Things seem a bit better

[Tanner40]

Good Morning to everyone on the page. My mornings seem to be getting a bit better. Week two on citalopram and I still have anxiety and fast heartbeat in the morning. My legs feel wobbly but within thirty minutes, it has settled down.
I still can't seem to find, or make, time in order to do my relation exercises. My meditative deep breathing exercises. I keep saying that I am going to do them and it just never seems to happen. I would love to hear some stories about how relaxation exercises have helped you. Maybe this will motivate me to get this accomplished.

I hope everyone has a better day.

[HoneyLove]

Tanner it's good to hear that you're doing better and that the meds are really working well for you :)

It's very important that you make the time for the relaxation methods, it just takes some self discipline & once you realise how much good they do for you it will hopefully turn into something that you really look forward to doing every day.

When you're anxious & stressed your sympathetic nervous system is in control, but the relaxation methods activate our parasympathetic nervous system and this is the part of you that will help you to calm down and destress - that's the basic science behind relaxation methods, but it's good to know why they help us and why they're so important.

Personally once I discovered how good they are for us it began a lovely exploration for me into how to trigger my own relaxation response. It's such a nice thing to do, to find out what makes us relaxed and happier, even little things in the day.

I love meditation, both silent sitting and guided meditations on my MP3 player and YouTube. I also love yoga, I go to a very gentle yoga class once a week and practice a little bit a couple of mornings a week - nothing difficult, just very gentle stretches, breathing and poses. Both of these things help me feel so much calmer, more focused and more in tune with my body and my life. I *love* doing them :)

I also use short breathing exercises to help if I'm stressed about something when I'm out in public or on transport, you can do them without anyone noticing and they really calm your whole body and mind.

I'm reading and learning about the basics of mindfulness & Buddhism, and how they can apply to helping you stay in the moment instead of drifting off into worries and daydreams. It's interesting stuff.

I also use a hypnosis recording to help me sleep, I listen to it on my phone as I'm drifting off. It's called I Can Make You Sleep by Paul McKenna. I also like another one of his called Control Stress, I listen to it a lot usually just after waking up in the mornings if I'm too tired to get out of bed to do yoga lol.

Other things are little things that make me happy, like writing in a journal, having a bubble bath or watching some comedy on YouTube. Small things to activate laughter and good chemicals in my body :)

It's very nice exploring all of this stuff, and it leads to a much calmer, more centered and more focused you. It doesn't have to take up a lot of time, but it's fun to look at how you can integrate being nice to yourself as often as possible during the day lol.

I'm also seeing a therapist, and I try to take care of how I eat! I'm not perfect and sometimes I let things slip but I'm much better than I used to be. I still get anxious about some things, but it's not like it used to be and I know if I keep working on it I will continue to be much calmer and happier.

I have some difficult health & life situations happening this year, so there's not much I can do about that but just learn to handle the stress better. I don't visit my doctor as often as I used to (in fact I saw her in March and then I didn't go see her again until two weeks ago for an actual health problem, not for reassurance, and that was a big step for me!) and that's something I'm proud of. I go to work on days when I'm feeling bad because of my health problems, but in the past I would have stayed hiding at home in tears and anxious. I've learned to deal with things better. Sometimes I still get edgy, but that's normal! Anxiety no longer rules my whole day in the way it used to, I don't feel afraid all the time :)

I still have a long way to go, but I've tried to turn it into a journey of self development and exploration, learning to live a life that suits who I am and understanding my self better. It makes it a nice thing, learning to relax instead of fighting the anxiety and struggling with it. I often wish that I was someone else, that I had a different mind, but I'm learnjng to accept myself, my faults and my anxiety and work with who I am instead. It's a hard work but it's worth it for a better quality of life.

Now I've gone and written a great big post lol, but I hope you don't mind and that you see how these things can help.

I hope you continue to feel better and that you own journey to recovery becomes a pathway to discovering yourself and living a life that suits who you are :)

[Tanner40]

Wow, HoneyLove! Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me all of the ways that relaxation helps you. I know that it is certainly one of the things that I am missing in my road to recovery. I had never thought of self guided meditation on YouTube. That is something that I am going to try.

Talking about finding ways of making myself laugh made me think. I love to laugh and would love to do it more often. Possibly I don't search out and make opportunities for myself.

You have given me some wonderful ideas for which I'm grateful. Not to mention your time!

[Fishmanpa]

Hey Tanner,

I agree... laughter is the best medicine! I go to Youtube and watch comedians I like... Jimmy Carr has been a recent crack up for me ~lol~

Concerning the exercises? I can relate in that I have to do swallowing exercises to help strengthen the muscles in my throat due to my cancer treatment. It's not easy but if I want to get better, I have no choice. It's really the same for you with your relaxation exercises. What choice do you really have? And to say you don't have time is a BS excuse. It is for me too. How much time does it take in a 24 hour day? 30 minutes? an hour? Less? More? Does it matter? If it means you miss a TV show or a bit of internet surfing, so what. What's more important to you? You make the time for the things that are important to you and beating the beast is important!

You can do it! You're making positive strides so build on the momentum ;)

Good Luck!

[HoneyLove]

You're welcome Tanner, I'm glad ypu found it helpful :)

Bringing laughter and joy into our lives has so many benefits for our physical and mental health. It creates chemicals in your body that will relax you and make you feel good. We work at our best when we are joyful, although it is hard I know. I read a book once that spoke about how we are wired for joy, literally our nervous system and body work best when we are relaxed and happy, it's our natural state.

So finding ways to make yourself laugh is not only a nice thing to do, but it literally benefits your health too :)

One way I try to do this is by watching my favourite comedians on YouTube! There's so much free material on there to make you laugh, sometimes full shows. I have had to look at things I can do cheaply because I don't have a lot of money lol, but YouTube is a great resource when you get into it. There's also a lot of material on there around anxiety, health and healing - I've spent hours watching uplifting positive videos!