After yesterday's lesson in psychology, we will again move back into various coping skills. I can count through my own day yesterday and identify about 35 times I had opportunities to blow my top, and none of those did I take that opportunity. Instead, I resort to my first and most frequently used coping technique--the deep breath.
Obviously, this is something we can all do--we have been doing it since the day we were born. It is also very financially savvy as it costs you all of NOTHING. It has an immediate effect on you as taking a deep breath immediately lowers your blood pressure, which allows you to then lower your pulse. I have literally utilized this technique with clients and watched them go from raging to calm in 2 minutes. So feel free--give it a try.
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| Blow your stomach up as this balloon!! |
Now some instructions on how to appropriately deep breathe--place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. In order to appropriately deep breathe, work to blow your stomach up like a balloon--making your hand on your stomach move, but not the hand on your chest. Most of us breathe only into our chest at most moments. This shallow breathing will not create the results that deep breathing does. If this is difficult, trying lying on the ground. When lying completely flat (not with a pillow, we naturally inhale deep breaths. Take a deep breath in and exhale slowly. Repeat until you have calmed down and can allow yourself out of amygdala reactions and back into frontal lobe decisions.
Tell me how it works for you!
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