Dr. John A. King explains how exercise breaks rumination cycles in PTSD. He teaches a 4-4-4-4 breathing technique and describes how bodybuilding's structure and discipline create purpose and pull the mind away from trauma. Brief walks and intense routines both work as healthy distractions.
Hello again. I just wanted to talk about exercise and its role as a healthy distraction. One of the challenges, and I talk a lot about this in my book Deal With It: Living Well with PTSD, one of the challenges that those of us that have PTSD is that we, we get stuck in our head. We get stuck with living with regrets, remembering things, playing things over and over again. Exercise is a brilliant distraction for that. Probably the first thing is seeing exercise as moving meditation for when you're stuck. If you find yourself at work, if you find yourself in a tense situation at home, or when you're out and about, understand that just by stopping what you're doing and going for a walk around the block, going for a walk in the backyard, going for a walk to the mailbox, just breaks up the cycle of whatever you're in. And this moving meditation By getting out and actively saying, I'm feeling stuck, I'm feeling tense, I'm going to go and do this for a moment. That very simple activity of being self-aware and problem-solving puts you on your front foot. The second thing is regulating your breathing. A cycle of 4. Breathe in for 4, hold for 4, breathe out for 4. 4. Relax for 4. Breathe in for 4. Hold for 4. Breathe out. It's mindfulness. By focusing on our breath, by, by stopping our hyperventilating, bringing everything down, focusing on the air coming out of our nose, out of our mouth, focusing on good air coming in, bad air going out. That simple exercise will change the way you deal with situations on a daily basis. The third thing that I love about exercise is it builds discipline and structure. When I had recall of what happened to me as a kid, I knew my head was messed up. I knew that I had to get out of my own head and get into something else. So I took up bodybuilding. What I liked about bodybuilding Is you have to be like fucking crazy. It's— you're so obsessed with this thing. It's every meal, every day, um, for, for like 9 or 12 months. You are so focused every day on what you're eating, where you're going, gym workout, cardio workout, chest, back, arms, legs, blah blah blah. And it's just like— And I needed that. I needed to line my ducks up, put them in a row, and have them marching Exactly the same time every day, the same way. I know it might sound fanatical, but I know I needed that. I needed that discipline in order to get out of my head, get present, and be able to make my way through this problem. I want to suggest you do too. I want to suggest that exercise builds discipline and structure that is absolutely vital for someone who is suffering from complex post-traumatic stress Or a post-traumatic stress disorder. You need it. Do yourself a favour. Get yourself into a regular pattern and habit of exercise, and it'll change the way you think about yourself and about your life. Get a copy of Deal With It: Living Well with PTSD, and please reach out to us. If we can help you, um, we'd like to. Cheerio.
