Do you ever notice someone trying to pull in a deep breath they will put their hand on their upper chest and the neck? This relieves the muscles that run across the top of your breast bone. I found out that putting my fingers lightly into the hollow of my throat and pressing down lightly on the top of my breast bone gives relief so you can breathe easier. This automatically eases your mind. Then I start drawing a lot of air into this area. When extra tight, slowly pulling air in through my mouth and throat. Then I fill up my lungs and diaphragm as full of air as I can and at the same time pushing my lungs and abdomen muscles from the inside out, stretching the extreme tight muscles. If I am extremely tight and tense I might have to concentrate on this for an hour or two lying down. If I do this without adding more tension or despair I will eventually go to sleep and wake up more rested than I have in a long time.

In her book, Hope and Help for Your Nerves, Dr Claire Weeks described this despairing feeling as the horses hoof on your chest and abdomen. In 1973 this awful tightness and knotted muscles settled in my right side. I couldn't get relief. I thought relaxation or unraveling had to start in my side. I discovered that it has to start at the bottom of my throat into the top of my lungs. I didn't realize this, but the tension along the top of my breast bone and the top of my lungs caused more despair than the debilitating feelings in my right side over to the bottom of my breast bone into my back. This exercise will free the breathing in your upper chest and throat and then all the way down. The exercise I just described will relieve this with proper understanding of the teachings from the Midwest Program and their relaxation tape.

 Billy Frame

I understood some of this before but I was only stretching the abdomen muscles. Since the abdomen felt worse I didn't notice the semi tension in my upper chest. Then I wondered why I couldn't get whole body breaths and relief. So then I learned how the stretch the chest and abdomen muscles from the inside out. I am 66 yrs old, retired and back to work part-time after 5 yrs retirement. If I start to feel tight and uncomfortable I just remember to draw a lot of air into my throat, lungs and diaphragm through my mouth then push the muscles from the inside out against the tightness.

I have been using my Midwest coping skills a lot since I started working part-time. When I was 15 yrs old I was wrongly diagnosed with heart disease, later I was correctly diagnosed-nerves. So all my life when I became exerted, I would hold my breathe trying to slow my heart rate down. The fear of the wrong heart diagnosis never left me until now because of the nervous body symptoms all my life. This in itself can cause an extreme tension disorder. Midwest relaxation tape teaches what I have written. I had to learn to do it in a more forceful, extreme way.

Sometimes the relaxed muscles feel sick and shaky but I know this is normal because I have been full of severe fear and tension for so many years. I also know that I can lie down if I have to and this feeling will stabilize with my new breathing and stretching technique. I use the word "tight" now instead of "tense," because "tense" sounds like anxiety or fear. "Tight" you can exercise and stretch and get relief. After I got rid of the body symptoms I felt so exhausted that I thought I would collapse. Now this doesn't scare me anymore because I know I will not.

God's timing is always perfect. When I started feeling better, I found a part time job I really enjoy. Now I can see while I sat around thinking I wasn't well enough to even putter around the house. With the new interest of an enjoyable part time job it doesn't matter if I get up with the dreaded morning feeling. With success at working I know it will go away if I relax toward it and get moving. I feel good about going to work. With this kind of new attitude on a scale of 1-10, my body symptoms are a 2 so they don't scare me now. On a scale of 1-10 my tiredness is probably a 5 and getting better. If I start to feel a little tight, even while working, I just draw air into my throat through my mouth and into my lungs and back.

I think what made it hard for me to get the picture is because I had so many severe frequent panic attacks. So much adrenalin had severely penetrated (burned into) my nerves & muscles, add to that a chronic background of fear and generalized anxiety.

Sincerely,
Billy Frame