CHAPTER 4: Calming the Body

Being aware of how your body responds to stress and worry is very important. It is also important to know that different types of strategies work for different levels of body activation. For example, if you are very worried, breathing exercises do not always work well and may even make your worry bigger.

If you are at a medium to high level of worry, try a strategy that involves more movement. You can use a scale of your choice to show how much worry you notice in your body, in the sample below I have a scale with 1 to 5 representing low to middle levels of worry and 5 to 10 for high levels of worry. It might help to think about how much worry is in your body as your volume. When are feeling worried, we need to turn down the volume in your body.

Breathing and muscle relaxation will be work in the low to medium range (0 to 5 on the sample scale) while moving your body will work better in the high range. I have had many people tell me that breathing doesn’t work for them and makes their worry worse. Usually this is because they have tried to use breathing strategies when they are very very worried and their body is very very full of worry. There are many different breathing and body calming activities. I will outline only a few of them here. I encourage you to add your own favourites to the list.

Below, I will share some ideas of strategies that will help you to turn down the volume in your body. Most important is to find body calming strategies that work for you. You must practice these, starting off by practicing them when you are already calm, so that you can learn to use them when you are worried. You will need to practice for a few weeks before you are able to use the strategies really well. Also, keep in mind that everyone is different and you need to find the strategy that works for you.

Keep practicing until you find what works best in your 3A Toolkit! Before we get to the strategies, consider what kind of stressors or situations correspond with where you end up in terms of the amount of worry you notice in your body, which we are calling your volume, where 10 is very high (e.g. panic) and 0 is very low (e.g. asleep).

Write down a few of the situations and events that tend to lead to lots of worry for you and some of the situations and events that lead to a little bit of worry for you. Imagine that the number 0 to 10 represents how full of worry your body is (the volume) with between 0 and 5 being a low to middle level of worry and 5 to 10 being a high level of worry. The body calming strategies will help you turn down the volume in your body.

10

HOW MUCH WORRY (VOLUME) IS IN YOUR BODY? STRESSORS OR SITUATION

5

STRESSORS OR SITUATION

0

It is important to notice how full of worry your body is (the volume) so you can match the right strategy to the volume. Below are some examples if strategies the match to the level of activation and they are explained in more detail after that.

BODY CALMING: MATCH THE STRATEGY TO THE VOLUME IN YOUR BODY

10

5

STRATEGIES FOR MEDIUM TO HIGH VOLUME

Walking, running, sport or exercise of your choice.

Movements using both sides of your body that are slow and rhythmic (like the butterfly hug).

Shaking

STRATEGIES FOR LOW TO MIDDLE VOLUME

Orienting or noticing where you are

Breathing practice with a long breath out

Yoga and mindfulness

Muscle relaxation

Body Calming Strategies for Low to Medium Level of Activation

Breathing

There are many different breathing exercises. For managing high activation such as anxiety, the general principle is to focus on a longer exhale and using the diaphragm. It can be helpful to go through even breathing, breathing with a longer exhale, and breathing with a longer inhale to increase your awareness of your breathing patterns. A longer inhale is usually more activating.

Figure 8 breathing

Draw a figure 8 on the back of your hand. If you do not want pen on their hand, they can trace the shape with their finger. Trace the figure 8 with your finger, exhale as you trace the curve of the 8 and pause and inhale as you reach the center where the lines intersect. I find this breathing exercise helpful as it makes it easy to focus on the exhale, it brings your attention to the present moment, and the touch of your finger on your skin is soothing. I usually practice this for at least one minute a day. It is important to practice these new skills when you are not anxious so that you can use them effectively when you are.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation is an established practice and many different scripts and protocols exist for this practice. I will leave it to you to find your favourite and there are many options available with a quick search online. The key principle of this practice is to move through different regions of the body and tense one region at a time and bring your full awareness to the experience, then relax the same body region for about twice as long as you were tense for. In this way, you develop awareness of where you hold tension in your body and become capable of relaxing when you set your intention and attention to do so. An example of body regions you may choose to focus on when tensing and then releasing your muscles are: right arm, left arm, face and head, neck and shoulders, mid-section, right leg, left leg. Once tensing and releasing your muscles in those regions, finish the practice with a body scan to see if any tension remains.

Orienting

Orienting is another common and widely used practice. Orienting is a way of bringing attention to the present moment and providing the brain with information that you are safe in this moment.

There are different orienting practices also and I suggest finding one that is a good fit for you. A very simple practice is to simply name objects that you see in the space around you. This gives the amygdala, the security guard, information that there is in fact no physical threat present so it will settle down a bit. A longer orienting practice that I find more effective is 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. In this practice, the client names 5 things they see, hear, and feel. This is followed by 4 then 3 then 2 then 1 thing they see, hear, and feel. This practice engages multiple senses to provide the amygdala with accurate information about safety, thus providing down regulation of the amygdala and nervous system.

Mindfulness

Along with being critical for the Awareness and Assessment phases, mindfulness is also linked to improved neural integration and has been shown to be correlated with reduction in anxiety, among other positive results. There are many App’s available also that support a regular mindfulness practice.

Body Calming Strategies for High Levels of Activation

As previously mentioned, breathing often is not effective for high levels of activation. For high levels of activation, regulation strategies involving movement are more effective. There are many different ways you can incorporate movement strategies and I suggest using activities that you are interested in such as sports, yoga, and dance. Just going for a walk can also be helpful. What is important is to come up with movement that you like and will actually use. Other movement approaches for when you are not able to leave the room include the following (not an exhaustive list):

Finger Pushups

Press the fingers tips of both hands together, then slowly and intentionally lift each pair of fingers away from each other and then press them back together. Continue this way with each pair of fingers for as long as needed.

Bilateral Foot Movements

This exercise works well when you are seated and not able to get up and walk. Slowly and intentionally lift the toes and ball of one foot keeping the heel on the ground, and then follow the same movement with the other foot and continue as needed. Keep the movement slow and measured as quick movements may increase the level of activation.

Butterfly or Bear Hug

Place each hand on the opposite arm in a gentle self-embrace using the amount of pressure that feels soothing. Then alternate squeezing one side and then then other. Some people like a gentle embrace (butterfly hug) and others prefer much firmer contact (bear hug).

Shaking

Engage in rigorous shaking of your whole body for about a minute. You will notice partway through this practice that you really want to stop. This lets you know your ‘brakes’ are starting to work. Once the time is up, allow yourself to rest, feeling your relaxed muscles.

Practice, Practice, Practice….

As I mentioned before, whichever strategy you think will work for you, you will need to practice it. Perhaps choose a strategy from the low to middle volume section and another one for the higher levels and practice those for a week at least and see how they work for you. You usually need about three weeks to start to be really good at something new. If you find a strategy doesn’t work for you

or you don’t like it, try another one. There will be something that works for you but you may need to try a few things before you find the right match. And remember, match the strategy with how much volume you notice in your body. Otherwise, even the right strategy won’t work if you use it for the wrong volume. Breathing is a good example of this. Breathing is wonderful for calming down the body. But, it does not always work well when you are really really worried (your volume is really really high), some people find it even makes them feel worse. This doesn’t mean that breathing doesn’t work, it just means you need to use it at the right time. Enjoy your practice and know that you are getting better at shrinking your worry every time you practice!

Now that you have learned a few strategies to calm your body down when you feel anxious, what strategy will you use when you notice a small or middle amount of worry? How will you practice this every day?

What about when you notice lots of worry, what movement strategies will you try to calm down your body? How will you practice this?

Remember to practice these body calming practices when you are calm so you can learn them really well. It is hard to try a new strategy when you are worried, it will be much easier if you practice alot while you are calm. You might need to try a few different ones until you find your favourite. Let’s now add what you’ve learned about body calming to your 3A Toolkit. Here is an example of what you could put in a body calming bucket of strategies: Body Calming

A bit worried

Breathing

Orienting

Butterfly Hug

A lot worried

Movement

Shaking

What are your favourite body calming strategies that will go in your bucket of strategies?

Body Calming

A bit worried

A lot worried

Now let’s add these body calming strategies to your 3A Toolkit:

3A TOOLKIT

AWARENESS (collecting information)

THINKING

What are the not helpful thoughts?

BODY

What do you notice?

ASSIGN A LABEL (organizing information)

What do you feel? ACTION (responding to information)

What strategies will go in your bucket of body calming strategies?

A bit worried:

A lot worried: