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Things to calm you calm yourself

Stuart333

I've found a couple of things that are not stim related, that may be useful to others.

I've noticed that I lift my shoulders when stressed or anxious, like with anticipatory anxiety. Sitting up straight, lowering my shoulders and taking a few deep breaths, breathing out for longer than breathing in, reduces it by at least half in seconds. The knot inside is much diminished. It is easy to tell if your shoulders are raised too, so it is a way to judge if something is bothering you too.

Lying in bed on my back, press palms together like praying. Does not need to be much pressure. You can do your feet as well if you want and your hips are up to it. Close eyes. Form my thoughts and whisper or quietly say what I am thinking. Saying it out loud, even if it takes a few iterations, gives shape to the issues. Do for a few mins or as long as you want/need. You may notice your hands kind of feel they have merged together. When finished tell yourself you are safe and it is ok to sleep. Do this 2 or 3 times. Put one hand on your heart and tell yourself you did the best you could at the time. You may be able sleep a little better.

  • Stroking animals. Growing up I spent a lot of time around horses and hugging them and touching their fur was very calming. Unfortunately I can’t do that anymore now but I find stroking cats very calming too. There is one super cute cat on our university campus and I sometimes stroke her. 

  • in reply to Phased

    Ohh noo, not a sauna, getting all hot and sweaty, horrible!

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Sweat smile yep that works too! (sauna first is best)

  • in reply to Phased

    Oh yes of course, I even sometimes ha e to have a cold shower and a brisk rub down with a copy of The Sporting Life!

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Stimming in another way perhaps? I assume for defence purposes that the smoke is coming from burning proscribed literature... hehe, 1984 and all that :-)

  • I don't think I stim. 

    I either talk to my cats and just spend time with them and/or smoke somethng illegal

  • in reply to Stuart333

    I like those examples  Thanks :-)

    Complicated things are maybe just lots of small things arranged together in lots of small ways! 

    For breathing strategies and the physical effects experienced it might be worth considering that our body at sea level is experiencing approximately 14.7 pounds per square inch. of atmospheric pressure.  That might be a "big small thing" that one is not obviously aware of?

    Inflation and deflation are part of how our bodies behave in this pressure.  This includes the physical tension one experiences in different parts of the body (and some might say the mind and the emotions too).

    For this reason and many others it's worth considering that how one breathes makes a heck of a lot of difference on how our body feels and is able to support itself, move and feel etc..

    There are breathing strategies that encourage different sorts of physiological effects and these have other regulatory functions too - which extend into the para/sympathetic nervous system functions too :-)

    Others i would like to suggest exploring are:

    like a respiratory physio uses for example in a health care setting.

    Abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing is popular (  :-)  )

    Singing!

    aerobic exercise

    "small circulation breathing" is another. (my personal favourite)

    and combinations thereof perhaps!

    these all are examples that actually work and I suggest the atmospheric pressure analysis is worth considering for one of the ways they do

    Best wishes

  • I was hoping people might have some additional simple ones that actually work.

    I have always found tea remarkably effective, if you have somewhere quiet to drink it. L-theanine in tea is calming, it boosts alpha brainwaves as well as releasing GABA, serotonin and dopamine. It also has flavonoids.

    Beware some green teas which have high caffeine. Keeping caffeine down, or avoiding it, helps.

    Chamomile tea has apigenin which binds to GABA receptors.

    Peppermint has menthol and other compounds which give a cooling effect and can help trigger a mild parasympathetic nervous response (rest and digest). I also find turmeric tea is good after a meal.

    Dark chocolate can help. It has theobromine (a slight stimulant that can help reduce perceived stress), magnesium which helps regulate stress response and supports GABA, boosts endorphins and serotonin improving mood, flavonoids which boosts blood flow to the brain.

    I have always found that if you can't dom something and it is stressful, just put it down and walk away for 2 minutes. It gives you time to get some perspective.

    There's the normal breathing techniques too, which are mostly to take a deep breath then breathe out slowly, one way is pretend you are blowing out through a straw. Just 2-3 of these help if you are struggling in the.moment. the reason to breathe out slowly is to stop you hyper-ventilating, it also activates the vagus nerve. It think it has limited effect though if you are also tense.

    Box breathin, in 4, hold 4, out 4,  hold 4, is supposed to help, but I haven't noticed it do much.

    Pushing your hands together, as mentioned, works because it helps proprioception, body awareness, which calms the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight).

    The problem one is alcohol. If you're going to do it, then a glass or two of red wine I find hugely relaxing and it contains lots of flavonoids. The issue is not drinking too much and alcohol can reduce mood the next afternoon.

    Small amounts of alcohol increase GABA activity and reduce glutamate causing short term relaxation, but larger amounts increase stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol.

  • Yep - learning how the body feels is great way :-)

  • These are really good and lovely strategies:)