Sensory Mindfulness

Breath2Relax App (Apple): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe2relax/id425720246

Breath2Relax App (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.t2health.breathe2relax&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1

Mindfulness Coach App: https://mobile.va.gov/app/mindfulness-coach

Transcript

Josh Bailey: 0:00

Hey, Psych Bytes with CCS is a weekly podcast hosted by Student Life Counseling and Consultation Service. This show is dedicated to discussing a wide range of topics pertaining to mental health commonly experienced in the college setting. It is important to note that this podcast is not a substitute for therapy. All of the topics on this show, while discussed by professionals are strictly psycho educational, and meant to inform listeners on available resources, skills and support. Topics on this show can be sensitive in nature. And should you find yourself needing additional support or resources, please visit ccs.osu.edu or call us at 614-292-5766. With that in mind, enjoy the show. What is up everybody and welcome to psych bytes with CCS. My name is Josh and today we are joined by Mary DeCenzo, a licensed independent social worker with a supervisory designation and an Advanced Certified Trauma and Resilience Practitioner Clinical, otherwise known as an ACTRP-C. Thank goodness for acronyms. Right, Mary, welcome back, we have recorded a previous episode together talking about time mapping. But today we're going to be talking about something a little bit different. We are going to be talking about sensory mindfulness practice. So as always, I like to ask the question, what is that?

Mary DeCenzo: 1:45

Well, sensory mindfulness is a strategy or a technique that you can use to calm anxiety, which is really the response you feel when you're stressed, and improve your mood and your focus and your productivity.

Speaker 2: 2:01

That sounds delightful. I'm sure anybody who's listening right now, their ears are perked up. And they're really like, Okay, how do I not feel anxious? How do I feel more productive? How do I feel better? So how does it work? What do we do?

Mary DeCenzo: 2:13

First, I'll start by talking a little bit about how it counteracts this very innate stress response that every human possesses. You might have heard of that referred to as the fight, flight, or freeze response.

Josh Bailey: 2:27

Yeah.

Mary DeCenzo: 2:28

So I think it's important to know that this response is, it's very preservative, right? It is a safety response. And this response is embedded in our brain. And it's benefited humans since we began. It's really like an internal alert system. And it causes us to be very hyper vigilant to forms of danger. So an example of how this works. And some of the listeners might be able to identify with feeling like this, right? When they've been very highly stressed. In situations when our brain recognizes danger, and to our brain change is danger. So sometimes there are things that might appear minor, but we have a very intense response. But think of this as a way to alert, right? Okay, so our brain sends chemistry to various areas in our body that causes them to be ready to fight or to run, right? So an example might be, maybe you've noticed an increased heart rate when you're stressed, or when you're worried about something, or when you're going to speak in public, right? Shallow breathing, right? Those two things are caused by this chemistry that's sent to those parts of our body that says,"Hey, we're going to have to fight a run heart. Come on, hurry up. Let's be we're going to need blood flowing through our system to do this." And if you've ever noticed, maybe how you breathe when you're running right or active. It's not slow, deep breathing. It's very short and shallow, like: [breathing noise]

Josh Bailey: 4:12

Right.

Mary DeCenzo: 4:13

So a lot of times that kicks in, but your body isn't running right or fighting or moving. And a lot of people feel like, they can't get their breath. They're suffocating. Those kinds of things. Digestive issues happen because the message goes to our stomach to hurry up and turn up some of that food that might be in there because we're going to need energy to perform.

Josh Bailey: 4:35

Classic bubble guts.

Mary DeCenzo: 4:37

There we go. Yeah. Trembling and shaking. We release adrenaline and chemicals that cause our muscles to tighten so that we'll we're prepared to fight and run. But if the danger that our brain perceives as a test, like here we are sitting right?

Josh Bailey: 4:52

Right.

Mary DeCenzo: 4:53

And we're not getting a chance to use that chemistry to use that up. So it results in us trembling And we'd have difficulty sleeping. Our brain doesn't want us to go to sleep because it wants us to think about all of those possibilities of things that could be dangerous, right? If you've ever laid down at night, when you've got a lot of stress going on in your life, you probably recall having some pretty rapid thoughts go through your head and worries, right? Our brain doesn't want to shut us off from thinking about that, because it thinks it's not safe. Right?

Speaker 2: 5:25

Quite frankly, this seems rapidly unfair to me, or vastly unfair. To me. That's something that developed to protect us as hunter and gatherer societies from saber toothed Tigers jumping out of the bushes, is now a piece of paper in front of me, related to O Chem. That seems very unfair.

Mary DeCenzo: 5:43

Right, right. Yeah, it sure is, isn't it? Yeah. So I think the other piece that's important to know is that this very well developed system that we come equipped with, right, or for our safety, has very strong neural connections associated with it in our brain. You know, it's important. It has kept humans alive and at the top of the food chain, right? So it has to be very strong within our brain. So it's well rehearsed as neural connections are strong. And the pathways, we call them neural pathways, right, where the energy in our brain travels. Think of it as like, almost worn down like a river, like with water running through a river, right, they get stronger and stronger. And if you've got energy running through our brain, and there's a very well developed pathway, it's gonna use that, right.? So what we do with sensory mindfulness is we use this practice to really develop the other part of our brain, right, where calm and focus resides. And so I think it's helpful to think of mindful— sensory mindfulness practice, as like physical therapy for your brain, because it really is that. It builds new neural connections, and it strengthens existing neural connections to calm and focus.

Josh Bailey: 6:58

Okay.

Mary DeCenzo: 6:59

And, most importantly, sensory mindfulness signals to our brain, that we're paying attention to our own safety by listening, seeing, hearing, using any of those five senses, much better than we usually do. So our brain kind of gets the message, hey, like, I can turn down this chemistry. Like Mary's doing a good job of really listening very strongly right now, like that's going to keep us safe, I can turn down this chemistry, right. And that reduces our symptoms. And I think that's very empowering. A lot of people feel they don't have control over a panic attack, or the kinds of symptoms that we experience due to stress. But really, we do. And this is the way in which we can take back control.

Josh Bailey: 7:44

Okay, so how do we begin? How do we do this?

Mary DeCenzo: 7:46

The first step is throwing your focus or awareness to just one of those five senses much more intensely than you usually would. An example might be using your hearing much more than normal. In order to do this, I think it always helps best to close your eyes. Maybe you step outside, maybe it's not a really cold day like it is today. But it's a nicer day. And you can just step outside on your porch, and sit and listen for two minutes, right? Listen to everything you hear, maybe you hear birds chirping. And then you notice, there's different kinds of songs there. Maybe you notice three types of bird songs, and you kind of think maybe that sounds like a Robin or whatever, but you're really focusing much more intently than normal. Another good one to use that I think students like is listening to a song and following just one instrument all the way through the song, right? That causes you to really have to listen a lot more closely. Following your breath, right, that's we all breathe. But if we breathe a lot more intentionally, and slowly, and we envision following our breath, in and out of our body, that can be very helpful. Maybe we notice it feels cooler, when we inhale through our nose and warmer when we exhale. Maybe we feel our shoulders rising and falling, as we breathe slowly and deeply. You know, envisioning and feeling our breath coming all the way down into our abdomen, and maybe like belly breathing? That's something that's pretty common.

Josh Bailey: 9:19

Yeah.

Mary DeCenzo: 9:20

So what you're noticing how it feels. And there's also something called a body scan, where you can progressively kind of move down your body and throw your thoughts to what you notice in each section of your body. Sight, right? Just focusing on one object and naming all the details that you notice in that object. And also smell, like maybe while you're cooking, like really paying attention to the various smells. Or when you're in a restaurant, right? Maybe people can identify with like walking into a restaurant that bakes their own bread, right and you smell that freshly baked bread. Those kinds of things or standing outside of a steak house, or something that you can smell. But paying attention to those and really noticing. And it only can mean a couple of minutes focusing on that. But those are just some examples.

Josh Bailey: 10:10

Okay? So I'm not designating a whole hour or a day to practice this. It's just a couple of minutes walk in the class,

Mary DeCenzo: 10:17

Absolutely.

Josh Bailey: 10:17

Sitting in my car, something like that.

Mary DeCenzo: 10:19

Absolutely. Yeah.

Josh Bailey: 10:21

How might people go a little bit sideways with this? How might we make mistakes?

Mary DeCenzo: 10:26

So I think a lot of times people confuse sensory mindfulness with meditation. And meditation is a calming practice. It's a really valuable practice, I think. But it's not the same as sensory mindfulness. Remember, we're sending our brain a message, that we have got the five senses on full alert, so that it doesn't have to feel so defensive, right? In protecting us from danger. Like we've got it covered, right? We're good. Meditation can be very relaxing. But it doesn't send that message to the brain. Right? It's important to focus on our senses, when we're talking about reducing panic attacks or response to anxiety and high stress. I think that's probably the most common mistake. But another one is, I hear this a lot. I can't do it. It doesn't work for me, right? My brain runs too fast. I can't focus. And that is, that's okay. Like that happens in many people. It gets better with practice, just as if you play a sport, think back to when you first started that sport, right? Like, how, how good were you like, what did you perform? Right? Before you went to practice after practice after practice, so you will build a better ability. But I think what's also important with this is, when you catch yourself wandering, when you lose focus, a lot of people feel like they failed. Don't feel like you fail. Think of that as like when you go to the gym. And when you're lifting weights, right, or pulling weights. And you know how maybe you choose a machine that where you put the peg under the weight and you pull down on the bar, right? It's like a pulley system, I can't tell you what that is. So it tells you how long it's been since I've been to the gym, but Right. So that, for example, that exercise, think of when you pull down on that weight, that's when you're building your muscle. And when the bar goes up, think of that as when you lose focus, right? The fact that you have to pull back into focus is really very helpful. It's like another rep, right? When you're at the gym, every time the bar goes up, you get an opportunity to pull that down again, and build more muscle. So yeah, it's actually helpful in those early stages. So don't think of it as failure. Don't think of it as something bad. And I can't do this, don't beat yourself up about it. You know, just relax and say, Okay, I caught myself thinking about the game tonight, or whatever it is right? And pull back in, right and go on and move on. You haven't failed? It's actually been pretty helpful.

Josh Bailey: 13:03

All right. So just let it be. Roll with it. However, it's going.

Mary DeCenzo: 13:07

Absolutely.

Josh Bailey: 13:08

So if I'd like to maybe work on this individually, and say, I'm not really thinking I need to go into therapy, but I really want to develop these skills or some of the strategies, what might you suggest to somebody?

Mary DeCenzo: 13:22

So OSU has some good tools for students that are no cost. You can go into the OSU wellness app that you can get on your phone. And I believe students have that on iPads that they receive?

Josh Bailey: 13:35

Okay.

Mary DeCenzo: 13:36

Or that used to happen. And there's some great mindfulness activities in there again, look for those things that are sensory in nature. They also have meditations and again, meditation is great. It's just not what I'm focused on today telling you about right. So look for things that say grounding body scans, activities like that. The Student Wellness Center— Student Life Wellness Center has group and individual mindfulness coaching.

Josh Bailey: 14:01

Okay.

Mary DeCenzo: 14:01

So students can investigate that. And then there are some great phone apps. And I think the two that I'm going to talk about today, my favorite, they're free. They're very evidence based research. They're both from our government, federal government, Department of Defense. So one is called Breathe2Relax, like breathe, and then the number two, and relax. And that is excellent. That's focused on sensory breathing. And then the other is called Mindfulness coach. And that's actually been developed through the VA. And it's got a great map to beginning mindfulness, building your practice all the way to being more of a pro at it, right? So it's for all levels and it gives some great information even have like a tracker. So it's a great tool for people who are beginning and it's something you can keep with you as you practice.

Josh Bailey: 15:02

Excellent, we can add those to the description below as well. So check the bottom for links. We'll add those in there. Mary, thank you so much for joining us again today. Really appreciate your time. Appreciate your insights.

To all of our listeners: 15:15

Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much for listening in. Keep your eyes peeled for our next episode. Take care of yourselves and until next time, my name is Josh and this is Psych Bytes with CCS.