was almost a safe place.  I could describe it’s weight, smoothness, coloration, etc. time and time again.  Having it near me felt comforting.

Get the gist?  It may seem simple and even silly, but sometimes simplicity goes a long way when you’re in a state of hopelessness.  See more here.

---

3.  ABCs

As a sufferer of insomnia for most of my life, I understand the contribution anxiety makes to sleepless nights.  Turning your mind off is a challenge.  Turning your mind off when you’re laying in bed and everything else is quiet is a major challenge.  I wanted to share with you a little mind trick I play nightly to help put my mind to rest – the ABC game:

As you lay in bed at night try going through your ABC’s with different categories.  We’ve all played this game before:  A is for apple, B is for banana, C is for carrot, etc.  It may sound mundane but keeping your mind busy with something trivial helps you to relax.  If you make it all the way through without dozing off, move on to a different category (i.e. girls/boys names, cities, countries, colors).