Relieve the pain by breathing – listen and practice

Inhaling can either strengthen or relieve pain. Psychologist Minna Martin tells of personal experience:

– When the coil was installed for me, I went to the procedure completely unprepared. The pain just came from my butt and I reacted to it by hyperventilating. Pooping only intensified the pain. And they lasted for hours.

Martin knows he could have reduced the pain by breathing calmly. In this way, his body would have received enough oxygen on inhalation and carbon dioxide would have been able to escape on exhalation.

Martin was fitted with a coil twice later, and by then the doctrine had gone into distribution: the pain was tolerable.

The analgesic effect of breathing is widely used in childbirth. The midwife reminds of calm inhalations and exhalations.

Minna Martin wonders why this easy and effective tool is not more commonly used in healthcare.

– The pain-sensing brain gives the body the command to fight and escape the threat. A painful situation causes a stressful situation that maintains and
intensifies pain.

So listen to what breathing sounds like when everyday life rolls? How does it change when there is pain or you are in the middle of a tearing dispute?

The goal is free-flowing breathing without interruptions. Inhalation activates the body and exhalation calms it.

Identify your own way of breathing

Forget “5 ways to breathe properly” type instructions. Listen to your breath. You will notice yes because it is superficial or agitated and because again it is relaxingly calm.

At its simplest, just relaxing the facial muscles and breathing peacefully is enough for a break. It takes less than a minute.

Calm down can’t be stored, so try to find recovery moments every day. In addition, you can go to yoga, pilates or a mindfulness class once or twice a week if it feels good to you.

Find your own way to calm down

1. LISTEN TO YOUR BREATHING You can enhance your listening by holding your hand lightly on your stomach.
2. ARRIVE ON THE FLOOR Descend on the supine floor. Try to relax on the floor to support, do not tense the muscles. Cherish the idea that the floor is your support: no one is too awkward or heavy on the floor to support. Rest and let your breath flow freely.
3. RELAX YOUR FACE Relax your facial muscles. Stop frowning and biting your teeth and relax your facial muscles. In the evening, the triggering of facial muscle tension may facilitate sleep.
4. CALM BREATH, especially exhale. The feeling of gradual relaxation spreads throughout the body.

Expert: Minna Martin, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Breathing Mind Oy.

This article has appeared in Good Health magazine. As a subscriber, you can read all numbers free of charge from the digilehdet.fi service