relaxation – Essential Physical Therapy

July 14, 2020August 19, 2020

The Most Misunderstood Molecule, and How to Harness Its Power

Deeper, quieter, regular, slower.

Those are the general guidelines for focusing our attention on the breath. This awareness makes us feel calmer, more relaxed, and releases tension from our bodies.

But How? Why does changing our breath change our mood, and many other factors?

Research has shown that slower, deeper breathing reduces heart rate and risk for cardiovascular disease, as well as improves athletic performance. (yes, all you athletes out there, breathe slower to go faster).

The reason all these magnificent changes occur within us when we deepen our breath, especially our exhales, is because of a very special molecule that usually gets a bad rap.

I’m talking about good old carbon dioxide, CO2.

I know what you’re thinking…is she talking about the very same carbon dioxide that we are trying to reduce in our atmosphere to slow global warming? The same carbon dioxide that is considered a waste product of our bodies- something useless to to be rid of as soon as possible?

Well, yes, I am.

But what if I told you that this special little molecule was not only a useful component in improving your health, but an essential one for you to be able to thrive?

You see, for our bodies to get oxygen from our lungs to our tissues, we need carbon dioxide. To get a proper inhale, our receptors in our neck need to sense a certain amount of carbon dioxide in our bodies.

Not to mention, carbon dioxide is stored as bicarbonate in your blood stream, which is essential for maintaining the pH balance of your whole body.

Did I mention that carbon dioxide is critical in weight loss? Most of your body mass lost is due to breathing out carbon dioxide. In fact, more than 80% of weight loss is due to breathing out CO2, and only 15% or so is lost via sweat and urine.

So, if you’ve been dieting, exercising, doing all the right things and still not losing weight… you may want to look at how you’re breathing.

Let’s explore some of these in a little detail…

Firstly, how the heck does carbon dioxide help your body get more oxygen?

Think of carbon dioxide as the Fedex guy, and oxygen as your packages. When outside air hits your lungs, it makes it’s way down to alveoli, the tiny air sacs that interface with the blood stream. The oxygen molecules (packages) get loaded from the alveoli onto the red blood cell, which in this analogy is the Fedex truck.

The truck travels all over the body, delivering oxygen to all the cells as they all need oxygen to survive and flourish. When exercising, certain muscles need even more oxygen more quickly.

This is where our good buddy carbon dioxide comes in.

Oxygen cannot get off the truck unless there is a carbon dioxide molecule there to unload it.

When the oxygen gets to its destination, the carbon dioxide triggers the packages (oxygen) to be unloaded off the Fedex Truck (red blood cell), and be delivered to the cells (your mailbox).

The more carbon dioxide present, the more efficiently the oxygen can be offloaded to cells.

So, when you’re exercising and you really need to get oxygen to those tissues, perhaps try breathing slower instead of faster.

Why does the amount of CO2 in your body determine how you inhale?

I’m constantly telling my patients, don’t worry about the inhale! If you get a good exhale, the inhale will just come.

This is for two reasons, the first of which is purely mechanical.

When you exhale completely, the lungs become essentially “empty” of air, which creates a vacuum. New air has to flow in. It must follow the laws of nature! It must flow from the higher pressure (outside your body) to the lower pressure (inside your lungs). You don’t have to use your accessory muscles (aka your neck) to pull air in, it just goes in! Easy.

The second reason is neurological.

Deep in the reptilian brain, the most primal part of our brain that was present when the first creature crawled out of the primordial goo and decided to walk on land, there is a simple neural network that says, “breathe.”

This network senses levels of oxygen and CO2 in your body to decide when to inhale or exhale. Basically, when your body senses a certain level of oxygen in your body, that circuit makes you exhale. Similarly, when a certain level of CO2 is sensed, the circuit makes your body inhale.

Unfortunately, for many of us, this circuit gets messed up.

We breathe shallowly because we are less active, or stressed, or both, and we do this so much that we end up overriding the part of the circuit that senses CO2 and tells you to inhale.

We get stuck in this cycle of inhaling without ever getting to the bottom of our breath; we lose that primal trigger to inhale, so our inhales get all wonky, a.k.a. you end up pulling your ribcage up with your neck.

In addition to all these important factors, carbon dioxide is the main reason that you feel relaxed with deeper breathing.

Carbon dioxide makes you chill out.

Think about it. What do they tell you to do when you’re having a panic attack? Breathe into a paper bag. You’re breathing back in the CO2 you exhaled. Get that CO2 flowin’ baby!

Carbon dioxide relaxes you by causing your blood vessels to relax, which allows blood to deliver oxygen to all your tissues more easily.

Also, as mentioned above, CO2 lets your body unload oxygen from red blood cells to tissues.

These two factors together mean that your brain gets more oxygen and blood flow. This tells your body that you are safe, and you feel calmer and, well, more chill!

So how to insure that you get more CO2, but not too much?

The answer is simple, and I think you know what I’m going to say.

Breathe deeper, quieter, regular, slower.

5-6 seconds for each inhale and exhale, resulting in about 5-6 breaths per minute, is the ideal for balancing the CO2 and O2 in your body.

Below is a short video on how to do just that and harness the power of this special molecule.

Are you ready to breathe better to move better, to improve the health and resiliency of your lungs without any medication or procedures? Click the button below to find out if will benefit from working with Dr. Derya.

Book a FREE WellBody Screening Session

References

Aakash K. Patel; Andrew Benner; Jeffrey S. Cooper. Physiology, Bohr Effect.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526028/

Anders Olsson Blog https://www.consciousbreathing.com/anders-olsson/carbon-dioxide-training-extremely-harmonious/

Nestor, James. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. May 14, 2020 http://www.pathwaymedicine.org/control-of-respiration

July 8, 2020June 24, 2021

The Revolutionary Bone that No One Talks About

It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot with a nice cool breeze. As I jogged along the trail that passes through the meadow by my house, taking in the thousands of bright blue chicory flowers, I reflected on how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place, to have a healthy body…. OUCH!

My knee was bugging me again, as it sometimes does when I’ve been running a lot without much cross training. Not that long ago I may have endured it, knowing that I would do some manual therapy or soft tissue work when I got home to try and coax my body back into a better alignment. Maybe I would have checked out my running form-making sure my core was engaged, and that my cadence was just right.

But today I know more. Thanks to the postural restoration institute, or PRI for short, I have such a deeper understanding of how so many things affect our movement and anatomy. I knew that the best thing I could do was just be more aware of the left side of the trail as it whizzed past. As I did that, my knee instantly felt much better.

Wait whaaaat??? Yup. Seriously. I simply became more aware of my left peripheral vision, which made my knee feel better.

Little disclaimer here…this is not to say that everyone who goes running will instantly be painfree by looking to the left, everyone has unique needs and nuances.

That said… it is a good idea to be aware of your peripheral vision when running and in general…more on that later.

But WHY??? Why would what I’m doing with my eyes affect my knee pain?

It’s all because of this special bone at the center of our head called the sphenoid.

Before we get into what this could possibly have to do with my knee, we should first ask ourselves…

Why Is the Sphenoid Bone So Special?

Here are just a few reasons…

The sphenoid bone attaches to our jaw, our eyes, and our ears.
The nerves that tell us to rest or digest or fight or flee or freeze pass through this bone.
The main arteries that supply blood flow to your brain pass through this bone.
The position of this bone determines the amount of pressure on your brainstem, which contains the apparatus to help your body organize movement.
The pituitary gland, which performs life-sustaining functions, nestles nicely into a tiny protective saddle in the sphenoid bone.

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. This bone is responsible for a lot of important stuff!

Even just a tiny tweak in the position of the sphenoid could cause all sorts of repurcussions, many of which seem completely unrelated.

What Might Tweak a Sphenoid’s Position?

The way your teeth touch matters big time to your sphenoid.
- The sphenoid interacts with your top and bottom teeth via muscles and nerve endings, but even the bony position of your jaw and maxilla (the bone that holds your top teeth) push against the sphenoid in certain ways. Not to mention, the periodontal ligament is HIGHLY sensitive to pressure and gives you lots of reference as to where you are in space. This neural information is then processed by your BRAINSTEM (remember that guy?) And what’s between your teeth and your brainstem? The sphenoid.
- Have you ever had dental work done and had the position of your tooth end up just a little higher or lower? If you have, you know it. Your body knows it. Everything feels off, you can’t relax until that tooth is back to where you like it! That’s the sensitivity of the periodontal ligament and the sphenoid position at play.
Head injuries and concussions.
- I don’t think I really need to explain why a blow to the head can affect sphenoid position and surrounding function. But what most people don’t realize is that you don’t have to hit your head to get a concussion. Whiplash, blast exposure, falls, all these things can result in jostling the contents of the skull.
How you use your eyes.
- Remember, the muscles that move your eyes around attach to your sphenoid. If you use your eyes the same way most of the time (like staring at a screen, for example), this can pull on the sphenoid.
The neck.
- The poor head is at the whim of what the neck is doing. And the neck is at the whim of what the body is doing underneath it! Think of a house that is built on clay. When first built, everything is nice and level. But then, after a big rainstorm, different parts of the clay expand at different rates due to the moisture, and the foundation starts to shift and become unlevel. Of course everything above the foundation will also become unlevel. Similarly, if your body is imbalanced below your sphenoid, you will likely also have imbalance above.

Of course there are other situations where certain visual or dental changes (surgical or otherwise) can affect how you hold your body below, because, unlike a house, the body’s roof (the cranium) has just as much of an effect of where the foundation (rest of the body) sits due to all the sensory input we get from our head telling us where we are in space.

Don’t believe me? try standing on one foot. Got it? Good. Now try doing that with your eyes closed. Little harder? That’s because you’re getting information about where you are relative to the ground from your eyes, not just your feet.

Also, I have to say that if you had a head injury or dental work or vision work, this does not doom you to a life of a crooked sphenoid! It can certainly have an effect, but in most people it is manageable with the right program of manual therapy and movement techniques.

So back to my knee. Why did being aware of my left visual field help my knee?

At a purely structural level, there is some effect of letting my eye position change to pull on my sphenoid in a different way.

On a deeper, subtler, neurological level, being aware of the left does several powerful things.

Firstly, it reminds my body to become centered instead of pulling to the right, which I do (and most people do) because of our anatomy and the way our brains are wired. This is especially important for me since I have had a head injury which included broken facial bones.

Secondly, it opens up my left peripheral vision, which creates a sense of expansiveness in my body, thus allowing the sphenoid and surrounding bones to spread and widen. This takes pressure off of all those neural and vascular structures, and lets my body relax out of a state of tension.

When our bodies are held in a tense and protective state, we can’t rotate well through our torso. A side to side alternating activity like running absolutely requires the ability to rotate. If you can’t rotate at your trunk, your body will do it somewhere else. For me, it was my knee.

As soon as I let my left visual field soften and open, my body got a signal (or many signals, rather) to reposition itself into a more optimal position, subconsciously. I could rotate better, breathe better, and didn’t need to put any extra torque on my knee.

Well, I know this is a pretty heady conversation (get it? Heady? Skull? Ok I know, too punny) but it is one worth having.

Because sometimes you do all the right things and still aren’t feeling better or where you want to be with your sport, your breathing, your health, or your ability to do the things you want to do.

When that’s happening, it’s time to look at what’s happening from the neck up to determine if something there could be inhibiting your progress.

Here’s a simple but powerful technique to try that will help with restoring sphenoid position.

May 1, 2020May 1, 2020

Reduce Pain by Changing Your Outlook

If you know me, you know I love to look at research studies. Sure, they have their limitations, but it’s really cool to see things we intuitively know are good for us proven under the scrutiny of the scientific method!

Take, for example, a recent review of the literature that studies the role of a positive outlook on pain. This study is from the Clinical Psychological Society in the Netherlands.

They found that a positive outlook significantly reduces pain, and reduces sensitivity to painful events.

For people with chronic pain or other painful conditions, they found that positivity can also optimize the effectiveness of other treatments.

Wow! That is pretty amazing. But if you’re anything like me, you’re thinking,

“Well, it’s pretty hard to be happy-go-lucky when you’re in pain! How am I supposed to do that?”

This is especially true if you have chronic pain that you’ve been dealing with for a long time. It’s hard to not let that get you down, and understandably so.

So how can we use this research to make change in our pain and our lives?

My prescription for you is this:

decide, right now, that you are your own first priority.

Yup, that’s right. Before you start thinking of reasons to put yourself second (or third, or fourth…or last), consider this:

When you get on a plane, don’t they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before helping other people? That’s because you’re not much good to anyone if you’re passed out in the aisle!

Taking care of yourself is like putting your oxygen mask on. You need to be okay before you can be there for other people in a meaningful way. Otherwise, you will end up resentful to those you intended to help, and/or you will burn out. If you REALLY want to be there for the people you love and the causes you care about, you MUST take care of yourself first.

There are so many simple, quick and effective ways to reduce your levels of daily stress, and thereby improve your mood and your outlook.

Some of the things you can do to boost your mood are quick reminders that you can include easily in your day on the fly, and others you have to plan for. Let’s take a look at both.

On the Fly Mood Boosters

I’m gonna give you some daily, stress-busting reminders to try.

Your job is to pick one or two that you can really do over the next week.

Write the one you pick on a post-it and stick it on a mirror, the refrigerator, your desk, or anywhere else you know you’ll see it a lot. You can even post reminders in more than just one place!

After a week, take a moment to notice if anything has shifted in you since you started this practice.

You might keep up with it as it is, change your reminder, or just modify yours a little. It’s your daily ritual, make it how you like it!

List of Reminders For Your Post-It:

“Breathe” (long slow inhales, longer slower exhales)
Be willing to not have all the answers.
When you’re feeling stressed, ask yourself, “what is the most important thing right now?”
Pick a different energy- whimsy, joy, playfulness, or one of your own choosing- and call it into your mind and heart.
Remove extra minor stressors when you find them (e.g. driving just a little too fast…it’s weirdly stressful!).
Be willing to ask for help when you need it.
If you’re pushing yourself to complete a self-imposed task, ask yourself, “will this matter in a year?”
Take several slow, deep breaths before each meal.
Remind yourself to “slow down” more often.
Pretend that you’re at your “vacation job” or your “vacation home,” or in your “vacation car.” How would you act differently if this was exactly what you wanted to be doing, where you wanted to be? If you CHOSE this?

Plan Your Relaxation Time

While it’s good to have little reminders in the day, nothing can match the power of actually scheduling time in your day to do something to take care of you. And, for most of us, if you don’t schedule it in your calendar, it won’t get done.

So grab your favorite pen, your planner, and block out some time for yummy self care!

Here are some ideas you can choose from, or you can come up with your own self soothing experience 🙂

Planned Ways to Reduce Stress

Practice this Active Rest Pose for 5 minutes, a few days a week.
Practice self empathy for a few minutes, especially if you are feeling down.
Take a nap!
Go for a walk outside. If possible, try not to look at your phone (or not bring it if you can!).
Buy yourself some flowers.
Leave early for an appointment and enjoy the journey getting there.
Go for a walk with your dog or child, and let them lead the way. Stop where they stop, notice if you feel impatient, and let them teach you how to slow down and savor the moment.
Use all your paid time off!
Read a book (that’s not related to work or self-improvement!)
Eat your lunch outside, and JUST eat. (try not to look at your phone, read, or listen to something).
Plan a “frump day” where you stay home all day in your comfy, frumpy clothes and do whatever you feel like. Watch movies, do some stretching, bake some cookies, take a bath.
Write a handwritten letter to someone you care for and haven’t seen in a while. Use special stationary that you like.
Lie on the couch for a few minutes. Not to listen to a podcast, sleep, or text. Just be there.
Take a 5 minute stretch break at work- make sure you’re breathing!

Not all of these may appeal to you, but I’m sure some of them do! Incorporating some spontaneous and some planned relaxation into your day can make a huge difference in your outlook, your pain, and your overall experience of life.

After all, what’s the point of all this if you’re not enjoying some of it along the way, right?

Keep taking care of yourself, and the world will reward you.

May you find ease in your body! I’ll be there rooting for you the whole way.

– Dr. Derya

April 28, 2020May 7, 2020

5 Day Restorative Yoga Challenge!

It’s a Rejuvenation Revolution!

Happy Spring! I have had much more time to contemplate and reflect during quarantine life, and am making the most of time at home with my hubby and doggie. I hope you are able to find some light in this uncertain situation, too.

I’m feeling inspired by the new season, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming! I’m excited for everything this season has in store for me and for you as well. In fact, I’ve gotten so inspired that I made an awesome challenge to rejuvenate your body and spirit in under 15 minutes a day (more on that below)!

Whether you know me from the clinic, or have been following along here on the blog, you’ll know that I am all about taking realistic small steps to finding peace and ease in your body rather than looking for a miracle cure.

I’m a firm believer that little bits of self care lead to lasting change. Why? Because it works.

Real change—in our lifestyle, our mindset, our breath, our lives—doesn’t happen all at once. If you’re anything like me, you love the intoxicating hope and energy that comes with creating big, amazing goals. But at some point, we have to take the first step!

Now that it’s spring, a time of rebuilding and growth, it’s especially important to go step by step!

As we emerge from our winter cocoon into a more active lifestyle, it’s important to do this with grace and gentleness so that we can be present for our loved ones, and for ourselves. It’s easy to go full force and then find yourself burnt out before you even really got started. Trust me, I’ve been there! When that happens, those exciting goals might lose a bit of their allure. Luckily, that’s where the small changes I keep mentioning come into play!

Every change you manifest in life (big and bold, slow and steady—it all counts) starts with a decision. You decide you want to go after or create something, then you start walking that path. The key is to start where you are and just begin.

There’s something magical in those first small steps, no matter how baby they are. I think it’s time to honor those small steps.

So, as spring sets in, I’ve got an idea for you: Instead of going full speed ahead, let’s reserve some of that time for self care, so that you can keep moving forward in a calm and centered way!

I’m calling it the Rejuvenation Revolution!

I’m not saying you shouldn’t go after all those amazing and fun things you have planned for this spring and summer (you absolutely should!), but it is time for those plans to share your brainspace with your wellbeing, today.

Not your wellbeing next month or next year—your wellbeing now.

I’m talking about finding simple ways to nourish and care for yourself today. About taking simple, doable actions that bolster you up rather than wear you down. You might be surprised what’s possible when you put the next 6 months aside and focus on caring for yourself in this very moment!

Not sure where to start?

Join me for my 5 Day Restorative Yoga Challenge! If you haven’t experienced the power of restorative yoga before, you’re in for a treat! It’s the perfect opportunity to choose one small thing you can do for yourself now.

Instead of huge lifestyle changes, we’ll simply be adding one simple, relaxing restorative yoga posture to our day for 5 days. No prior experience necessary! I talk you through each exercise with enough detail for complete beginners (but don’t worry, I don’t gab the whole time)! It’s a fabulous way to kick-start this more active season with a steady, consistent energy with a focus on taking care of YOU.

Because no matter what your big goals for this spring and summer may be, adding just one restorative yoga pose a day to your routine will set you up for success in mind, body and soul. It’s a small step you can take today towards creating a healthy habits that will sustain you all year long.

When you join the challenge, you’ll get 5 restorative yoga postures to help you regain energy, be more calm and focused, relax your body and feed your soul! Just because we’re taking small steps doesn’t mean we can’t go after big, lovely results, right?!

When you join, you’ll get:

Each day for 5 days you’ll receive one restorative yoga posture with a guided video in your email.
You’ll also get tips on how to make the most of each posture and modifications if you need ’em.
Oh, and did I mention that all the videos all take less than 15 minutes to complete?

Say “YES” to Rejuvenation! Join the 5-Day Restorative Yoga Challenge!

It always helps to have accountability buddies on board, it’s one of the keys to success! So share this challenge far and wide!

This is your chance to give yourself some soothing, well-deserved care. Trust me, your body and mind will thank you.

Join me on this challenge today! I’ll be there to rest, restore, and replenish with you every step of the way.

With love,

Dr. Derya

April 16, 2020August 19, 2020

How do I Release Tension From My Body? 3 Quick And Easy Ways to Relax

It was my second year of physical therapy school, and I was sitting in the white and beige lecture hall. The room emulated the newness and grandeur of the medical campus, but lacked character or color. The course title, “Musculoskeletal 101,” was stamped in the top right of the slides, and today’s topic was Managing Dysfunction of the Cervical Spine. I was bent awkwardly over my desk, furiously taking notes when I had to take a break because my neck was just killing me.

The irony of this was not lost on me.

Even though in physical therapy school I was learning about all the cool ways to crack joints and push and pull on muscles, the tension in my neck was inescapable. I was seeing a physical therapist myself, who would stick needles in my ropey neck tissue, and I was spending my precious study time rolling all around on tennis balls and stretching in all the right directions to “loosen up” my neck. While these things helped for a short while (and some not at all)

I couldn’t help wondering if there was another reason I was getting so tense.

Did I mention that physical therapy school is one of the most stressful things I have ever done in my life? Long commutes, sleep deprivation, assignments that took longer than the hours I had to finish them, projects and social dynamics, constant testing, hours of note taking, clinical rotations with high expectations… you get the picture. I don’t regret any of it, it was an invaluable experience. But I DO regret not having the tools to help me manage my stress levels, because it was taking a huge toll on my body.

Why Do We Get Tense?

We tense our bodies as a way to protect ourselves. It just so happens that high stress levels cause your body to perceive threat and therefore seek protection. Another reason we get tense in our necks, lower backs and hips is to hold ourselves up when our core is not functioning well. Guess what? Stress triggers us to shunt blood away from our core and to our arms and legs (because if there’s a threat, you better be ready to run!)

This is what I call the stress-tension one-two punch.

It’s the double whammy that stress has on causing tension in our bodies. The first blow is the initial tension you get directly from the stress hormones in your body that are readying you to fight or flee. The second comes from the compensatory way your body carries itself when in a stress state.

Hold on a sec! My stressful scenario wasn’t one where I had to fight or flee, I was just bent over my computer hacking away at a keyboard like a madwoman on a diet of coffee and energy bars. Why would my body have to ready itself for anything?

Tension and Stress

The thing is that your body doesn’t know the difference between the stress of being chased by a mountain lion or the stress of your boss adding an extra pile of work to your already overflowing inbox.

Stress is stress! The same hormones are released, and the same responses occur.

Our systems to manage stress are a primal instinct, present since we were “wild humans,” if you will, and the threat of having to fight or flee for your life was a more common occurrence. The steady drip of minor stressors (emails, traffic, alarm clocks, board meetings) did not even exist yet.

We are designed to manage a stressor that is an immediate threat – it is something that we deal with and then it’s over.

You either get away from the saber toothed tiger chasing you down, or you kill it, or you die. Done. Your system takes a few minutes to an hour to return to relaxed muscles, deeper breathing, and an active core. You can rest, digest, and hold yourself up properly.

When we have that steady drip of stress, however, our body doesn’t know how to get back to that baseline “rest and digest” state anymore.

We’re constantly juiced with stress hormones that make our body tense, despite how many physical therapists or chiropractors poke our muscles or push on our backs. To get rid of that tension, we have to get to the source.

We have to help our nervous system relax.

A Nervous System Reset

Even though we can’t always change the world around us, we can certainly change ourselves. You may not be able to change your work situation, your commute, or your other stressors.

But you CAN take small actions that reprogram your nervous system to quickly get back to that place of calm, and by doing so let go of tension in your body.

There are lots of ways to reset your nervous system. Below are three of my favorites because they are:

Easy to do
Fast
Effective

One way is by balancing the right and left sides of the body with your breath.

Balancing Breath:

sit comfortably. Bring your right hand index and middle fingers down, leaving the right thumb, ring and small fingers up (see video below if this is tricky for you!)
Cover your right nostril with your thumb, and exhale completely through your left nostril.
Pause for a 4 count, then inhale through your left nostril.
Cover your left nostril with your ring finger, pause for a 4 count, then exhale completely through the right nostril.
Pause for a 4 count, then inhale through the right nostril.
Pause for a 4 count, then cover the right nostril with your right thumb and exhale completely through the left nostril.
Continue with this sequence for about 6 breath cycles. Then rest.
Do this 1-2x/day.

https://youtu.be/c6ay8f6bJHk

Alternate Nostril Breath: a simple way to balance the body

Notice how you feel before and after doing this exercise. With some practice you can do this quickly and easily to help your body relax and release tension.

Cupping the Eyes

Did you know that how you see the world affects how tense your body gets? No wonder most people who work at a computer all day develop back or neck pain (or both)!

By letting our eyes relax, our nervous system gets an immediate signal that we are safe, and our bodies relax as a result.

Here’s how to do it:

Lean your elbows on a desk or table. Place your head in your hands so that the perimeter of your palm rests on the orbit (boney part around the eye). You don’t want any pressure directly on your eye.
Close your eyes, and stare into the darkness behind your eyes.
Try to make your field of vision very wide, like you are trying to take in as much of the view behind your eyes as possible.
Notice the gradations of light behind your eyelids. You will notice that it is not all black, but rather that there are different grades of blackness and lightness.
Focus on the darkest areas, see if they get bigger.
Tip: if you don’t notice any different gradation of blackness, just keep focusing on the wide view behind your eyelids.
Stay for 2-5 minutes, then come back by lifting your head and slowly opening your eyes.
Do this 1-2x/day.

How to do it: Cupping the Eyes to Help your Body Relax

Notice how you feel after. Try to connect with and remember in that feeling of relaxation in your body.

Breathe!

When we are stressed, our breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Chances are, if you’ve been stressed for a while, you haven’t taken a full breath in a looooong time. And when I say a full breath, I don’t mean getting a lot of air in, I mean getting air OUT!

That’s right, when we are breathing shallowly, it’s the lack of complete exhales that prevents us from getting new, oxygen rich air to our brain and other tissues. If you can’t get the old stuff out, you can’t make space for something new (that’s a good metaphor for life, too)!

Here’s how to do it:

Sit comfortably.
Place one hand on your lower front ribs.
Inhale quietly through your nose.
Exhale completely through your mouth, making an “ahhhhh” sound.
Pause 1-3 seconds at the bottom of your exhale before inhaling again quietly through your nose.
Repeat 4 breaths. Rest and repeat 4 more cycles of 4 breaths.
Do this 1-2x/day.

Like I said, I wish I had known these ways to de-stress when I was in physical therapy school. I knew stress mattered, but I didn’t realize the incredible impact it was having on my body!

I hope this article prevents you from having to endure chronic tension in your body, and from having to constantly seek ways to release tension. If you can find the wellspring of calm and ease within, the body will follow.