Power Breathing

(This blog was originally posted on August 30, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

Breathing—especially diaphragmatic breathing—is one of the most natural and basic things that you can do to relax and calm down during a stressful situation. Power breathing is an effective technique to release/force out negative emotions you associate with that situation, event or even a person.

These techniques are similar in that both entail taking deep breaths of air through the nose and holding the air in the lungs for a few seconds before releasing it through the mouth. In power breathing, however, the air is released more forcefully, often with a “whoosh” sound, as if you are blowing out a very large candle. I find that imagery of Old Faithful’s steamy eruption or the sound and sight of the mist produced when whales or dolphins breathe on the surface of the ocean are useful for this exercise. Other good metaphors include a tornado, the power of a wind tunnel or even a volcano; it is completely up to you which imagery—if any—to use when you practice this technique.

The important and therapeutic aspect of this technique is that you associate the forceful release of your breath with symbolically, forcefully releasing those negative emotions or events, etc., you associate with holding back or impeding your personal growth. It doesn’t matter if you identify specific stressors to release (Physical Sexual/Physical Suggestible) or simply recognize them as a generic category of “everything that bothers me.” (An Emotional Sexual/Emotional Suggestible individual is more likely to do this.) The important thing is that you are allowing yourself to release—even force out—those negative associations this way. The force with which you let go of these things physically strengthens this intention in the conscious mind. The fact that these negative associations are being released on the exhale—a natural process of every breath we take—reinforces this intention in the subconscious mind. 

It is a great technique to help release stress and tension when you are stuck in rush-hour traffic, too!

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2017

Family Systems Issues

(This blog was originally posted on August 16, 2016)

Photo by Rick Hustead

In an ideal family, the parents are loving leaders who take care of and set healthy boundaries for their children. They give their kids an opportunity to explore all aspects of their individual personalities. However, within the context of these family dynamics each member has and is expected to fulfill a specific role. There are leaders and followers; but if one family member doesn’t follow the expected or proscribed role the entire family system can break down. Before that can happen, however, other members rally round and do what they can to keep the person in the original, expected role. 

Whether it is physical illness, a negative behavior (shoplifting, promiscuity), low grades, a learning disability, etc., after a while the family dysfunction is familiar, known and normal in the context of the group. Consequently, everyone else in the family revolves around that issue and behaves in ways that will help to keep the person in that role. 

The following behaviors facilitate the continued function of dysfunctional family system:

• Enmeshed: A clinical label used to describe a family whose members are unable to make identities separate from or outside the family. People are the “property” of one another and it is hard for others to come in.

• Co-Dependency: One person’s preoccupation with taking care of another individual’s needs over his or her own.

• Manipulation is needed to get needs met. As relationships become dependent, intimacy problems are normal in a manipulative system.

• Rigid attitudes and reverence for past traditions

• Very rigid gender laws/expectations of gender-appropriate behavior.

• Frequent illness of one individual becomes a secondary gain that temporarily stops other family members from fighting, but suspicion and jealousy can develop between the others because one person is seen as the “favorite.”

When there are behavioral issues with an individual in a family, the entire family is the client. In this case, the hypnotherapist should agree to work with the person only if the entire family also receives therapy from a licensed mental-health professional (California Business and Professions Code 2908).

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2017

Me, Dressage and Yoga 2.0

(This blog was originally posted on August 10, 2016)

Image courtesy of Flickr

 When I first tried yoga around 1999, my initial goal was to increase strength and flexibility, and maybe chill out a little bit. I continued to take classes for a few years with waning enthusiasm. Some instructors (and the classes they taught) were more energetic; others were so laid back that the class felt more like meditation than any kind of exercise. Eventually I got bored, lost interest and dropped out of the class altogether.

Now I’m back at the yoga studio, more enthusiastic than ever. What changed? I bought a horse.

I had long known that practicing yoga is an excellent way to increase fitness, strength and flexibility for riding. My trainer initially suggested I take up Pilates, and I took classes on a reformer machine for about a year. But that was a different kind of work-out which, I felt, wasn’t the best fit for me right now. Scheduling classes was always tough with my and the instructor’s respective schedules. I also found that the workouts fatigued my muscles as much as they strengthened them. A few weeks ago, my sister told me about an introductory offer at my old yoga studio, which was offering unlimited sessions for one month for a very reasonable price. I decided to join her for one class—she swore it would be a good abdominal workout—and immediately became hooked. I’m at the studio at least four days a week and can honestly say I am becoming a yoga “junkie.”

In addition to the great stretching workouts yoga offers, just about every position requires good balance, strength and, of course, regular and deep breathing. Like riding, you can’t do yoga without breathing. The body just can’t sustain the energy and strength you need to take and hold the positions unless you breathe. My riding instructor constantly has to remind me to breathe; now, I have a yoga teacher telling me the same thing. I know from my hypnotherapy training and practice that repetition of a behavior is the best way to create new message units and change an unwanted subconscious mental script. Now I have several different instructors, including my trainer, reminding and coaching me to inhale and exhale. I know I’m getting better at this because they are pointing this out less often.

The other thing I noticed about yoga that is so helpful for my riding is its emphasis on holding the upper body still while moving the legs or arms into various positions, such as the Warrior poses (my favorite). Over the years, my current and previous trainers have reminded me to sit tall and still with the chest open, head up, hands quiet, breathing, etc., while I applied appropriate leg and seat aids.

Every time a yoga instructor comes over to help adjust my body position so I can stretch longer or taller, the equestrian in me is grinning from ear to ear. My favorite class, Vinyasa flow, entails transitioning between various yoga poses fairly quickly. I like this training because it reminds me so much of my dressage training, transitioning from basic movements such as circles and basic lateral movements such as leg yield in both directions to shoulders-in and haunches-in, etc. Sometimes I get confused and sometimes Galahad does, too, when our trainer introduces a new pattern or combination to add to the repertoire: you want me to do what? For me, the yoga equivalent is when the instructor stretches and raises her leg to what seems like an impossible angle and encourages the class to just try a balance pose that I can’t imagine ever being able to do. But as my flexibility, strength, balance and breathing improve I am able to stretch that leg a little more and hold the position a second or two longer before placing the limb back down with control.

Fifteen years ago, I almost resented being corrected about my position in yoga; now, I practically can’t wait for the teacher to make a needed adjustment. I am not a professional yogi; I don’t know what I need to do or how I should look as I practice the various poses. But I want yoga to work for me to help me be a better, more relaxed and flexible equestrian. These days, I approach yoga classes as an opportunity to do just that. I can’t wait to start doing sun salutes with my horse one day!

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2017