Clean Run - September 2019 - 41

Mental
Management
Minute:
Coping Skills
By Brenna Fender

Although we may try to keep the importance of agility trials
in perspective, there are times when most competitors experience some degree of nervousness, stress, or anxiety at an
event. While a little stress can be a good thing, sharpening
our reactions and keeping us focused, too much can reduce us
to a quivering mess. The good news is that we can calm ourselves, reducing that anxiety to more manageable butterflies.
But how?
Coping skills are an excellent way to reduce stress and anxiety.
These are ways to get your mind off the concern and calm your
mental state. Then you can reach the proper stress level for
optimal functioning.
These techniques are simple but work best if you practice them
ahead of time. Practicing these skills when calm will help you
associate calmness with the skills, leading to a more successful
and speedy response, plus they will be nearly automatic when
you need to use them.
One coping skill is known as Four Square Breathing. It's a
straightforward concept. You inhale for a count of 4 (aiming
for about four seconds), hold your breath for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, and wait for a count of 4. Then repeat.
If possible, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. The
more you can concentrate on it and block out the environment, the better. If you can continue the cycle for at least two
or three times, that's great, but you can do it for 4 minutes or
more. For more detailed instructions, you can find more information at https://www.livestrong.com/article/74944-boxbreathing-technique.
Breathing exercises may be one of the best calming techniques
available because of their direct physical connection (breathing tends to change when we are upset, so controlling our
September 19 | Clean Run

breath and breathing deeply can have positive effects on the
physical processes of the body). Plus, they have mental calming aspects and the ability to serve as a distraction. But other
distractions can work well too, calming your mind and settling you. Consider a technique called Rainbow, where you
go through the colors of the rainbow in order-red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet-and find items in your
environment that match the color. I recommend that you pick
another color to take indigo's place since it can be tricky to
characterize and you don't need that kind of stress when you're
trying to de-stress! Choose a number ahead of time and find
that many items of each color in your environment. Perhaps
start with 5.
A third coping skill is called the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Grounding Technique. It's another one that involves paying attention to your
environment:
* Take a deep breath, exhale, and then look around for 5
things you can see. Say them aloud if you can (if you are
surrounded by people, you can say them in your head).
* Next, find 4 things you can feel and say or think those
words. Think about things you can feel at the moment.
This requires additional introspection and grounding.
Can you feel the seams in your socks? The weight of
a design on the front of your t-shirt? Your hair being
pulled into your ponytail holder?
* Find 3 things you can hear around you and say or think
those words. Consider challenging yourself to hear
softer or unusual sounds, or to pay particular attention to sounds you hear all the time but never think too
much about.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/74944-box-breathing-technique/ https://www.livestrong.com/article/74944-box-breathing-technique/

Clean Run - September 2019

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