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Senior Care: 4 Of The Best Breathing Exercises For Anxious Seniors

Senior Care: Seniors can struggle with anxiety, stress, depression, and anger. No matter what age they are, these feelings are real.

Senior Care: Even seniors can struggle with anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and more.

Some people assume that because a senior has lived a full life, they know and understand how to regulate these negative feelings better than you do. That’s not true. No matter what age someone is, they can still struggle with these feelings. Understanding how to work through these feelings can be hard on its own. Senior care can help be there to talk to when these feelings become too strong or overpowering.

 

Senior Care in Redwood City CA: Breathing Exercises
Senior Care in Redwood City CA: Breathing Exercises

 

Senior home care can also help teach seniors new practices, behaviors, and exercises that help the seniors calm down and focus during these times. Senior home care can help teach mindfulness and other ways to calm down during these times. When a senior gets too worked up, it may feel like they can’t breathe or function properly, and that is where learning these techniques can come in handy.

Learning to alleviate these symptoms through breathwork can be one of the best ways to start feeling better. Our breath is connected to our whole body, and finding it to focus on can truly help a senior process whatever they are feeling. No matter what age someone is, these exercises that focus on breathing can help alleviate the pain they’re feeling.

Lengthening The Exhale

Have you ever noticed when someone is trying to remain calm their exhales lengthen? This is actually a really good trick to have in your toolbox. Inhaling deeply may not always calm you down, in fact it might make you more anxious. Exhaling is linked to the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for calming you down and relaxing the body. Too many deep breaths in a row can lead to more panic and hyperventilation.

Breath Focus

Mentally being aware of your breath, the body’s response and the feelings that come and go with each breath can be a great way to calm down. Just to be aware of what is going on in the body can be one of the best ways to start calming down during bouts of anxiety or stress.

Equal Breathing

Inhaling too many times for too long triggers the flight or fight response or the start of hyperventilation. Instead of breathing in long and exhaling in short bursts, do it in equal parts. Breathe in for four seconds and breathe out for four seconds.

Senior Care: Lion’s Breath

If a senior can sit on their knees or crisscross on the floor this is a great way to feel grounded while practicing forceful breathing. It is called lion’s breath because it involves forcefully exhaling and then inhaling through your nose. This can be repeated up to six times. Senior care should encourage the client to focus on how they’re feeling inside and for their faces to remain natural and relaxed.

 

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Senior Care in Redwood City, CA, call the caring staff at Aviva In-Home Care.
Call today: (415) 795-2203

 

Evan Loevner

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