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Breathe Better E-Newsletter>
Give Me A Break!
June 19, 2008
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but the present is a gift. That is why it is called the present.
-Oogway in Kung Fu Panda
In a recently released family fun film, Kung Fu Panda, Po, the unlikely hero in the movie, saves his entire town from destruction by learning how to focus and be present. Lucky for him, cell phones and Blackberries weren't invented back then.
In our 24/7 nonstop frenzied workaholic culture, modern people find it difficult, if not impossible to embrace this simple concept. To exercise, to eat less, and to sleep more has become a thing of the past. Patients often tell me that they can't expend the time or energy to do so. But what I'd like to know is: Why does it take work to find rest?
Scheduling In Rest and Relaxation
In our modern day world, rest is complex. Even the simple notion of taking "breaks" throughout the day has become nonexistent and nowhere is this more evident than for children. Instead of playtime, they schedule play “dates” and instead of summer vacation, children get test preparation. Ironically, the only time they get a break now and then are when they get "time outs" for daydreaming in class or for misbehaving. No wonder leisure time is looked down upon these days.
For adults the situation is far worse. Taking vacations fill many people with dread and anxiety. Patients tell me that going on vacation is even more stressful than staying at work. After they come back from vacation they’re faced with double their usual workload. Instead, they take more “sick days” than "vacation days" to recuperate from stress induced illnesses. Even worse, down time, in our harried culture is seen as unproductive. But is it?
According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) pauses and breaks can heighten productivity and not lessen it as we may assume. They showed that rats that paused between new, unfamiliar tasks used this time to "replay" their thought processes and therefore gain better mastery each time they ran along the same piece of track. What they found was that these breaks were integral to mapping out in their minds the best ways to navigate—allowing them to heighten their productivity (get the cheese at the end of the maze faster) and not to lessen it.
Of course, we aren't rats. But studies done on humans show similar findings. In a study spanning 20 years, researchers showed that the risk of heart disease in women who took less than one vacation every six years had an eight times higher than those who "got away" at least twice a year.
A more recent study using similar research methods used to test sleep quality of NASA pilots and astronauts, showed that people who took vacations were on the average getting 1 hour or more of high-quality sleep and more importantly had an 80 percent increase in their reaction time. Even after they came back from vacation they were able to maintain better sleep quality with a 30-40 percent higher reaction time than prior to the trip.
STOP BEING THE ENERGIZER BUNNY
When I was a growing up, the best commercial on TV was about a toy bunny that never stopped because of the Energizer battery that supposedly kept it running longer than any other battery on the market. Back then, the commercial highlighted timelessness as a unique benefit. These days, however, timelessness has become the norm. Most of us, much like the energizer bunny, just keep: "going and going and going". It’s gotten to the point that I sometimes overhear people answering their cell phones in the bathroom. Even in academic medicine, our meetings and conferences are packed back-to-back with lectures and presentations, and at the end of the day, everyone is physically and mentally exhausted.
And so the question becomes why do we feel a compulsive need to be working all the time? A patient that I posed this question to commented that everyone knows that if you left the office for an hour, things would go on normally without you. But everyone feels an obsessive urge to be constantly in the office, or answering their phones or checking their emails every 2 seconds and that it’s more of a “cultural” issue. Yet when I see how much of what I treat stems from over work and over stress, I can't help but to think that this "cultural" adaptation may be making us less productive than ever before. Instead of evolving, we seem to be devolving. Just like the energizer bunny, we keep going and going just to get nowhere fast.
RECOVERING REST AND RELAXATION
So what can you do to reduce stress, and maintain productivity? There are the more obvious methods, such as going outside for lunch, having breakfast and dinner with your loved ones, or even taking a short nap in the afternoon. Regular exercise is also important, not only for fitness issues, but it’s another form of a break that forces you to focus on your body’s movements, rather than stressing about what you have to do or what you haven't done.
Notice that all these methods of “relaxation” and stress relief brings you back into focusing on “the present” moment. I know this may sound a little new-agey, but this simple concept has profound implications for your overall health and well being. Most of our stresses are often based on our anxiety about the past (if only I had done this) or what could happen in the future (what if I get fired?) or on circumstances we have absolutely no control over.
One powerful concept that I see repeatedly in various forms of Eastern traditions, meditation practices, and success-achieving programs is the process of “pausing” and being in the present moment. As C.S. Lewis, the 20th century thinker and writer has said: "...the present is the point at which time touches eternity.” This concept has been described in a variety of ways as in taking a “power pause” or in “falling still”. All these methods involve breathing techniques where one focuses only on your breathing. They all train you to consciously control breathing, to make it slower, calmer, quieter, and more regular. If you’ve been trained in yoga, you can probably attest to that wonderful feeling you get after you practice the “relaxing breath” technique. (for a FREE 21 minute stress reduction audio that incorporates these breathing techniques, visit one of our Experts, George Wissing's website at: http://www.hypnoedge.com/)
Physiologically, it’s been shown that slowing down your breathing has a calming effect on your nervous system. Further, lengthening your exhalation relative to your inhalation can slow down your heart rate, inducing a state of relaxation. This is explained by the fact that inhalation is modulated by the stress portion of your involuntary nervous system, whereas exhalation is controlled by the relaxation part of your involuntary nervous system. Therefore, extending your exhalation prolongs the time you spend in a more calm, relaxed state.
Another primary benefit to breathing better, is that you can sleep better, as well. As I explain in my forthcoming book, Sleep, Interrupted coming this Fall, one disadvantage we have for our speech and language development is that our jaws became narrowed and this has made us all susceptible to breathing problems when we sleep. Add to this our modern processed foods, lack of exercise, and bottle-feeding this problem may be getting even worse. In effect, many of our most common and chronic health problems including heart disease, diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal problems, and many chronic ear, nose throat may be a direct result of our sleep interruptions due to breathing cessations. This may be why so many of us are so sick and tired not to mention overweight and overstressed.
A recent study revealed that people’s estimation of sleep time was closely related to how stressed they felt during the day. In other words, for the same two groups of people who slept the same number of hours, the groups that were under more stress perceived less quantity of sleep. Conversely, not sleeping well, or sleeping long enough can also make you feel more stressed.
I JUST DON'T HAVE THE TIME
One of the most common excuses that I hear is that people don’t have time to sleep longer or take yoga or to stop and pause during the day to keep their stress levels in check. However, the beauty of breathing exercises is that with a little practice, you can do it while waiting in line at the grocery store, stopped at a red light, or even while at your desk. Ideally, you should do it for 15-30 minutes in the morning, and just before bedtime. But what I’ve found even more useful is to spend 15-30 seconds to pause, and to perform the breathing exercises between major activities throughout the day. It not only relaxes you, but recharges you, making you more focused on the task at hand.
Many experts suggest various ways of dealing with stress, including meditation, breathing techniques, and exercise. Each method has its obvious benefits. But one thing that all these techniques have in common is that they force you to take a break from your normal routine. Napping may be the ultimate way to rest during the day, but walking outside to eat lunch, afternoon tea, or even smoking forces you to take a break.
You may be shocked that I include smoking in the above list. Regardless of all the known detrimental effects of cigarette smoke, think about what you must do when you smoke. You must remove yourself from your job, go outside, and spend 10-15 minutes in isolation, doing deep breathing exercises. In fact, in a sense, you are meditating on your breathing. Many smokers feel more relaxed after the first few breaths. But since it takes up to a minute or more for nicotine to reach your brain’s pleasure receptors, why is it that you feel a rush the second you inhale? This is what George Wissing, in his book, Stop Smoking for the Last Time, questions. George is a hypnosis, NLP expert who suggests that it's the breathing and not the nicotine in the cigarette that's helping you to relax. Think about it—why do people tell you to take a deep breath whenever you’re stressed?
So the next time you feel stressed and can’t figure out why you feel that way, consider taking a break. Better yet, try taking a moment to do some form of breathing exercises. Try taking short, regular 30 second breaks, or even going outside for lunch. For the truly brave, try taking a prophylactic wellness day (to avoid having to take a sick day), and spend time for yourself, rather than catching up on chores. Although all of these suggestions may sound too simple to work, the simplest things often yield the most powerful results. As Kung Fu Panda learned the hard way, you shouldn't dismiss what's most obvious. As Confuscious, that famed Chinese philosopher once said:
"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."
So go ahead. Take a break. The rest will follow.
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If you’d like to simplify your life but don't know how, read about one patient who recovered his zest for life by following a few simple health tips. For the full story link here:
http://www.westsideent.stirsite.com/Testimonials.html#doctor
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