Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Breathwork and relaxation in times of stress
384 Plays15 days ago
As a special bonus episode for the festive period, Dawn from Milestone Coaching joins us on the podcast to talk through relaxation and breathwork techniques to help you when times are stressful.
We’ll also be releasing a ten-minute body scan meditation session on all our podcast platforms, as well as a Soundbath episode from Forgotten Forest, available for free to subscribers on our website. You can find more details here: PDA Podcasts - PDA Society
About our guest:
I’m Dawn, the coach and trainer at Milestone Training & Coaching Company. For me, there is nothing more rewarding than watching the incredible transformations in my clients - seeing adults and teenagers break free from self-doubt, shift their mindset, and step into their true potential drives me and is the reason I get up in the morning.
I live in Axford, North Hampshire, with my husband, two sons, and two springer spaniels. I am often out running or walking in the woodlands nearby with my two Spaniels, my husband, or my few close running friends. I love nature, and staying active, healthy, and fit is very important for me.
Socialising and connecting with my family and friends keeps my mental health strong, and my hunger for constantly learning new approaches in my life, and for the clients I work with, keeps me fulfilled, fresh, and very busy.
Qualifications and Training
- Life Coaching Diploma with the Life Coaching Academy, Europe’s Leading Coaching Organisation
- NLP Practitioner (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)
- Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology
- Counselling Skills & CBT Trained
- Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) - Level 2
- Samaritan Volunteer Listener
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by guest speakers in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the PDA Society. While we aim to provide balanced and inclusive discussions, individual experiences and perspectives may vary. The PDA Society is committed to using language and terminology that reflects the preferences of PDA and autistic people, but sometimes our guests may use language and terminology which differs. Appearance on our podcast is not an endorsement of an individual, and not all of our guests will align with our position on the issues discussed.
Further sources of support and information:
- PDA Society Training Hub: https://training.pdasociety.org.uk/pda-podcasts/
- PDA Society Website: https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/
- PDA Society Training: https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/support-and-training/training/
- PDA Society Support Service: https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/support-and-training/support/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the PDA Society's Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the PDA Society's podcast. We're here to chat about all things PDA to help you understand what people with this profile of autism are experiencing and how you can help.
Understanding PDA: Research and Experiences
00:00:13
Speaker
We'll be sharing research, professional expertise and the insights of people with lived experience to help you understand PDA and have more tools to make life easier. So whether you're a PDA yourself, family member, friend or professional trying to make a difference, welcome from everybody at the PDA Society. We hope you'll find this useful.
Techniques for Handling Stress
00:00:38
Speaker
I'm going to cover a couple of different techniques because I'm very aware that we're all different and we all respond to different methods. So I'm going to run through Numerous little strategies that you can add in, adapt and be flexible with and find what works best for you.
Breath Work for Relaxation
00:00:57
Speaker
The first one I'm going to do is a breath technique. Now, breath work is incredibly helpful for de-stressing and for relaxation. It changes the autonomic nervous system. It can reset us. So it's a ah free, available at all times to all of us. And it's a very natural approach rather than reaching for something external to make us temporarily feel better in times of stress. It's an internal message that we tap into a resource which tells our body everything's fine, nothing to see here, there isn't a threat on the horizon, everything's fine. So if we reset our breathing, bring our heart rate down and our blood pressure down, it's a message to our whole nervous system that everything's okay and there isn't a stressor or a threat. So there are many different breath techniques. Find which one works for you. One that I love is called the four seven eight technique. I'm going to talk you through it. First I'll explain how, and then I'll do it with you.
00:02:00
Speaker
So first of all, get a nice comfortable position. You can either sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor and you're back against the back of the rest of the chair, or you can lay down, but get nice and comfortable.
00:02:13
Speaker
What you need to do now is to put your hand over your belly button. um So rest your hand just gently over your belly button. And when you do take your inward breath, I want you to send the breath to your hand so that your hand pushes upwards or outwards rather while and because your lungs have inflated. So as you fill those lungs, those two big balloons, it should naturally push your hand out slightly.
00:02:42
Speaker
And when you exhale and empty your lungs, or those two balloons, your hand should naturally fall back down to the resting place. That means you're sending the breath to the right place. Often we find when people are panicking and anxious, if you watch them, they'll breathe rapidly and they often send the breath to the chest.
00:03:04
Speaker
Put your hand on the chest now. That's often where they send the breath. Now, if you think about it, there's no breathing apparatus there. There's delivery tubes, but there are no lungs. So actually they're not getting the air that they need. And so they're starved of air, which is why their body makes them breathe rapidly.
00:03:21
Speaker
they're starved and desperately trying to get some air into their lungs. So it's counterintuitive. Actually, what we need to do it slow our breath down, but make them bigger breaths and sending it to the right place so that lovely gaseous exchange can
Breathing and Visualization for Emotional Well-being
00:03:36
Speaker
go on. So as you sit in your comfortable position with your hand on your belly button, I want you to consider sending the nice, deep, slow, healthy breath and the air to your hand.
00:03:50
Speaker
So what we're going to do we're going to breathe in through the nose to the count of four and then hold for the count of seven. And then exhale out through your mouth as if you're blowing out through a straw. So a nice small opening to your mouth and a nice slow breath.
00:04:11
Speaker
as if you're breathing out through the straw, to the count of eight. Don't worry too much about the numbers. If you can't inhale for a whole full count of four, don't worry. Just do three, do what you can. Equally, if you can't hold for seven, don't worry, do it for five or six, just as long as you hold for a few seconds for lovely gaseous exchange to go on. And if you can't exhale for the full eight seconds, don't worry, it's fine to do a little bit less. You might well find that you'll get better at this. Your lungs will strengthen. Your breath will get better and more practiced and more relaxed. It is a technique and it's a technique that actually we have to learn.
00:04:52
Speaker
So I suggest doing this in times of calm. I often do this or practice breath work. ah while sat on the sofa in the evenings when the ads come on. I think, oh I've got an ad break now. I'll sit and do my breath work. So I know that i've got three minutes. It's time of relaxation. And it makes me, I just connect the two things.
00:05:11
Speaker
And it's a time that, oh, I must do some breath work. So if I can master it when I'm calm, then I can definitely tap into it as a resource when I'm stressed. I know how to do it. I'm practiced and it's a technique that works for me.
00:05:24
Speaker
So I would suggest that. So let's do it together now. A nice deep breath in through your nose to the count of four, two, three, four, and hold to the count of seven, three, four, five, six, seven.
00:05:46
Speaker
And exhale through your mouth, nice and slow, long exhale for the count of eight, four, five, six, seven,
00:05:58
Speaker
Eight. And if you can now just push a little bit more air air out for a second push to really empty them, that's even better. And then repeat the cycle. Nice deep breath in for that count of four or three.
00:06:12
Speaker
To the hand, feeling the hand move. Hold. So that lovely gaseous exchange is going on and your whole body now is calming down. It's getting the message that everything's okay. There's nothing to see here and nothing to worry about.
00:06:26
Speaker
In this moment, you are absolutely fine. And exhale for that nice, slow out breath through the mouth. Keep repeating that at your pace.
00:06:40
Speaker
Find a rhythm that works for you. And as you do that, and as you enjoy that, and as you feel your whole nervous system resetting, as you feel everything calming down, you can add other techniques in. So while I'm talking, continue those nice, slow breath cycles.
00:07:01
Speaker
And I'll add in some extra things that might work for you and might appeal. The first one is visualization. As you breathe in, you can imagine and visualize breathing in lots of positivity, strength, hope.
00:07:18
Speaker
happiness, etc. Whatever works for you. Breathe in good emotions, good energy, light, sunlight, warmth. Breathe in whatever you feel works for you. See it as good, see as helpful, see it as nutritious to the soul.
00:07:35
Speaker
Let that soak around your body while you hold it for the seven seconds. Let it just wash over you and enjoy it And then when you exhale, imagine or visualize exhaling any toxicity, any negativity, any pain,
00:07:52
Speaker
Any worries? All of of the negative stuff. Exhale it. Get rid of it. Just let it all go. Breathe it out. And then you come back to breathing in and washing over you that nice positive energy or happiness or joy or whatever you works best for you and you can see.
00:08:15
Speaker
Then breathe that in. Hope.
00:08:19
Speaker
relaxation, calm, whatever works. Let that wash over you while you hold and then exhale any further negativity that needs to go, any worries that need to go, any concerns, um hangups that you've had, issues that you've had, any struggles, all that negative mind space, all those negative thoughts, just let them go, breathe them out and keep repeating that.
00:08:44
Speaker
That can be really powerful too. In addition to that, you can also do um progressive muscle tension techniques, tension and relaxation.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
00:08:58
Speaker
So one thing that works where you're sat nice and comfortably or led nice and comfortably is also work on moving up the body in the muscle groups, each muscle group, tensing them for five or six seconds, really, really tensing them and then relaxing them. So starting at the feet, tensing them, tensing all the toes,
00:09:17
Speaker
you know putting real tension into those muscles and then relaxing. Moving to the calf muscles, tense it, tense it, tense it, tense it, tense it and hold and then relax.
00:09:31
Speaker
Move up the legs to the thigh muscles. buttocks all the way up till you get to the face. Tense your face muscles, your jaw, your forehead, tense it everything. Tighten it, tighten it, hold it, hold it, hold it, and then relax and release. So you've worked all the way up your shoulders, your face, everywhere.
00:09:54
Speaker
And then you've released it. And that really, again, resets the nervous system, um releases all of the stress, hormone it burns the stress hormones up, gets rid of them,
00:10:05
Speaker
alleviates them and puts your system back into calm and rest and digest. So there's three techniques there with the breath work, with the visualization and with the muscle relaxation techniques.
00:10:24
Speaker
If you don't like the four, seven, eight, there are many, many other breathing techniques available. You can search them up on YouTube. You can listen to podcasts so with it.
00:10:35
Speaker
One other one that I love to do when I'm just stressed in the moment, when something's really upset me, stressed me or triggered me, and an instant rebalance is similar to if you ever watch toddlers having a bit of an out outburst or a tantrum or whatever. When they finish sobbing and crying, if you watch a child, they do a kind of...
00:10:59
Speaker
Their breathing rebalances, their autonomic nervous system rebalances, and we can mimic that. one really quick, really good method of calming down when we're really highly, you know, stressed, highly triggered, is to do those two, and some people find three even helpful, but two, sharp inward breaths. So you kind of suck the air in really sharp, and then another one, when you think your lungs are really full, you do another one. So
00:11:30
Speaker
hold for a few seconds, let that gassy exchange happen and then a nice
00:11:41
Speaker
out through the mouth as you push that air out and empty your lungs fully. So in a sense, you're fully inflating them by two sharp in breaths, possibly a third if you can manage it.
00:11:53
Speaker
Hold it, nice full lungs and then nice proper full emptying And at the end, try and just push a bit more air out if you can. That's really, really sorted out your nervous system.
00:12:06
Speaker
So use that one too in high moments of stress.
Mindfulness Techniques for Anxiety Reduction
00:12:11
Speaker
Now, another technique that you can use to just get yourself more grounded and in the moment, to stop worrying about what's just happened and stop being anxious about what might happen. It gets you in the now. That's the only thing we can control is right now. And if if we can get grounded right in the now, it's very, very calming, very, very helpful. One technique that I love that works for me is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, which again, you can use pretty much anywhere and no one needs to know that you're doing it.
00:12:44
Speaker
So this is tapping into all of our senses. So again, it's very internal thing. It's free, it's available to everybody. So first sense that we're going to tap into is sight.
00:12:58
Speaker
What can you see? Five things. So it's five, four, three, two, one. What five things can you see? Sometimes I set my myself a task to look for certain colors. If I'm out walking in the woods, I set myself, I've got to find blue, green, yellow. You would not believe how often I think I'm never going to find blue. And yet in the woods,
00:13:17
Speaker
I never, ever have failed to find something blue, even um sadly, even if it's some some um discarded rubbish or something like that. I will find blue, but it sets me a task. It distracts me from all my negative thoughts and worries and angst. I'm looking for something. So you could set yourself five things that you can see right now.
00:13:41
Speaker
or five shapes that you could see right now, or five colors that you could see right now. Wherever you are, this could be at home, out walking, working, driving, et cetera, et cetera.
00:13:53
Speaker
So it just distracts you from that negative pattern in your head, that self-talk, that dialogue, and it sets you a task, refocusing your focus elsewhere.
00:14:04
Speaker
Four, four things that you can hear. This is my favorite bit. I love this. Go quiet, just sit. You would not believe the amount of noises you can hear. You might think you're sat in a quiet space and nothing's going on.
00:14:18
Speaker
Even if you're out in a nice country area, in a park or a woodland, you will hear things you had not heard before. Just go quiet. and I'm going to go quiet now and let you find four sounds.
00:14:49
Speaker
So for me, I could hear the clock ticking next to me. I could hear the leaves on a plant outside that are blowing against and hitting the window pane. I can hear somebody with a leaf blower in the distance, I think.
00:15:01
Speaker
um And also somebody else with a chainsaw. It's all going on up here. I hadn't realized that, hadn't tuned into that. Now I'm very aware of that. Sometimes it might be birdsong, sometimes it might be a siren in the distance or a vehicle, ah people, voices, somebody in the house, the heating system warming up, um your floorboards creaking, it's your stomach rumbling, it can be all sorts of things, but really focuses you down, stops that thinking because you're so concentrating on those noises. I love the the tuning into the sounds. You can do it with your eyes closed or open. I find closed is really lovely because you're also resting and doing a little bit of breath work at the same time.
00:15:42
Speaker
Three is what three things can you feel. so it's a sense of touch. Is it the clothes on you? Is it the collar on your neck? um Is it your feet on the ground, your back against the chair? Or can you reach out and touch three different things, something nice and smooth and cold, maybe the tabletop or the the floor, something nice and soft. It might be the carpet or the chair that you're on or if you've got a throw or a blanket over you or something like that.
00:16:10
Speaker
Or it might be something wet if you go to the water, the tap, um the glass of water next to you, whatever it is. Different sensations. Tune in to three things, three different feels under your fingers if there's such a correct English. um and find what you can touch and how that feels.
00:16:30
Speaker
The second um two is smell. What can you smell? Is there a plant nearby? Are there some flowers nearby? Have you got some scent or some drops of ah you know essential oils nearby? Can you smell the fabric softener on your clothes? Somebody's deodorant, your deodorant, your hairspray. Does the book that you've got on your desk smell? Does the pen smell? You know, all of those sorts of things. Tune in to two smells that you've got nearby. Get that s sense going. The olfactory sensations, it can be very powerful. Is there a sense smell that reminds you of somebody?
00:17:08
Speaker
That can take you immediately back to a memory, can't it? And the last thing is taste. What can you devour and enjoy right now? One thing we used to do in the the yoga class I used to go to, she would occasionally give each of us just one little square of dairy milk at the end in the
Toolkit Summary and Further Resources
00:17:27
Speaker
relaxation. and get us to really, really make that square last for ages. Think about the the shape of it, feel feel the texture of it, let it melt on your tongue, feel it on the roof of your head, don't bite it, just suck it, let it melt and taste, enjoy that taste for as long as you possibly could. Similarly, you can do it with something like a polo mint. See how long you can keep that polo mint for, let the lettering and the the shapes of the words on the polo melt away, let it go smooth, let it go thin until it's it it can do nothing but break and snap. and And you enjoy that for a lot longer, but you're really present in the experience of that flavor, that sensation, your tongue, everything, your salivary glands, the whole lot, tuning into that. So again, it brings you very into the now, internally into the whole body, the whole nervous system. So the 5-4-3-2-1 technique is really, really good for grounding and calming.
00:18:27
Speaker
So i help what I really hope that one of those strategies, if not all of those strategies, really help you through busy times, stressful times, and are there for you, available at any moment, part or some or all of them at any moment. It's a little toolkit for you to dip into and out of whenever you need them.
00:18:49
Speaker
I wish you well. I wish you a lot of calm and relaxation. Thank you for listening. um And I think Sarah is about to tell you where you can find me if you're looking for any stress coaching techniques um or one-to-one coaching with me on stress, life,
00:19:06
Speaker
ah menopause, wellness, all of those areas that I specialize in and teenage coaching. So ah Sarah will fill you all in and put links in the podcast episode description for you if you want to make contact. If not, all the very best and thank you again.
00:19:27
Speaker
Thank you so much, Dawn. That was really, really beneficial. I certainly feel better after doing some of that breath work as well. As Dawn says, she can be contactable by the Milestone Coaching Company and all details will be in the show notes.
00:19:43
Speaker
Thank you.