Dr. Barry Baines

So it is a question of how do you slow things down or calm things?

The other piece that's very revealing, David, that you shared is how

the concerns that people in therapy are bringing to you, that it's now gone beyond just my personal life, but it's in ever-widening circles.

And to me,

Part of the problem is that we have the sense that we are losing control, that we don't have control of things.

And when that happens, we're under more stress.

And then the medical piece, which we know about, is all the stress hormones are like firing up like crazy.

And that makes you physically feel uncomfortable as well.

It's that fight or flight.

And then it has all these other medical implications, you know, blood pressure, sleep, but you kind of, you know, detailed it.

But, you know, cardiovascular risk, worsening just about every chronic disease affecting your immune system, etc.

And what I've

come to see because i do some many some meditation which is very easy and the number one thing is is the the breathing and again it doesn't take an hour uh to do that um and what it does in addition to calming you down it gives you a sense of control that you're purposely focusing in on this and it helps you to take control i am now country you know instead of

Because we breathe automatically, okay?

But to me, when you do meditative breathing, you very consciously, and again, closing your eyes is a good thing, taking a deep breath in, which would be much greater than what you would do when you're just doing your activity.

You're being conscious of it and slowly, you know, exhaling over a period of five to 10 seconds.

That's not how we breathe.

But as you do those kinds of things,

I mean, you literally can feel things just calm down.

And for me, it's extremely important.