Just Breathe!

By Christy Romero on April 8th, 2020

By Dr. Jamie Huysman, LCSW, CFT

Have you ever gotten so overwhelmed and stressed out that you realize you’re forgetting to breathe? This is a natural response to stress. But the problem is that when our breathing becomes shallow, we’re laying out a welcome mat for panic and anxiety to come right on in! Anyone who has experienced attacks of panic or anxiety knows how crippling and debilitating they can be. The good news is that there are preventative methods we can take on the spot to minimize the effects of S.A.P. (Stress, Anxiety, and Panic) before they become full-blown.

I have personally found much success with Dr. Andrew Weil’s 4-7-8 relaxing breath exercise. As explained on his website:

“This breathing exercise is a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system. Unlike tranquilizing drugs, which are often effective when you first take them but then lose their power over time, this exercise is subtle when you first try it, but gains in power with repetition and practice. Do it at least twice a day. You cannot do it too frequently. Do not do more than four breaths at one time for the first month of practice. Later, if you wish, you can extend it to eight breaths…Once you develop this technique by practicing it every day, it will be a very useful tool that you will always have with you. Use it whenever anything upsetting happens – before you react. Use it whenever you are aware of internal tension or stress. Use it to help you fall asleep. This exercise cannot be recommended too highly. Everyone can benefit from it.”

I have been very busy lately teaching this technique to overwhelmed first responders; 70,000 breaths and counting! This crisis impacts everyone, and it is not uncommon for the stress of it to creep into our thoughts and behaviors. I highly recommend that you consult Dr. Weil’s website and learn this extraordinary way to Take YOUR Oxygen First!

Happy breathing.

James D. (Dr. Jamie) Huysman, PsyD, LCSW, CFT, Chief Compassion Officer, Project Omega – Social entrepreneurship, advocacy, and innovation have been the touchstones and driving force throughout Dr. Jamie’s 30-year career encompassing both for-profit and nonprofit leadership roles. In the 1980s he undertook the advocacy, outreach, and clinical programming for addiction and dual diagnosis treatment facilities and developed his long standing private practice. The next decade found him serving as the clinical innovator for the major Talk, Court, and Reality television shows of the day. Seeing the need to advocate for guest’s rights, he designed and developed TV AfterCare®, the first national program dedicated to the clinical and corrective follow-up support for guests of the talk/court and reality genre, which remains active today. Dr. Jamie had hundreds of television and radio appearances and cohosted Walgreen’s Health Corner with media personalities Leeza Gibbons and subsequently Joan Lunden. In 2002, while working on her show, he partnered with Ms. Gibbons, co-founding and creating the programming for The Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation, a formal network of national locations, providing direct services to family caregivers around the US. There he administratively and clinically supervised a trained staff dedicated to supporting the family caregivers of loved ones with memory disorders. Together with Rosemary DeAngelis Laird, MD, he and Gibbons co-wrote the bestselling Take Your Oxygen First: Protecting Your Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One with Memory Loss. It was during this time that “Dr. Jamie” became certified as a Compassion Fatigue Therapist and became a much sought-after keynote speaker and session presenter at numerous caregiving, senior, and aging conferences all over North America. He left the LGMF in 2010 and went to work for WellMed Medical Management as Vice President of Provider Relations and Government Affairs. Now, as newly appointed Chief Compassion Officer, he brings his special brand of connective magic to the Patient Teleconnection platform. Through this new national outreach effort and in behalf of the WellMed Charitable Foundation he continues his advocacy efforts to educate empower and energize medical patients within all healthcare systems today as well as the general public nationwide.