Stress and Fear Relief

[Khonkaen]

Prior to my HA, I ate reasonably well and didn't smoke or drink in excess. But what I did was to live a stressful and not too active life.

So these are things I need to change, the exercise part started a few days after my stent procedures, however, the stress has continued as it has become part of my personality. That mood leads to fear, so I have been searching for something to help me change and found this excellent lecture.

youtube.com/watch?v=NWAPtjz...(Not working as expected?)

Coincidentally this guy lives pretty close to us in Notheast Thailand.

[Adaboo]

Thanks for posting. I do believe stress just poisons us. Adrenaline is known to poison us if we let it build up. I’ve certainly been sick due to build up of it. I have now purposely tried to keep stress low and listen to calming hypnosis apps

[Khonkaen in reply to Adaboo]

I think it is the biggest contributing factor to CVD and have tried calming/hypnotic music, but it is now strong enough for me. This focusses or replacing bad with good, rather than trying blank it out. The memories that lead to the stress vicious circle are deep rooted and in my case, now part of my personality and that is what this lecture attempts to address.

[Adaboo in reply to Khonkaen]

I’ll listen to it when grandkids have gone. It sounds a bit like CBT therapy where we need to change our mindset and thought process? I have to confess at my worst years ago I suffered terrible panic attacks, even happening in the middle of the night! I then tried relaxation tapes and even had panic attacks in the middle of them too. I’m better than that now thankfully, but it’s taken it’s toll on my health.

[Khonkaen in reply to Adaboo]

My wife is a Buddhist and helps me a lot and I have lived much of the past 10 years in Thailand, where there is much to get stressed about for a foreigner. The Thais handle it much better due to their Buddhist "education", but when I have looked for someone to translate this for me I have drawn a blank, up until watching this.

Buddhism isn't a religion as there is nothing to believe, or have faith in as such, it is more closely akin to science.

I have been trying meditation and relaxation for years and cannot hold the focus required.

[Adaboo in reply to Khonkaen]

I can’t hold focus either, my mind runs at 100 miles an hour unfortunately. if I suss it out I’ll let you know, please do the same. In the meantime we can but try. The hypnosis app does help me fall asleep a bit quicker though, otherwise I’m awake half the night, mostly with health worries.

[jerry12953 in reply to Adaboo]

I'm not a real expert but after many years of dabbling one thing I have learned is that you can't stop the mind during meditation. What you learn to do is let those thoughts run their course - however long that takes - and observe them as they come and go. Focussing , as such, is not the right way of looking at it.

Remember that you are not your thoughts.

[Adaboo in reply to jerry12953]

Thank you Jerry, maybe I’ll try and just let them run their course and see how it goes. I get so frustrated that I give up.

[jerry12953 in reply to Adaboo]

It's the sort of "technique" you would use in mindfulness, which is based on Buddhist meditation without the religious angle, which would put many people off. Maybe some classes would help?

[Adaboo in reply to jerry12953]

I’ve looked at classes but probably scared to go. I have dystonia in my neck which makes sitting or standing or lying awkward at times. I’m sure the dystonia came on through stress too. I am a trained counsellor would you believe, but can’t seem to help myself. I’ve altered my whole lifestyle other than my stresses. This post though has made me realise just how important this is now.

[Khonkaen in reply to jerry12953]

Not sure I understand that Jerry. If I let my thoughts take their course I am instantly highly stessed, because their course is a long and winding road that leads to my depression. Sorry about the plagerism Paul. These thoughts are out of proportion to reality and consequently out of my control.

[Milkfairy Heart Star in reply to Khonkaen]

Mindfulness meditation is a mental training practice that involves focusing your mind on your experiences (like your own emotions, thoughts, and sensations) in the present moment.

Mindfulness meditation can involve breathing practice, mental imagery, awareness of body and mind, and muscle and body relaxation.

You learn with time to respond rather than react to your emotions and thoughts.

Other techniques such as yoga and Tai Chi can reinforce this approach to life.

It takes practice 🧘‍♀️

[Khonkaen in reply to Milkfairy]

I think it is a little like hypnosis, it doesn't work for everyone, I have been trying it for more than 10 years and the crap thoughts are too heavily embedded and being added to daily. But that's me, I cannot speak for others, indeed in my home country of Thailand there are many who meditate and find peace for a while, including my wife.

I get "nay..orr" everytime I go for a walk.

[jerry12953 in reply to Khonkaen]

Milkfairy has replied above much more clearly than I would be able.

The only thing I could add would be that during mindfulness/meditation you focus your attention on your breathing rather than on your thoughts. The mind can be like a runaway train but the breathing is slow and steady. I believe that awareness of the breath as it passes through the nostrils can quickly take the place of any mantra that one is given.

Slow and steady.

[Milkfairy Heart Star in reply to Adaboo]

Hi Adaboo

Do you know about Insight timer?

It offers loads of free meditations and other breathing and relaxation techniques.

insighttimer.com/

Our mental well being has parity with our physical well being.

Too few Heart centres offer the support of a Cardiac psychologist to help people heal their whole being.

[BibbyA in reply to Milkfairy]

Hi Milkfairy, thanks so much for the link. I have downloaded the app and had a browse and it looks brilliant 👍

[Milkfairy Heart Star in reply to BibbyA]

Good to hear!

There is something for everyone.

I like listening to the nature sounds, rain and the sea sends me to sleep.

[Khonkaen]

As I have said, I believe stress is the biggest cause of CVD much more that diet, the body is quite resilient, we are after all omnivores, but the stress mechanism wasn't design to be under load for long periods. Look at the numbers of businessmen who die in their 50s and they eat very well in comparison to the working man. Showbiz people like Eric Morcambe, Tommy Cooper and dozens of others who were stressed by their work and died prematurely of heart attacks and then there are the suicide victims, who get in there first. Then compare them with people who live in isolated communities where whole areas have large numbers of very old people in thier 90s and 100+..

So for people like me this is the problem to solve first.

[Adaboo in reply to Khonkaen]

I fear you’re right, I can control my eating , exercise etc but am scared I can’t control my mind very much. I’ve given up my business and had to get help looking after my autistic granddaughter. The stress has been immense and that’s when I had signs that I was definitely ill.

Maybe the mind is what we should concentrate on most.

[Andyman]

Do a course of Mindfulness. It really helps.

[Goldfish7]

Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to watching this later today. I agree that the prolonged stress experienced by many people in complex modern societies where individuals are locked into systems they have little to no control over would appear likely to be a major contributor to CVD as well as dementias and mental health problems. I think its early days for a lot of the studies into the complex effects of stress on hormones, although it looks like there are more studies beginning to get results looking at the negative effects of long term heightened cortisol levels on obesity and CVD. Keep up the good work!

[Adaboo in reply to Goldfish7]

That’s a good point.

[Hidden]

Having lived with stress/anxiety all my life and thrived on it for 45 years it finally caught me in January 2018.

I was diagnosed with Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy in the April after finally deciding to "break my own heart" and leave a bad relationship. It was only after I removed the stress and slowed I finally crashed... losing my mother a few days later removed the rest of my caring stress.

Mindfullness, meditating, CBT, counselling and listening to all that calm me down stuff winds me up no end (a recommended app resulted in me discovering phones don't bounce of walls well) and I get more stressed.

I have learned to cope, am down to mild from severe but still get warning chest pains when things I can't control happen in my life, usually other people hurting me.

Everyone finds their own way through... as for me I am still trying!

[Adaboo in reply to Hidden]

Sorry to hear of your struggles, I always had panic attacks in the middle of relaxation tapes and in the middle of the night whilst asleep. I feel it may of been “ an out of control” feeling that bought those attacks on. CBT is good, I need to practice more.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

This TedTalk mentions your diagnosis.

Have you seen this one?

ted.com/talks/sandeep_jauha...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Will check it out later... off now for a 5K Run then 5K Cycle... before my weights session. Amazing how fit you can be with heart failure... 😊

[Milkfairy Heart Star in reply to Hidden]

It is so interesting how we all have different approaches to managing our symptoms.

Did you make contact with Prof Dana Dawson?

[Hidden in reply to Milkfairy]

No, can't even remember who she is! After doctor/consultants constantly prescribing drugs which made me sicker and psychiatrist/psychologist/counsellors messing with my head (eventually got told I'd been misdiagnosed and was "just a lil sad") I'd had enough of the medical profession and chose to heal myself.

[Milkfairy Heart Star in reply to Hidden]

Prof Dana Dawson is a BHF funded researcher into Takostubo syndrome.

blog.bhf.org.uk/the-researc...

[Hidden in reply to Milkfairy]

Yes, I remember the article now, just not the name.

I am not one for contacting people... I just plod on. But thanks... will read again.

[Khonkaen in reply to Hidden]

I agree, you should watch the video, the English speaker is very articulate and concise, but above all it follows a logic. Plus you do heal yourself.

This pylosophy has been around for 2,500 years, it is not a religion, nor does it conflict with one.

[Hidden in reply to Khonkaen]

I will try to watch it at some point but don't hold out any hope as I am very rigid in my ways... no one telling me what to do/how to cope actually helps me heal.

Believe me many have tried... and failed.

I will be healed... when its time!

[Khonkaen]

The escence of this phylosphy is that you have to help yourself since there is no man in the sky to help you.

Rather that blanking bad thoughts out, where after a while they creep back and get you, you replace them with good memories. Those good memories can be very happy times, or times when you helped someone and felt good, or someone helped you and you could see the pleasure they felt.

You fill your mind with these thoughts and visions and evntually they become your new personality and the bad thoughts that have hitherto consumed your life, are pushed out and lost.

Over the past 10 years I have taken a lot of photos, but they are just stored on a couple of hard drives, so to help this mind control process, I am going print all the good ones out and hang them on the wall. Pictures of my wife when I first met her and places we went with her her and her kids. Plus an old crippled guy in Loas I helped, when I repaired his hand-pedal truck, hime only means of getting about, we gave him some food too. He was about 60 years old, paralysed from the waist down since a doctor's mistake when he was 12 years old.

My finest hours when I helped him after we found him sitting in the dirt at the side of the road, but left him with his buggy working. What a high that was for a day of my time, a shirt full of sweat and a few bob.

This is going to work for me......