A lot of people are already tired, frustrated and stressed out. In this episode, you will learn why stress management is important for COVID-19 patients, and two breathing exercises that can lower stress and improve oxygen level.
How To Manage Stress – Voice of Sayar Henry
Hi, welcome to the show!
I’m your host Sayar Henry and I am very glad that you’re able to listen to this podcast right now. Because it means you are safe enough, healthy enough and fortunate enough to pay attention to this. And that is all I want you to be.
Initially, I was about to talk about something related to learning but then I changed my mind to focus on something more concerning to everyone at the moment.
As you all are already aware of, our people are now going through a tremendously challenging time as we now have to withstand the third wave of COVID-19 while also fighting against the military junta at the same time. This calls for a whole new level of physical, mental, and emotional strength that most people have never reached before. Things have become much more demanding and stressful because of the combined challenge of the coup and COVID. So, on top of being physically fit, we seriously need to prepare our mind as well if we are to go through whatever is coming to hit us.
So, here in this episode, I’m going to share some really useful tips that I have been using in the past in order to always keep my mind and stress level in check. You may already know some of the stuff I’m going to talk about but if you find something new — I mean anything — that you think is helpful, please…please share it with people you care about, especially with those who are not fortunate enough to listen to this podcast. It’s also a good idea to keep your pen and paper ready while you are listening just in case you forget some important points.
Okay.
First of all, I want to remind again what you already know — that COVID is scary because it harms you by attacking your lungs and thereby limiting, and eventually reducing, the amount of oxygen your brain can get for survival. Combating this generally requires two parts. The first one is to support the patient with sufficient oxygen supply along with other complication management. And the second part is to accelerate the recovery of the lungs by means of medication, nutrition and rest.
One of the major problems the patients have to deal with is the relationship between stress and oxygen level. When breathing problem starts to occur, the oxygen level drops. And when oxygen level drops, the patients get stressed out. And when stress is in play, two more problems arise in the patient’s body; the immune system becomes weaker and the oxygen level drops furthermore. If it is not managed properly, things may go downward spiral too soon too quickly. Of course there are several other factors that can influence the situation for better or worse, but it is undeniable that stress management certainly plays a supportive role in the patient’s fight against COVID-19.
And if you think about it, it’s already bad news that most of us in Myanmar have been stressed out since February because of having to deal with the consequences of the coup. We’ve been through too many challenges — political, social, financial, education, healthcare, armed conflicts — whatever you name it, we had it. This was way before the third wave of COVID-19 hit the region. So we are talking about a whole population of already stressed out people who have no where to go if they get infected with the virus. And what is more, this coincides with the flu season in Myanmar. So, many of us are going to experience mixed symptoms and therefore will get confused and scared even more.
Just imagine the situation yourself.
If we start to get breathing problem under these circumstances with no access to external oxygen supply, how would we respond to that?
I have… no… words to describe how intimidating it would be for the majority of our people.
The only thing I can think of is how not to make it worse — by mastering how to cope with stress in such moments.
Of course no ordinary person can suddenly become perfect in mastering the art of stress management but there are few things we can learn and practice to improve our ability to deal with stressful situations.
Now, I’m going to give you two words that are crucial in stress management.
CONTROL and FOCUS.
And to remember it better, I want you to repeat after me.
CONTROL and FOCUS.
Let’s repeat one more time because I didn’t hear you just now.
Come on!
CONTROL and FOCUS.
Good!
Now, let me explain what I mean by that.
When we focus too much on things that are beyond our control, we feel overwhelmed and frustrated, and begin to feel stress. For example, let’s say an average student has to sit an exam tomorrow morning and she has a lot of chapters to study tonight. If she keeps worrying that there is not enough time for her to study all these chapters in one night, will she be able to focus on the action of studying? I don’t think so. The limited time she has cannot be extended. She doesn’t have control over changing the date of the exam. So, if she keeps thinking about this external factor that she can’t control, the only thing she is going to get is stress. What she needs to focus instead is the action of figuring out a way to cover the chapters as efficiently and effectively as possible in one night. That action is something she can control and therefore doing so would help her. And as she starts to focus on things she can control, she feels much more confident and feels much less stress than before. In another word, once a person starts focusing on the right thing, the stress eventually goes away. And that is Stress Management 101: focus on things you can control.
Now, let’s see how you can use this approach if you are a COVID patient. As soon as you realize that the virus is in your body, or even before that, you are likely to think about a lot of things that are beyond your control such as not being able to go to a hospital, or not having external oxygen supply nearby. Once you start focusing on these negative thoughts, stress hormones will be activated, and it may mess around with your immune system. That is bad news, and you don’t want that. So what do you do? You have to immediately switch your attention to something you can control.
Now, tell me the one thing that you can choose to control even when you have nothing or no one beside you?
Well, the answer is: the pattern of your breathing.
And the good news is that how you breath is not just something you can control.
There is also a strong relationship between the way you breath and your stress level. Typically, when a person is under stress, he or she tends to breath in a shallow manner. It means the person does not breathe in or breathe out deep enough. His or her breath sounds something like this –
… … … ….
The thing is, breathing quick and shallow like that is NOT optimum for getting more oxygen for your lungs and brain. If you keep breathing like that and don’t remember to change it actively, you are likely to recover much slower, or even get worse in some unfortunate scenario.
But don’t worry just yet!
I’m going to share with you two great breathing techniques that can help you overcome your stress and improve your oxygen level at the same time. I’ve known these techniques for years and have applied these many times throughout my life under different circumstances. And I can guarantee that it always works!
Okay. Here is the first one.
Count from 1 to 4 as you breathe in.
Like this –
… … … ….
(1, 2, 3, 4)
And then count from 1 to 4 again as you breathe out.
Like this.
… … … ….
(1, 2, 3, 4)
The important thing is to inhale or exhale only through your nose. Don’t use your mouth. Many people have this misconception that they can get more air or oxygen to their lungs if they breathe through their mouth. But actually, breathing through your nose is physiologically more efficient as it is the naturally designed way for us human beings. So, unless we are talking about doing sport activities like running or swimming, please make sure you breathe through your nose most of the time.
Now, I want you to practice this breathing technique together with me right now so that it sticks better in your memory. Okay?
Close your eyes.
Come on! Close your eyes.
And relax your shoulder muscles.
I’m going to count from 1 to 4 as you breathe through your nose as loud as you can.
And we will do the same as you breathe out.
Then we will repeat the cycle four times. Ready?
(Breathe in)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe out)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe in)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe out)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe in)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe out)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe in)
1, 2, 3, 4.
(Breathe out)
Great!
Do you feel any difference in your nerves?
Do you feel less tension in your body?
I hope you feel better than before but even if you don’t feel any different right now, you will get it after a few more rounds. So don’t worry about that. Keep practicing.
Let’s move on to the second technique. This one is a bit more advanced, but I love it more than the first one because if you can do this one well, you can automatically do the first one well too. Besides, you don’t need to count anything with this one. Here is how you do it.
When you breathe in through your nose, pause for a brief moment in the beginning, and then continue breathing in as deep as you can. After that, you can just breathe out slowly and deeply just as you did with the previous technique.
Listen carefully.
… ………. …………
Did you notice that I pause for a while in the beginning of my breath?
Here, listen again.
… ………. …………
Now, one more cycle.
… ………. …………
See? There’s a brief moment that I paused before I continue inhaling completely. And there’s nothing different or unique when you exhale. So the key of this technique is in splitting your inhalation into two unequal parts. But the first part must be significantly shorter than the second part, not the other way round.
Okay, I want you to try this together with me for a few cycles.
Close your eyes and relax your body.
Keep your chest wide open.
We will breathe in briefly, pause for a moment, and breathe in completely, and then breathe out slowly. Ready?
First cycle.
… ………. …………
(Another cycle.)
… ………. …………
(Let’s do another one.)
… ………. …………
(Give me one more.)
… ………. …………
(Final round)
… ………. …………
Well done!
I’m proud of you.
Okay… How are you feeling now?
It may be strange to breathe like that if you are trying it for the first time ever but if you give it another go, I’m sure you will begin to enjoy it. And training this technique also helps you to breathe more efficiently under normal circumstances.
Personally speaking, whenever I feel down, or stressed, or simply not fresh enough to do serious work, I use this second technique while walking back and forth in my room for about five minutes. And oh my god. Just 5 minutes and with abundant oxygen in my brain, I already feel like the king of the world. But hey, if you don’t believe me, you can always experiment on your own and see it for yourself. Even if you don’t feel like a king, I’m sure it will definitely free you from feeling like a slave fighting for survival. All stress will go away in no time. I promise.
Well, this episode has become a bit too long already.
But I hope the action of listening to this episode itself helps you relax your mind and reduce your anxieties to some degree.
I really hope that you got some value out of my podcast.
And for those of you who want to watch a related video that I posted on YouTube last year, I’ll put relevant links in the descriptions.
Thank you so much for listening and spending time with me on my podcast.
You take care and stay safe wherever you are.
We have many more to overcome together.
SH Learning Culture 