How Stress Management using Biofeedback Techniques, Visualization and Relaxed Breathing can help your Asthma

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000309 EndHTML:0000011123 StartFragment:0000002681 EndFragment:0000011087 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/MGrossan/Desktop/organize%20articles.%20/In%20Biofeedback%20you%20have%20a%20means%20of%20feeding%20back%20to%20you%20if%20you%20are%20doing%20the%20exercise%20right.doc

 How Stress Management using Biofeedback Techniques, Visualization and Relaxed Breathing can help your Asthma

In Biofeedback you have a means of feeding back to you if you are doing the exercise right; you look in the mirror at the health club to tell you if you are exercising correctly. The teenager uses the mirror to tell her if she is applying the lipstick correctly.  You can have a machine tell you—feed back to you-- if you are putting out excess energy from your muscles or if they are relaxed.

Relaxed Breathing:

If you use a mirror and COUNT your breathing you can SEE if your breathing is done to your best advantage. This even helps for using the inhaler correctly. Many allergists have a mirror in the room to insure that the inhaler and other means are used correctly.

Mr. Alex C., a 30-year-old teacher, demonstrated his use of his inhaler to the asthma coach. For the past 5 years he had been using it incorrectly! Now he uses a mirror to be sure he is using it right.

Correct breathing is most important in asthma. In anxiety you breathe rapidly.  In relaxation you breathe slowly and deeply. In asthma you should breathe relaxed.

Measured Breathing:

Counting is the key. Count inhalation four and exhalation six. As you exhale think, feel, and experience a relaxation. The more you engage your muscles and mind, the better the effect.
Inhalation is a contraction event. Your muscles contract and squeeze. The largest muscle in your body, the diaphragm contracts to pull in air Exhalation is a relaxation event so that by being in exhalation longer, you are in a relaxed state longer. The exact timing is NOT important; as long as the exhale is longer. With the mirror you can better control the timing and the relaxation.

Relax Your Muscles:

Your want to relax the muscles of your bronchial passages; when they constrict they affect your exhalation. Use the mirror. The best way to learn this is to bare your chest so you can see your shoulders and chest muscles at work. As you exhale - count of six- see your shoulders relax, your jaw relax and picture individual muscles of the chest including the intercostals relaxing. Seeing these muscles relax, visualize the bronchial muscles relaxing too. That can send a correct signal to the inner chest muscles for relaxation. This measured breathing sends a message to your Limbic—stress center—that there is no reason to be stressed. Without stress, the bronchi relax and your heart works better. With the mirror as a biofeedback device – in the mirror you SEE the muscles relax- you see how to do it right. You also send a signal to your stress center that there is no tiger.

Asthmatics do better when they avoid having a stress reaction. Yes, that is easy to say; but it can be done.

Judy has one two year old and is totally stressed out. Her identical twin sister has two screaming terrors and is relaxed and looks nice and relaxed. Why the difference?

We are Born with a Tiger Response:

Point is, we are born with a single reaction to stress. Hans Selye, the famous Canadian researcher, showed that the outpouring of adrenalin, the shifting of blood to the muscles, the rapid breathing, and the brain food glycogen leaving the brain to feed the muscles; this is the single reaction we are born with and it fires whether we are late on the freeway, are taking a test, or having a job interview. But, it is the cognition- how your brain identifies the situation that fires the adrenalin. You can be late to work but still listen to pleasant music, you can take a test and have study habits that allow you to think of the test as a challenge because you are confident and feel good about yourself. You can take the job interview with your body recalling your good work, your excellent past experiences so that your body chemistry is at its prime.

In our culture, much of the tiger response is based on incorrect interpretation of the situation.  The more we have the same tiger response, the more this response in ingrained into our body; the more tracks or channels are laid down, the more the repetition, the more frequently you will have the adrenalin reaction.  What is important is that you can just as well lay down non-tiger reactions. The more you practice this, the more successful you can be. Remember Pavlov’s dog? He associated the bell and food and developed the track of salivating just with the sound of the bell. What if you practice a muscle and breathing relaxation when you see the traffic or the bad boss comes in? It is a matter of repetition. You learned how to serve in tennis or throw in baseball. But it took practice.

You Can Change Your Brain:

The new science of Neuroplasticity shows that the brain can change. The soldier who is brain damaged can be healed by training another part of the brain to change to replace the damaged brain. However, bad reactions that are repeated can also change the brain.

How to Improve your Brain’s Response:

Practice measured breathing daily.  Try to do a minute every hour on the hour.  Breathe in count four and out count six, relaxing as you exhale. Your brain is receiving a no-tiger signal.

With a mirror, SEE your face, jaw and shoulders relax.  This signals your stress center that there is no tiger.

Recall situations where you were fully relaxed; a day at the beach, a picnic, a fun meal. Your body chemistry will duplicate that happy time. Doing these actions repeatedly and daily will not only help your asthma, but your overall health as well.

Reading this advice is useless unless you practice. That is why there are 90 exercises in my book, Stessed? Anxiety? Your Cure is in the Mirror. Changing the brain, using neuroplasticity for your advantage, can best be done by repetition.