Welcome To Anxiety Angels Information

The importance of Relaxation & Correct Relaxation Techniques

Planned relaxation calms anxiety and helps your body and mind recover from everyday rush and stress.

Music, a long soak in the bath, or a walk in the park do the trick for some people, but for others it's not so easy.

If you feel you need help with learning to relax, try relaxation.

Choose a quiet place where you won't be interrupted.

Before you start, do a few gentle stretching exercises to relieve muscular tension.

Make yourself comfortable, either sitting or lying down.

You may find covering yourself with a small blanket my help you feel more secure.

Place your hand on your stomach just underneath the breast plate.

Gently close the mouth so the lips are slightly parted, the same with your teeth dont grit or clench the teeth, allow your tongue to drop to the bottom of your mouth and gently close your eyes.

Take a slow deep breath in through your nose as you do slowly count to four , so breath in and 1, 2, 3 , 4 .

Dont hold your breath if you find that counting to four, if you find this is too much for you, its ok , draw the breath in for as long as you feel comfortable with, ensuring your stomach rises as you breathe in.

Then allow the breath to be released via the nose again, slowly and gently allowing your stomach to gently fall, continue to do this for at least 15 minutes.

Allow the muscles in the body to completley relax, allow your knees to part and your feet to fall to the side, ie- no pointed toes.

Once you feel you have finished and are completly relaxed, dont rush to get up allow yourself a further 5 minutes to lie or sit there, enjoy the feeling of being relaxed and focused.

You may find that a nice warm drink and a biscuit will make you feel even more relaxed once you have completed this exercise.

It may help you to visualize something calm and soothing, perhaps walking through a field on a bright sunny day, or sitting by the beach.

I personally liked visualizing a large white fluffy cloud., with the word FLOAT running through the middle of it, I saw it floating gently and focused on the word float .

You may find you feel slightly dizzy or panicking, that is ok and is perfectly normal, you may even notice that you shudder or judder as you attempt to bring your breathing control.

As anxiety sufferers we have trained our bodies to behave incorrectly and the majority of us shallow breathe, ie , we breath from the chest,
ie . rapid breathing, which contributes to almost all of the nasty physical symptoms we experience when suffering with Anxiety.

Correct abdominal breathing as above will allow our system to relax and settle back into how we need it to be in order to release stress and symptoms.

Given time and if done three times a day, controlled breathing will become a essential part of your recovery, it will allow you to notice tension in your body andgive you the valuable tools you need to be able to take control as and when needed.

At first you may find lying down is perfect for you , but eventually it will become second nature and hopefully should you feel the adrenalin rise or Panic set in , You will be able to focus and bring your breathing under control regardless of where you are or what you are doing.

Last Edited 8th May 2008