Week 12 of 52 Small Changes

[DrDiva]

Week 12 is Take a Deep Breath

Once a day, dedicate five or ten minutes to breathing deeply.

Roadmap for Success: Not only is deep breathing a really easy change to implement, but it can be practiced anywhere, anytime. There are several ways of doing it, but here is a simple step-by-step guide to basic deep breathing:
Sit comfortably with your back straight. Sitting cross-legged is often a position used
Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach Take a deep breath through your nose. The hand on your stomach should rise, while the hand on your chest should move very little if at all. Exhale through your mouth, pushing out as much air as you can while contracting your abdominal muscles and pulling your belly button into your spine. The hand on your stomach should move in as you exhale, but your other hand should move very little
Continue to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to inhale enough so your lower abdomen continues to rise and fall
Continue to do this for a total of ten breaths or until you feel relaxed. If you have a hard time breathing from your abdomen sitting up, lie on the floor, put a small book on your stomach, and try to breathe so the book rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale.

[NightWanderer]

Oh, wow I was just wondering if there will be a breathing challenge. Weekends get really busy with me and a couple of times I've had to stop and take a few deep breaths just to centre myself.

Thanks for posting this!!

[quirkychick]

Oh, I can feel smug about this one too; both Headspace and yoga involve lots of deep, slow breathing .

I'm still trying to concentrate on sleep, dd2 has had a monumentally bad week for sleep. I am managing to get back to sleep, so it's not as bad as it was. I think she's been more constipated than I realised, and it's disturbed her sleep. So, I'm going to make sure she eats lots of veg (and fruit) and try to get her as active as possible.

[Pointlessfan]

Thanks Diva. I used to do so much stretching and breathing when I did lots of pilates but I haven't done for ages. Thinking I really should make time for it.

[DrDiva]

I definitely need this week! Ever since a 2-year chest infection a few years ago (according to another current thread that's impossible ) I have crap breathing. A lovely student I once had whose first language was not English once said to me in concern during yet another bout of struggling to breathe, "you really need to fall in love with breathing!"

Pointless how was the Pilates? I would quite like to try it...

[quirkychick]

DrDiva 2yr chest infection

[Sirona]

Marking place. I could really use this one.

[ICJump]

Signing in. I'm going to combine this with streaching and do a daily yoga practice.
Just drawing up my weekly tracker.

[margaritasbythesea]

Thanks Dr Diva. I'm glad this one is a double up! I worry sometimes I will need an extra day in the day for these things. I do love it though.

Hope you're finding being at home ok oddsocks.

I'm having a bit of a stressful work time. Breathing might help . I don't seem to do it much

[Velocity]

Dropped off there for a couple of weeks! Have just finished the headspace anxiety pack and have just started on 'balance' - incorporating some deep breathing into that should be ok. Did my best to include some stretching on my gym outings! For those who are on a regular sleep pattern do you continue during the holidays?

[OddSocksHighHeels]

Bit late to this one but I shall start tomorrow!

DrDiva 2 years?! You must have been exhausted with that!

margaritas yeah not too bad at all, thank you, getting back into normality again.

velocity I'm far from having sleep sorted but the advice is to keep it up at all times. If you fancy later nights or lie-ins while you're on holiday though then I don't see why you shouldn't. Do whatever works best for you.

[margaritasbythesea]

Hello velocity

What tracker do you use IC?

Pointless I am convinced that if I took a Pilates class I would turn into Eva Longoria. Is this the case?

DrDiva very interesting. I am in fact convinced that I don't know how to breathe properly. I have considered having singing lessons just to address it. I find deep breathing actually quite difficult. I'm convinced lung things take forever to clear up and we don't grant them enough time or seriousness so .

[ICJump]

I just mark one up in my bullet journal. This one is only 6 days as I was away on Monday

[8FencingWire]

Breathing, perfect, thank you DrDiva!
Ladies, I've been trying too hard for too long to balance stuff. It's caught up with me. Massive anxiety attacks. Never had them till this year. Only in the last month. But they are getting more frequent. I'm not 100% sure if it is anxiety. But I have that pit feeling in my stomach, almost like fear. I'm not scared, I don't think. It comes one of a sudden and I takes the wind out of me.
I went into tesco and bought some st john's worth. Been breathing slowly, deeply. Kept busy (too busy?)
Stop the world, I want to get off
I have a plan. A 3 stages plan.
Done stage 1.
In the process of doing stage 2, it will all be done by monday (I have applied for a promotion. Comes with change of department. More money. More stress. But much more fun for me).
Stage 3 will hopefully come to a head in July.
In the meantime I am hanging in there.

[BewitchedBotheredandBewildered]

Sorry I'm late have been very preoccupied with making decisions about the house. So many little details to choose. My mantra is 'is that tap/door handle going to change my life?'.

Thanks for the thread Dr, this is another nice one for me.
I already do deep breathing ocasionally, was floored by a bronchial infection last summer which exposed permanent damage.

Will endeavour to do at least once daily.

Very best of luck with your plan 8, this task should help

[quirkychick]

Oddsocks and Velocity sleep is an ongoing thing for us. Dd2 had a massive sleep blip this weekend and then Monday we had to do a sleep study which required hooking her up to an oxygen/heartrate monitor overnight. Her sleep is quite fragile and she has a strict routine, so introducing a monitor that lights up, beeps and wired her up was not conducive to a restful night. I usually leave her to settle herself, if she is lying in bed and dose off myself, but I had to watch her to make sure she didn't strangle herself with the wire, pull the sensor off etc. I only hope the hospital have enough data, because neither dp or I are in a hurry to do it again! Her sleep was back to normal again last night .

Breathing going well, I am redoing the sleep pack on Headspace, which I really like as you get to visualise yourself filling with sunlight . Managing some yoga most days too. I'm enjoying both the way it makes me feel after, and that it's making me look trimmer. I just need to keep it up.

The only experience I have with pilates is some Yogalates dvds (mixture of the 2), I do find the breathing confusing, I think because it is different to yoga breathing but often similar moves iyswim. I might dig those out too, one of them uses a resistance band.

[quirkychick]

*doze

[margaritasbythesea]

Hello 8

Thanks ic.

Goodness quirky. Perhaps it's not just me and breathing actually is complicated!

[Sirona]

with the problems lung infections have caused and how long they have gone on for.

Hope you're ok 8 and the plan goes, well to plan

I'm sure there was not much sleep to be had for all of you that night. When do you hear about the results quirky?

Haven't actually got round to doing this weeks. Had an awful sore throat and a bit of a cough so breathing normally has been hard enough :) Getting better now so will try to make a start tomorrow.

Have been doing pretty well with everything else though. Really making a conscious effort now so most days I get the majority of things ticked off and if I have a bad day, I know I can try again the next day. Thinking even at the end of the 52 if I make a couple of long-term changes that I stick to, it will be a positive.

[quirkychick]

Sirona the results could take up to 3 weeks . They are looking for sleep apnoea, which would be a drop in oxygen. The nurse did say that if they thought it was very serious they would let us know straight away. I think no news is good news. I think breathing normally when you have a sore throat and cough is deep breathing. You sound as if you need a rest and to get better .

I think the most lasting changes are those that are done slowly, to build a habit. Some of these things I've done before, so they are not such a big step, such ad the Headspace, yoga, mfp. Restarting something is not so hard, but obviously it would be better not to stop in the first place!

[Sirona]

I did think it may have apnoea they were testing for, my ex had it and had the same sort of test done. I hope there is some good news at the end of it for you.

I struggle with this one I have to say. I've tried the odd bit of meditation before and even been to a couple of classes but didn't really like it. I'm a fidgety sort and sitting still for any length of time I find really difficult unless I'm reading or on the laptop.

Focusing on my breathing makes me feel like I can't breathe properly or something? Any tips to tackle this?

[quirkychick]

Sirona I think with meditation, you just have to accept that you might feel fidgety or have lots of thoughts going through your head and that's just normal. So you accept your thoughts but don't let it bother you iyswim. I only do 15mins and some days I am really distracted, but it's the general habit over time, and I get better mostly. Does counting to 10 as you breathe help? So count each breath and when you get to 10 start again. It can take the focus off the breath a little but mean you are still breathing slowly. I hope that makes sense.

[DrDiva]

Wow it's so long since I was here that this thread fell off my TIO list!

This week has been utterly crap on all fronts. Tomorrow is another day and all that.

Shall I start the new thread tonight oddsocks or are you feeling like resuming? Happy to continue to be Deppity Diva or not!

[OddSocksHighHeels]

I don't mind either way DrDiva I'm happy for you to start it if you like

[DrDiva]

So how about info this week and then you resume next week, is that ok? We are away over Easter so might not get to it anyway...
(And then I might have to actually think about doing stuff like breathing and stretching... You know, the things we're here for!!)

[OddSocksHighHeels]

Sure, that works for me

Are you going somewhere nice?