Dr. John A. King describes a breathing technique for managing PTSD: inhale good air, exhale bad air. When overwhelm hits, pausing to focus on your breath and what you feel in your heart and mind gives you back a sense of control.
With dealing with PTSD, we all have those days where things just get overwhelming. And I talk about this a lot in the book. One very simple thing that I still do to this day is when things get overwhelming and I'm not sure how they're going to work out and I'm not sure how I'm going to get through a particular moment, a meeting, something new, something that's just, just not working for me. Very simple. I stop and I say to myself, good air in, bad air out. I can't control a lot of my environment. I can't even control sometimes my response to things. But what I can do is control my breathing. Just stopping for a little moment, being aware of what's going on in my heart and in my head, and just going, you know what? It's okay. As long as I've got good air in and bad air out, it's all going to work out okay.
