Reducing Anxiety through Breath and Muscle Release Techniques

January 25, 2021

Information

With Michele Grand, LMT

ID6119

To CiteDCA Citation Guide

00:02Good morning everybody once again and
00:04thank you so much for joining on Michelle
00:08Grand licensed Massage Therapist.
00:09I work with the patients at Smilow
00:13Cancer Hospital and it's my honor and
00:16privilege to be with you here today.
00:20We're going to take about 30 minutes or so,
00:24and we're going to work on
00:27some breathing exercises,
00:29and we're going to do some soft
00:32tissue and muscle release work.
00:36The goal of today's session
00:39is to help us reduce anxiety.
00:43We all experience anxiety for
00:47a variety of reasons.
00:50During Kovid, we're experiencing
00:52anxiety on a different level,
00:54but these exercises and this soft tissue
00:58release is something that would be
01:01healthy for us to do every day as we
01:05just go through our our normal existence.
01:08So what is anxiety?
01:11Anxiety is our body's response to stress.
01:16It can cause physical symptoms such as
01:20stomach and digestive trouble, headaches,
01:24insomnia, fatigue, shortness of breath.
01:28And muscle tension.
01:30So today what we're going to focus on is
01:35being aware and in control of our breath.
01:39And then practicing ways to
01:42release our soft tissue.
01:44An arm us.
01:45Our muscular tension.
01:49As we develop a practice of breath awareness,
01:53there's a lot of benefits
01:57that we'll experience.
01:58It helps to boost immunity.
02:01It can increase our confidence
02:04in our self image.
02:06It can help to enrich our creativity.
02:10Improve our personal and
02:13professional relationships.
02:14But it just aids in an overall
02:17improved focus and sense of relaxation.
02:25To begin, we're gonna do a
02:28diaphragmatic breathing exercise,
02:30also known as belly breathing.
02:34So if you're not already
02:37in a comfortable position.
02:39Just bring yourself into a
02:40position that feels relaxed for
02:42you could be sitting in a chair
02:44with your feet on the floor,
02:46on your back, erect.
02:48Or you could lay down flat on the
02:50floor and do the belly breath as well.
02:55To begin, place one hand on your upper chest.
03:01And one hand below your rib cage.
03:06So that as you breathe.
03:10Your hand below your rib cage.
03:13Can feel the movement of your diaphragm.
03:17Just take a moment to get
03:19comfortable with that position.
03:23Just see what it feels like.
03:27As you slowly press your hand.
03:30Into your stomach area.
03:36Now slowly inhale through your nose.
03:41And feel your stomach pressing
03:44into your hand. Keep your upper
03:47hand as still as possible.
03:52Now you're gonna exhale using Perst lips.
03:57As you tighten your stomach muscles.
04:01And your upper hand stays still.
04:04So the process is breathing
04:07through your nose.
04:09Fill your belly expand.
04:12And exhale through pursed lips.
04:16Feeling your belly contract.
04:23Inhale.
04:27XL.
04:32In hell.
04:37Nexia just continue that pattern.
04:43Just developing a relaxed. Stayed up breath.
05:03Inhale through your nose.
05:07Exhale through purse,
05:08lips through your mouth.
05:15The upper hand stays still.
05:19And the lower hand feels the
05:23belly expand and contract.
05:55We're gonna take a moment now.
05:57Release your upper hand.
05:59Maintain ahead hands below your
06:01rib cage on your belly and just.
06:04Alternate now between
06:05normal and deep breaths.
06:12Just notice any difference when
06:14you alternate just between your
06:17normal breath. Add a deep breath.
06:31Just notice how the shallow breathing
06:34compares to the deep breathing.
06:36Just now. Practice deep breaths.
06:39For a minute or so.
07:02Now as you exhale, let out
07:06a sigh with each exhalation.
07:11Breath in through the nose.
07:17A deep sigh. As you exhale.
07:33Again, feel have a belly
07:37rises with each inhale.
07:40And falls with each exhale.
07:51We're going to begin to think of phrases
07:56such as peace or let go or relax.
08:00And as you inhale.
08:03You gonna bring in waves of
08:06peace and calm through your body
08:08and your gonna mentale say.
08:10Inhaling peace and calm.
08:25Breathe in and mentally think
08:27inhaling peace and calm.
08:30And as you exhale, think of
08:33washing away tension and anxiety.
08:37So you'll say to yourself as you exhale.
08:40Exhale, tension and anxiety.
08:47Reading in peace and calm.
08:52And exhale Ng tension and anxiety.
08:58Breathing in peace and calm.
09:05X hailing tension and anxiety.
09:18Breathing in peace then com.
09:24Excel in tension and anxiety.
09:36Continue that for several more
09:38breaths and just notice how
09:40relaxed you're starting to feel.
09:47You can almost feel the oxygen flowing
09:50through your body entering all the way
09:52up to your head and down to your feet.
10:05Inhaling peace and calm.
10:09Exhale intention, an anxiety.
10:13Let's take three more breaths like that.
10:32One more.
10:40Excellent. Very very good work.
10:43Just release your hands now to just
10:46relax and comfortable position.
10:49Just for a moment,
10:50you could just have them hanging at
10:52your side and just letting it go.
10:54Just make sure your back now is
10:57relaxed if you're on the floor just.
10:59Let your spine relax.
11:01If you're sitting on a chair,
11:03just feel the back of the chair
11:05supporting your spine for a moment.
11:07Feet grounded on the floor.
11:13Excellent, so this is how it feels to
11:15do a controlled breathing exercise.
11:18It's something you can do at
11:20anytime throughout the day,
11:22anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.
11:24When you wake up in the middle of
11:28hecticness before you go to bed.
11:31So this is a good time if you have water
11:33nearby to just grab a sip of water
11:35'cause we're going to transition now
11:37into some soft tissue muscle release.
11:39So just take a little bit of water.
11:47And it's always good to hydrate to during
11:50breathwork and always throughout the day.
11:55Excellent. So the goal of self,
12:00muscle and soft tissue release is to
12:04actually manage that fight or flight
12:07response and to elicit the relaxation
12:10expand response within our body.
12:13Now this is something again,
12:15we're going to be doing self massage today.
12:20Self soft tissue release the
12:22benefits of now this muscular
12:24release include better sleep,
12:27improved circulation.
12:28I release a physical tension.
12:31Pain relief and a reduction in just
12:34the overall symptoms of our anxiety.
12:39Something that's important to
12:41remember when we do self massage is
12:43the type of pressure that we use.
12:44So I'm just going to show
12:46you for now on your hand.
12:48Although when we start we're going to be
12:50going sort of from my shoulders to our
12:52feet and then back up to our neck and head.
12:55But just to explain on my hands here,
12:57the type of pressure we're going to use.
13:00We want our release.
13:02We don't want to just touch
13:04the outside of our skin.
13:06That kind of massage feels good.
13:08Maybe if you're going to a spa somewhere and
13:11you just want to lay there and just relax,
13:14but we're actually doing some therapy
13:17on ourselves and we want to elicit
13:19a little lease of our soft tissue.
13:22So again,
13:22you want as we go along today,
13:25you want to feel pressure so
13:27you can use your thumb.
13:30You can use the tips of
13:32your fingers you can use.
13:34This part of your fingers here for pressure,
13:37and you could even use the palm of
13:39your hand for pressure as we go.
13:42You do what's comfortable for you and it
13:44also depends on the part of your body
13:47like our shoulders tend to be really,
13:49really tight and tense so we
13:51can use more pressure there.
13:52When we get a little sensitive areas,
13:55maybe like around our knees,
13:56we're going to use a little lighter
13:58pressure around the joints,
14:00so that's definitely something
14:01to keep in mind.
14:03Now the motions we're going to use
14:06are going to be a motion of needing,
14:09which is taking the soft tissue and
14:12kind of just like a needing motion.
14:15I.
14:16Round technically that term
14:17is called PET ruszaj,
14:18but it's a kneading motion of the soft
14:21tissue at the joints were going to
14:25do what's called circular friction.
14:27Which is often using the tips
14:29of your fingers and just kind
14:30of going around the joints.
14:32We could easily get in those
14:34spots with one finger.
14:36And then on a tighter,
14:37more rigid areas we can you use the pressure,
14:40the pressure that is comfortable
14:41for you using the body,
14:42the body part of your hand
14:44that's best for you.
14:45So when we start in the
14:47shoulder in a minute or two,
14:49you just use what's comfortable for you.
14:51It could be the whole hand,
14:52it could be the tips of the finger.
14:56You put the get the pressure going.
14:58That's what we want.
14:59We want their release.
15:01We want to bring blood flow to the
15:03area and we want to move that issue.
15:06The other thing you want
15:09to keep in mind too is.
15:11When we work on a tighter area again,
15:13like the shoulders,
15:14it takes a little warm up of that issue.
15:17It's gonna be real tight and legit at first,
15:19so the analogy would be
15:21like a stick of butter.
15:22If you have a frozen or very hard
15:24refrigerated stick of butter,
15:25you gotta have to work a little bit to get
15:28it. You know to cut or to move.
15:30If you will have left the butter
15:32out for awhile it's nice and
15:34soft and you touch the butter.
15:36You know your fingers gonna go right through.
15:38Are you able to cut weight through
15:40it super easily so it's the same
15:42analogy for our soft tissue?
15:44Sometimes it takes a little bit of
15:46time to like kind of warm it up.
15:48So you want to spend some extra time
15:50there until you get to the point where
15:53you can kind of sink into it a bit.
15:56So today we have a limited amount of time,
15:58but when you do this soft
15:59tissue release at home,
16:00just remember to spend an adequate
16:02amount of time to release it
16:04to warm it up and then you can
16:06kind of get in there and get the
16:08circulation of the blood flow going.
16:10OK, so for today we're going
16:13to start at our shoulders.
16:15So we're just going to take her
16:18hands and you can come back.
16:20As far as you could reach and
16:23just bring that issue forward.
16:26Are trapezius muscle comes up and actually
16:30crosses over the top of our shoulder?
16:32So that's why it's a strong muscle.
16:35It covers much of the back and it takes it,
16:38takes some effort and some controlled
16:41massage to get that to release.
16:44You may want to take the tips
16:46of your fingers again and do a
16:48little bit of that pet ruszaj
16:51an which back as far as you can.
16:54The more of that muscle you can
16:58activate the better it will be for you.
17:02And you could see that the tissue
17:04starts to become a little bit red.
17:06So that showing that you're
17:08getting some blood flow going,
17:10and that's exactly the
17:11intention that you want.
17:16Another movement we could
17:18do at the shoulders is.
17:20Like a pulling motion down.
17:23From the top of your shoulder down.
17:28Torch the joint of your shoulder.
17:32Just get that release going.
17:35It's nice to use the tips
17:37of your fingers here,
17:39just really pressing you want to feel.
17:42You want to feel the muscle
17:44almost moving a little bit.
17:46You want to feel the soft tissue moving.
17:51When we do one side,
17:52we always want to move to the other side.
17:55We want our body to be in balance.
17:57So we're going to move over to the
18:00side that you have not yet done,
18:02and we're going to do that
18:04same sort of movement,
18:05bringing your tissue forward as much
18:07as you can from the back to your font.
18:10Using your whole hand,
18:12pressing in with your fingers.
18:15And bring it forward.
18:19Practice important as we do this as your
18:21body starts to circulate as this as you
18:23can feel the blood flow kind of moving,
18:26you're going to feel almost like
18:27a need to take a deep breath.
18:29So go ahead and do that.
18:31Listen to your body.
18:33And continue your breath.
18:39Bring that tissue forward.
18:40You could feel it.
18:42You feel a little pops and
18:45little movement of the tissue.
18:47And never be afraid to work on yourself.
18:52And again, we're going to take that
18:55movement from the top of the neck
18:57down towards the shoulder joint.
18:59Again, this is a strong muscle,
19:01so you could use whatever part of the
19:04hand that you want the whole hand.
19:07All the fingers. To move that tissue.
19:14And little circles again pet ruszaj
19:16with the tips of your fingers,
19:18the kneading motion as far back as you could
19:23reach even up tored your neck a little bit.
19:27Make that kneading motion.
19:29You could really feel beautiful release.
19:33Excellent. Good, so that's how we
19:37can engage and activate an release.
19:39The tension in our shoulders.
19:40And as you do this on your own use
19:43as much time as you need today,
19:46we want to move through
19:47different parts of the body,
19:49so we're going to we're going to keep
19:51it going here now and we're going to
19:54move to the clavicle or the show or
19:56the collarbone here now, the clavicle.
19:59Can get contracted with little trigger
20:02points and we don't even realize it.
20:05With you, if you're the type of
20:07person that hold your breath in.
20:09When you're tense,
20:10you hold it in your contracting.
20:13All of these muscles here,
20:15and sometimes we're not aware of that.
20:18So you just take a moment here.
20:21And again,
20:22this is a sensitive area,
20:23so we don't want to use too much
20:26pressure with the tips of our
20:29fingers is usually adequate.
20:31So start here.
20:32At the sternum and just make
20:34little circles underneath the bone.
20:37You don't want to go on the bone.
20:40But why under the collarbone?
20:44Outwords the joint of your shoulder,
20:48little circles and press in against.
20:51You want to feel that release.
20:54You do want to feel.
20:56He wanted to feel it's going to be
20:58a little tender, a little sensitive.
21:00But we're activating the soft tissue.
21:08And now above right above the collarbone,
21:11again not on the collarbone,
21:13but wait about it tender tender here.
21:16So just be very gentle with yourself.
21:19The tip of your finger is
21:22probably all you need.
21:24This president.
21:28Just feel the release as you press it.
21:31Even just holding here is enough
21:34to create a release.
21:35Just press and hold and breathe.
21:44Just very gently move along.
21:59Just above the collarbone and
22:02just out. Torture shoulder joint.
22:08Excellent.
22:11Discontinue the breath.
22:15When you get to the shoulder too.
22:19We can practice a little bit of that
22:22circular friction at the joints.
22:23So why did the shoulder bone?
22:26You could take a finger or two
22:28and you could actually feel.
22:31The bones. And the muscle.
22:35At the joint.
22:37And just slowly work around it.
22:41Pressing him with a couple of fingers.
22:46Just to create.
22:49A little bit of friction.
22:52Circulation and release.
22:58And again we want to do that on both sides.
23:02Circular friction,
23:02couple of fingers just around the joints.
23:06And this could be done at any joint.
23:08This could be done at your wrists.
23:09This can be done at your knees,
23:11your ankles.
23:12Just a little bit of circular friction.
23:15Sometimes on the front here.
23:17He felt a little extra something,
23:19or you could be on the back and just
23:21take a few extra minutes there when
23:23you feel like a little tenderness.
23:25A little muscular discomfort.
23:27Spend a little bit more time on those spots.
23:33Good, excellent.
23:37Again, take a deep breath.
23:41We want to be aware we want to be
23:43aware of our body, aware of how
23:46we're feeling aware of our breath.
23:50K so now we're going to move to the forearms.
23:54Now the forms again.
23:56This is another area that does get tight.
23:59It gets tight, it gets contracted,
24:02but sometimes we're not aware of it until
24:05we actually feel it and press on there.
24:09So in this area.
24:11It's short is a strong muscles,
24:14so we could do a.
24:16You are pet ruszaj here that kneading motion,
24:19pressing in and around.
24:23Pressing in and around.
24:26We can do some deep
24:28pressure work and glide up.
24:35Sometimes you use the edge
24:37of your finger press down.
24:40Into the soft tissue an up.
24:45Just move around. You could actually
24:47sometimes even feel the tendons
24:49move a little bit, which is good.
24:54And as you activate releases, soft tissue,
24:56you'll feel a tendency to take a deep
24:58breath this weekend at the shoulders,
25:00and you want to you want to do that as well.
25:05K on the inside of your arm here.
25:08The same you want to just move that tissue?
25:13Our movements we want to do twords the heart.
25:15So rather than going down to the rest
25:18we want to go up upwards motion so
25:21it's up around towards the heart.
25:24So activating our circulatory system here.
25:30Good. An interesting how the forum can
25:34give you a surprisingly good release.
25:36'cause again, like we don't.
25:37We're not like, oh I have a sore forearm.
25:40We don't often feel like that but but we do.
25:43It gets it gets tight.
25:45We use our arms quite a bit so
25:47this is a good part of the body.
25:50To do a conscious effort to release
25:53so again move to your other arm.
25:56So we create a balance.
25:58Moving a soft tissue.
26:02And continuing the breath.
26:08Could be petrissage kneading
26:10motion with your hand.
26:16Or it could be that deeper work where
26:19we take the wage of our finger and
26:22push in and push up for release.
26:29Good.
26:33Matt again to the inside.
26:37Continue your breath.
26:44Excellent.
26:47Excellent good work and again we
26:50have a joint here. At the elbow.
26:55So circular friction at any joint
26:58is always helpful and useful.
27:01And that's where we can just
27:03kind of use one finger.
27:04Just don't be afraid to feel
27:06what's going on under the skin,
27:08'cause you could feel it.
27:09You could feel your bones,
27:11you could feel your tendons.
27:12You could feel the soft tissue.
27:16So just a little bit of joint release.
27:19On the elbow. Excellent.
27:24So now we're going to move on to the
27:27legs and feet for the lower body,
27:29so I'm going to try to adjust my
27:31screen so this is effective for you.
27:33May just step back a bit OK. So.
27:38Oftentimes our shins, actually our shins,
27:43get very, very tight. I'm very tense.
27:50So this is a wonderful area.
27:52Again, we're going to work upwards.
27:54We're going to work from the
27:56ankle up towards our knee.
27:58So just take the tips of your fingers
28:01and really press in their press in.
28:04You don't want to be on the bone.
28:07You could obviously feel the bone
28:10here and you could feel bone here,
28:13but around the bone is all the soft tissue.
28:16There's tendons, there's muscle,
28:18there's fassia, and we want to move it.
28:22To just get the circulation going,
28:25get the blood flow moving.
28:27So here are our links are pretty tough.
28:30You could even use.
28:32That the flat part here of your fingers,
28:35and you can press in and up.
28:40Please even up and just feel
28:42the release of the soft tissue.
28:47You can again want to continue
28:49being conscious of your breath.
28:50You don't want to take deep breaths
28:52and please go ahead and do that.
28:55Aponi again, we could do our
28:58circular friction around the knee
29:01with the tips of our fingers.
29:03And then right here on both sides of the
29:07bone, he could get very, very tender.
29:10So with the tips of your fingers.
29:13Just little circles pressing up and in.
29:19You may feel bumpy little bumps in there.
29:23Well, that hesione's in there.
29:26It's cool head and release them.
29:31And as you do this work on
29:34your own in the days to come,
29:36spend extra time like when you
29:39feel a little, a little adhesion,
29:41a little bumpy spot there.
29:43Just spend a few extra minutes.
29:45If it's super tender,
29:46light in your pressure.
29:48Sometimes all you need is to hold the area.
29:52Just to hold it for release.
29:56Excellent. So keeping our balance,
29:59we want to move to the other leg.
30:04And do the same sort of release.
30:11Take.
30:14The inner. Part of your fingers
30:18and just give a good press up
30:22and around. This field release.
30:29Excellent. Excellent,
30:33continue the controlled breathing.
30:37Excellent. And again,
30:39we can do little circles.
30:43On both sides of the bullmer.
30:52Good.
30:57And release around the joints of the knee.
31:03Think about what you're feeling.
31:05You feel the bone. You feel the tendons.
31:11The tendons attach the muscle to the bone.
31:18The ligaments attached the bone to the bone.
31:26Good. And up and around.
31:34Beautiful very very good work.
31:35This is, you know,
31:37a conscious effort that you're making,
31:39and I thank you so much for taking
31:41the time to learn this and to do
31:44this and to improve your health.
31:47I'm going to end their soft tissue release
31:51with work around the neck and the jaw.
31:54So you may want to take another
31:56sip of water if you have.
32:01So we hold quite a bit of tension.
32:06It aren't Mac in our job.
32:09Sometimes when we sleep course,
32:11we sometimes grind your teeth or throughout
32:12the day if something is causing us anxiety,
32:15we don't want to yell or scream about it,
32:18so we kind of hold it in and
32:20we don't even realize it.
32:21We stay quiet,
32:22but our body is feeling the effects,
32:24so this is an important release for you.
32:28OK, So what we're going to do today is.
32:31When it take to start the tips of
32:34our fingers and wait at the base of
32:37your ear on both sides right here.
32:40Just gently press in.
32:44And start to make circles.
32:49Now your circles could get bigger.
32:52Little by little, both circles could
32:56expand. Until you're activating.
33:01Your job muscle.
33:05You could start to use the tips of
33:08all your fingers now. Unprecedented.
33:13You could open your mouth.
33:16And the more you press in all the
33:19sudden you're up, you're gonna feel it.
33:22Eight in a field that type muscle there.
33:29And you want to try to release it.
33:32Now you can use your pointer finger.
33:35The whole finger, open your
33:37mouth a little and press in.
33:42Ann, you can really feel
33:44what's going on in there.
33:48As you do as you do so, drop your
33:52shoulders and just maintain your breath.
33:57Excellent. And just keep that going,
34:02pressing up and around. Beautiful.
34:09We're going to continue up here because
34:12this is the temporal mandibular area.
34:16So we worked on Amanda Mandible
34:19and now we're going to go
34:21up here to the temple area.
34:24Well, this muscle gets very tight,
34:25but we do want to be tender with it here.
34:28We don't want to press too hard.
34:30It's nice to use your thumbs.
34:34And just make circles go up from
34:38the top of your ear.
34:40And move with little circles.
34:44Feel your shoulders drop.
34:49Excellent. And you could take
34:53the tips of your fingers.
34:55Come around the tops of your eyebrows.
35:00Center of your eyebrow.
35:03Little circles with your finger
35:06move up your forehead right
35:09here to the tip of your scalp.
35:12And we're going to press out.
35:16With the tips of the fingers
35:19press and stretch the tissue.
35:25Breathe as you press out,
35:28working your way down.
35:30When you get to the temples now,
35:34you could go back to the
35:35little circles for release.
35:39And one more weight at
35:41the top of your eyebrows.
35:48Excellent dental clothes
35:50are soft tissue release.
35:53Take the tips of your fingers
35:55and just give yourself.
35:57Nice little scalp release.
36:00Almost like somebody at the
36:04salon is showering your hair.
36:08And they're giving you
36:10a nice extra little.
36:12Scalp massage
36:17beautiful.
36:19At the very tip of your head.
36:22Press in with your finger. And move.
36:27Akhras the top of your skull.
36:31Sometimes it's tender there.
36:35Just give it a nice release,
36:37can use the tips of all your fingers.
36:40This is the Crown of your head.
36:42It's very, very significant.
36:45Sometimes the Crown of our head.
36:48It's closed and this helps to open it up.
36:54OK, beautiful thank you all so much.
36:57I hope that was helpful for you learning
37:01the benefits of controlled breathing.
37:03Unawareness of our breath and how
37:06to do our own soft tissue release.
37:09These are exercises again that you
37:12can do every day throughout the day.
37:15I'm on your own for improved
37:18health for a positive outlook.
37:21Always continue, obviously with hydration,
37:23lots of water, healthy foods.
37:26Be gentle and patient with yourself
37:29and just always remember that our
37:32progress is counted in moments.
37:34So many things are just moments.
37:37Something amazing can happen
37:39and it's just a moment in time,
37:42but it can give us a lifetime of hapiness.
37:47That moment so just.
37:49Treasure, you know,
37:50treasure the moments when
37:52something awesome happens.
37:53You know.
37:54Embrace it, acknowledge it and
37:56just let it become part of you.
37:59OK so again, thank you all for joining.
38:02It was my privilege and honor to be with you.
38:05I wish you health and I wish you happiness.
38:07I wish you peace and I look forward
38:10to working with you again soon,
38:11maybe on some guided meditation.
38:13OK, take care and be well.