# Breathing exercises?



## lilames (May 29, 2007)

The psychologist I am seeing believes that breathing exercises could significantly decrease the feelings of DP/DR. She believes if I got into a deep relaxation, then the feelings would go away. What do you guys think? Has anyone been successful in reducing DP/DR with breathing exercises?


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## Guest (May 31, 2007)

I feel more disconnected due to the relaxation numbing me. "Shrugs", wonder if I have something other then DR/DP... =S


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## TerriW (Jun 13, 2007)

I have had success with deep breathing and relaxation techniques! I hope they work for you too.


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## laserdog (May 1, 2005)

just bought myself a "creating inner peace and calm cd" put my headphones on and drift away  its great.....this cd has a range of sibliminal messages which are supposed to help you make you feel good!

If dp is anxiety based then this definately works for me. gets you relaxed and focusing on positive things. to be honest it can only be good. also makes you feel energy flowing through your body when your fully relaxed and purely concentrating on relaxinga nd breathing....

i'd recomend it  its not a cure but helps  i'll try anything apart from meds, ... even tried classical music for a bit  lol i know i'm feeling a bit better coz i'm back to hating classical music again..lol


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## Cathal_08 (Apr 7, 2008)

yea i tryed hypnotheraphy..which is just a relaxation thing and it did help!


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## Johnny Dep (Feb 8, 2009)

I think breathing is important to meditation because it is under both conscious and unconscious control and sort of serves as a bridge between the two. So I think its something useful to do for all people. I once read that withdrawn people are attracted to meditation methods which only make their withdrawn tendencies even worse, this book said withdrawn people should do things like Kundalini because its better at drawing them out. That made sense to me and I've been doing Kundalini meditation for years and I think its helped me.


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## soulsurfer (May 1, 2009)

I personally have been coping with, and you could even say treating my depersonalization disorder for 5 and half years now. I find that when I practice a form of meditation that deals primarily with focus on the breathe, called Vipasana, which is the form of meditation the Buddha first taught to his followers 2500 B.C., the day to day issues, negative feelings, and even severe anxiety are much more reduced. This meditative practice is very helpful with my DD/DR, which is never fully gone, but may have brief moments of recession. I can't really explain how to do it or why, but the english translation of the sanskrit word, Vipasana, is Mindfulness. It is relaxing and it does help with my racing thoughts and even the state of feeling detatched. The catch 22 is that it isn't meant to take your mind to a different plain or out of reality. By following the breathe with specific techniques you are really training your mind to think differently. This leads to being mindful in your thoughts, speech, and actions. It isn't something that will heal you or make all the anxiety and stress of life and coping with DD go away, but your outlook on this disorder becomes much more positive, and instead of trying to think your way out of the 'trip you feel your permanently in' you learn to accept it as it is. Not positive or negative, just there in the moment living your life to the fullest. I am not a Buddhist or claim to be some wise healer, but through spirituality and and an optimistic approach to DD I manage to cope with this disorder in a way where I can enjoy my blurred sometimes even completely stressed out life without always fearing the one question I feel we all obsess about....will I ever feel normal again? Maybe not...but then again right now, and for the past few years of my life, I've been able to remain awake and embrace my perception of the world to the fullest and most positive degree. I recommend a book if you or anyone else is interested in this form of meditation, or just a good read. It is "Mindfulness in Plain English", by Bhante Henepola Gunaratanna. If you can't find it at the local library try amazon.com, you can get some really inexpensive used copies shipped to you. Have faith in yourself and quit trying to think your way out of it, let go and see what happens.


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## Guest (May 2, 2009)

soulsurfer said:


> I practice a form of meditation that deals primarily with focus on the breathe, called Vipasana, which is the form of meditation the Buddha first taught to his followers 2500 B.C., the day to day issues, negative feelings, and even severe anxiety are much more reduced. This meditative practice is very helpful with my DD/DR, which is never fully gone, but may have brief moments of recession. I can't really explain how to do it or why, but the english translation of the sanskrit word, Vipasana, is Mindfulness. It is relaxing and it does help with my racing thoughts and even the state of feeling detatched. The catch 22 is that it isn't meant to take your mind to a different plain or out of reality. By following the breathe with specific techniques you are really training your mind to think differently.


Vipassana meditation doesn't take your mind to another plain or reality-it is mindfulness meditation to increase your awareness of your thoughts, speech and actions and increase a greater awareness of your interactions with others and the world around you etc. Continued practice definitely concentrates your energy so that you feel like one contained ball of energy-focused, alert, happy... Your mental powers become stronger. Eventually your mental powers become so concentrated that you can easily root out any unskillful thoughts and bring your mind back into harmony with everything else. All those silly ideas about meditation taking your mind to different levels of reality aren't true and they aren't Buddhist concepts....Whatever the experience that arises from vipassana we are taught to let it happen and then let it go-naturally....and continue..it's basically just learning awareness, once this is accomplished then insight begins to arise into the nature of reality, vipassana enables us to penetrate reality not to go away from it. It very much helped me.
I've been practicing it for quite a few years now, there are certain experiences that arise from practicing Vipassana continually, most people find that they discover psychic ability....that does happen... , but we are taught not to grasp at those experiences and Vipassana would never induce an out of reality state like Dp.d, if it does, it's not Vipassana. But as you say it's helped you-that's good to hear.


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## soulsurfer (May 1, 2009)

oh, were you confirming my description of Vipassana and what kind of awareness it brings, or did you miss read where I said it doesn't take you out of reality or into another plain of consciousness? I also have been practicing it for some time and really find that when I take the role as the observer and not criticize or dwell on my thoughts, but rather acknowledge them and let them pass freely, I have become aware of how to be accepting of them. In return my mind has naturally become more calm, but it has also allowed me to view my thoughts as a bad thing, but put them to use in a way where I can produce the energy and insight to allow metta or lovingkindness flow through me and into all living creatures. Always striving to do good and not waste my energy and effort in trying to do harm in any way. I see the results of my actions everyday and in everything. DD becomes a blessing in disguise, rather then a "im crazy" and lifeless experience towards enlightenment on any level. Thanks!


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## Guest (May 3, 2009)

Oh hey, I do apologise, my bad....I did miss read your post  because you wrote "The catch 22 is"...I don't see how it's a catch 22 if it' helps and only helps, also there's been so many people here in the past who state that meditation takes them to another plain of reality-very annoying--I sort of jumped to the conclusion that you thought that too by reading your post quite quickly and missing what you actually said but hey..it's so refreshing that you pointed out that it _isn't_ supposed to do that...Sorry again. It is Awesome that meditation helps you, it helped me too so I would also be confirming the experience, absolutely. :wink: Where are you from? I don't know where Bethany beach is.


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## soulsurfer (May 1, 2009)

Bethany Beach DE, and its no worries bro I just didnt want to seem like i was throwing out some bogus info./experiences to mislead people about insight meditation because it has changed my thought process and especially of being mindfull in my thoughts and feelings regarding DD. I accept it and embrace the fact that it may never just go away but when a negative or off the wall thought or sensation flows through me, I now am learning to recognize it at that...just a thought or feeling. I can let it go and be more focused on the moment or task at hand and it just allows me to live more enlightened and in touch with myself, not as someone who suffers but blessed that I can go along living a normal life with DD and work just that much harder to be less consumed with me and to focus on others, especially my loved ones, who really are the most important support group in my life. Thanks no worries. I really would love to discuss more about your practice and what you have overcome or even how it is helping you with the DD. Thanks!


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## Guest (May 6, 2009)

Sure, I'd love to discuss it with you through PM if you like, the whole Buddhist path actually helped me to recover from Dp.d and helped me with alot of other psychological problems....so don't think that your Dp.d won't ever go away. You're accepting approach to it without the nilhism of ignoring it or yourself is perfect.


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## AutumnFalls (Feb 8, 2010)

For me relaxation/breathing exercises make my DP worse. I tend to feel like I'm floating out in the middle of nowhere and yeah, just makes it worse.


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## BlackParasol (Nov 25, 2010)

Breathing exercises on their own don't help me - they eventually cause me to hyperventilate and freak out. :/

But, deep breathing coupled with yoga is massively relaxing for me. Since I'm doing the yoga, I won't hyperfocus on my breathing and hyperventilate.


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## babybowrain (Aug 24, 2010)

Relaxation techniques are ok SOMETIMES but breathing excercises themselves, most of them seem like a joke to me...they just have no effect on me.


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## sarahlopez (Mar 5, 2011)

Breathing exercises are used for many different reasons. What you need to do is breathe deeply, which means go do abdominal breathing. This is the most basic. Ensures that inflate their total lung capacity.
If you are very overweight in the abdominal region, this could be the inhibition of the expansion of your diaphragm, which means you can not get enough oxygen. Lying to breathing exercises easier.


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