Having prostate cancer, especially recurrent or advanced prostate cancer, is always
stressful for both the survivor and their caregivers.
There are easily learned coping techniques to help us calm our mind and sharpen our ability to focus. Learning and using relaxation techniques and other mind/body techniques provides us with an exceptional way to reduce stress both caused by our cancer as well as other general concerns. Utilizing these techniques allow us to maintain our inner peace, despite what is happening to us. These techniques can be very useful as we wait to receive our infusions, climb into an MRI tube, wait for the latest test results or just sit around in our house thinking about our life situation.
Deep Breathing
Commonly, the anxiety and stress of living with cancer causes us to take short, shallow breaths. Shallow breathing does not allow enough oxygen to enter our bodies, making us feel more anxious, creating a vicious circle.
We often feel calm or rejuvenated after laughing deeply or sighing. Laughing and sighing is one way our body forces us to breathe deeply. Don’t we feel more relaxed after we laugh or sigh? One way to achieve this effect is to go to a comedy club, but there is a limit to how many trips to a club we can make.
As an alternative to a club try the following simple breathing exercise. You can do it anywhere and anytime:
1. Take in a deep breath from your diaphragm (the muscle between the lungs
and the abdomen).
2. Hold the breath for several seconds – however long is comfortable for you (don’t force it) and then exhale slowly.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 two more times.
4. Afterward, relax for a moment and let yourself feel the experience of
being calm.
Meditation
Repetitive prayers are a form of meditation. There are two traditional forms of
meditation. They include “one-pointed” meditation and “two-pointed” meditation:
One-pointed meditation utilizes one word or sounds which are referred to as a mantra. You can create your own mantra (the