Counting Breaths

A breast cancer survivor, patient of my daughter, was introduced to the technique of ‘Focusing on breathing’ in a short session of 15 minutes by me when she visited our office. I showed her the ‘Segment’ mode and made her do it in my office, completing 2 hands. She experienced the relaxing effect and was convinced. She has been using the technique before sleep, on waking up and many other times of the day.

She reported these benefits: Back of her head was very stiff and painful for a  long time and now this has become free. She is able to sleep better and tolerate the harsh series of chemotherapy treatments which resulted in her hair falling off and body aching a lot and still function as a house keeper. She said that recently when she was fatigued and feeling totally powerless, she practiced the technique for one full hour and at the end she felt restored enough to be able to move about in the house.

Her recent feedback:
“The ‘Counting breaths’ technique is wonderful. It is a help for me when I am facing a treatment like chemotherapy. I am able to relax the mind and body with great sleep time. I use the counting mode at bed time, on waking up and when doing my stretching exercises.”

She has been displaying the brochures on the technique in her oncology clinic for the benefit of other patients. This is the first case of a cancer survivor practicing and reporting the benefits.

I gave copies of the hand outs (1) to a doctor of internal medicine known to my daughter Padma Sripada. When I met her after a few months, she said that she was using the technique herself and found it useful. She told one of her patients  under 5-6 medications and suffering from severe insomnia, to practice ‘counting breaths’ in blocks of 1 to 10 at bed time.  She made the patient practice it in the exam room, in her presence. After 2 days, that patient called and said after a long time, she was able to sleep happily!

(1) See top tab ‘DOWNLOADS – PDF’

One diabetic woman attended my seminar at the Diabetic fair organized by Albany Medical Center, in May 2010. She registered for the ‘Follow Up’ classes at my office and attended her first class in June 2010. When I called her after a week to know how shew was practicing, she said she liked the practice. She added voluntarily that she was not smoking as many cigarettes as before. We did not even discuss about smoking in the class!

I work in my daughter’s medical office as a manager. Occasionally I meet with a patient and depending on the receptiveness of that person, I give them the hand out and explain the tip or segment mode.  I advise to practice at bed time – lying in bed, when needing to sleep. When I happen to meet the same person at a later visit,  I try to find out if the technique was tried and if so, what benefits were felt.

Recently I met a 97 year old woman patient the second time (a few months back I explained the segment mode to her) and inquired how she was doing, without mentioning the technique. After explaining her current health problems, she added on her own, that she was using the ‘segment mode’ of the breathing technique  and it was helping her in calming her mind.

She said she sent the brochure on this technique to her sister in California.

Whenever I get a chance, I hand over the brochures related to the technique to the visitors to our office (Office of Padma Sripada, my daughter where I work as a manager) and suggest to try the technique at bed time to  get sleep. Recently in my absence, a drug rep came on her periodic visit and happily reported to my daughter (Dr. Sripada) and the office staff that she found the technique very useful, in helping her calm herself when she was under great anxiety.

Here is a heart warming story from a couple:

The Happy Wife

Let me first thank Suryanarayana Chennapragada (CS) for giving back my life. Here is my story which I would like to share with the entire world so that people like me can also benefit.

About me: I have been a software engineer for the past 13+ years. Married to a wonderful person for 9 years now.  He is also a software engineer. We had everything in life but we didn’t have any kids. Initially, like everyone, we thought that our time would come. But as the years passed by, we started getting tense, frustrated etc. We consulted at least 6 different doctors and went for several tests. Every test result came normal. But we didn’t know the reason why we could not get a child. We took the advice of every person that we met. Went for vacation, did lot of spiritual things and ate whatever was recommended in Google, thinking that will make me pregnant. Still nothing worked.

Then in June ‘2008 when my PCP suggested to go for fertility treatment, we went to ‘Albany IVF’ clinic. Tried it for 6 months, did 2 IUI procedures but nothing happened. Due to office work, we were not able to continue, so we took a break. Then in 2009 again we started. Tried again 2 IUI but still failed. We were totally heart broken. The social pressure from our parents and relatives for getting a child was adding to our stress. We started fighting with each other because of all this tension.

My fertility doctor then told it was better to do IVF. We were not too sure it would work and also our insurance didn’t cover the cost. So we decided to give it a break again. In the meantime, my husband happened to see the brochure about the ‘Focusing on breathing’ practice (www.countingbreaths.com) at the Albany Hindu Temple. He decided to go for the weekly classes on this technique offered by CS at the temple. Within 3 months of doing these classes I saw a tremendous change in his health as well as behavior. He became very soft, handling things smoothly, even when I fought with him. This really surprised me, specially because I was a totally tensed character all the time. I was having insomnia, becoming thinner and thinner. So my husband suggested to me that I should also attend these classes. I was very skeptical. In the past I attended 3 meditation programs. Nothing worked for me. I used to meditate during the class and after the class I used to skip the practice since I felt that I didn’t have the peaceful time or mind to do that practice. Also I felt that it was really tough.

My husband forced me to attend one session with CS along with him. He told me that if I don’t like it, I didn’t need to go anymore. I thought I will give it a try, specially on seeing my husband change. As soon as I attended the first class, I really liked it. In the first month, I didn’t see any change in myself But as the days progressed, I felt a tremendous change. Before these classes, I had insomnia and used to be awake up to almost 2 AM. After doing the ‘Focusing on breathing’ I was sleeping like a baby!

We again started our fertility treatment in Nov 2009. I went for all the routine tests. To our surprise, my doctor saw a tremendous change in my hormone level. He prepared a chart showing what it was before and how I progressed in 6 months. Another change was that we both became very calm, started taking everything cool. We were slowly becoming like the way we used to be, once upon a time, which was really a wonderful thing.  We realized how stress could change a person. That was the main thing we were trying to focus in these breathing classes. Both our stress levels came down and it changed us completely to a very happy couple once again.

As planned, we did IVF treatment in Mar ‘2010. And I am pregnant now after 9 years. My due date is Thanksgiving 2010. We could not ask anything more than this in life. We went for these classes for 6 months. Personally CS helped us change ourselves completely. We are so grateful for that. This breathing class was totally unique. It is so simple that even a child can do it.  I do it regularly now.  I gained weight also. We got our life back and we are once again a very happy couple now.

Moral of the story:
Everyone knows that we can’t avoid tension or stress in life. But we all should learn how to handle it. Otherwise it seriously disturbs even our hormones, leading to lot of medical problems. That was what had happened to us. By practicing this technique regularly, we can control our stress level.  We both learned how to deal with the stress.
Thank u so much CS, for teaching us this technique.

The Happy Husband

Due to work stress and being a short-tempered person, I had difficulty in sleeping and also not able to spend time happily with family. I was interested in learning stress management techniques and yoga for better health.

I happened to notice the brochure about “Focusing on Breathing” by using simple techniques that can be practiced anywhere, anytime.  I tried to practice myself, but I wanted to learn from a teacher so that I will learn the technique in the right way.  I met Suryanarayana Chennapragada (CS) who originated this technique at the Albany Hindu temple. While practicing initially, we could not really stick to a planned schedule as there are no ‘rules’ in this technique. But actually this aspect was good thing.  Due to the flexibility given in the practice, it created more curiosity and more opportunities to practice at different times of the day.  As the practice continued, I could feel more relaxation and better sleep. It improved my personal relations both at work and at home.  It also improved my stamina which is helping in my long distance running practice.

Apart for improving health, the whole process helped me and my wife to spend more time together and share the experiences of inner peace and happiness at work and outside.  The more we spent good time together, it helped in more harmonious relationship, which helped a lot when we planned for having baby. Initially, due to work stress and other reasons, we had some medical conditions that delayed the pregnancy. As our practice of the techniques continued, we could see good results in the medical test results, and finally we achieved the goal of getting pregnant!

We are expecting a baby in the next few months, and we are very happy to share the greatness of the breathing exercises taught by CS, and the way they changed our personal lives. We encourage everyone to learn this technique which helps not only in getting good sleep, but also improving the overall personality, leading to a stress free life.  Thanks to CS who made a big difference in our life.

‘Focusing on Breathing’ was introduced to all the classes Robert C. Parker School in Feb 2009.

The investment of time and effort was

• Introduction to all the teachers during a faculty meeting – 15 minutes
• Introduction to each class – 15 minutes for classes Pre K 4 to Gr 5 and 30 minutes for Gr 6 to 8
• One review visit by me to every class after about 3 months
• Some classes (Pre K4, K/1 and Gr 2/3) used to practice it every day, for a minute or two as part of their daily circle meeting. Gr 4 to 8 had no such daily reinforcement.
• Cost to the school – None

Meg Taylor Head of Parker says in her Blog Dt Dec 1,09: “One of the ways we help children cope with stress at Parker is by practicing the simple mindful breathing taught us by C.S., the grandfather of Veda in 4-5. It is one of his life’s missions to spread this easy and effective way to reduce anxiety. The breathing technique is practiced regularly by almost all the children in the school.”

Is there any such technique that can be introduced to children of this age group so cheaply, that will be absorbed so easily and enables them to practice on their own and would elicit such feelings and thoughts?

Please explore the possibility of introducing this technique in your child’s school. I can help on-line.

Feedback from all the classes

The Feedback from all the classes was collected in a simple form from all the classes in May 10. It is presented below, first the summary and then class wise.

PART ONE: SUMMARY OF FEEDBACK (See part II for grade wise feedback)

Class	Age	On Roll	Number  practicing	%
Pre School	4	15	7	50
KG  &  Gr 1	5 to 7	20	18	90
Gr 2 &  3	7 to 9	18	17	95
Gr 4 & 5	9 to 11	16	16	100
Gr 6 to 8	11 to 14	33	5	17
Total		102	63	60

When do I practice the technique?

Bed time/ Sleep                    27                         43
Morning meeting                 21                          33
Angry/ Mad                             8                            13
At school                                  7                             11
In car/ Bus/ Plane                7                             11
Morning at home                   5                              8
In shower                                 4                               7
Others 2 each: Bored, At home after school,  On waking up, When stressed.
Others 1 each: To become calm: Crazy,  Feeling yucky, Trying to hold tears,  Out of control, Upset,  Overwhelmed,  Before Dinner to be patient, Sad  To cope: Need to focus, Tired, After exercise  To engage themselves: When I like it,  Grandma’s house,  Every day at home   I Don’t use it: Not very often, I don’t use it.

 

How does it help me? (response, Number of responses, percentage)

Response                                           Number of responses                       %

Calms me down                                                     21                                                  33
Sleep                                                                         18                                                   28
Relax                                                                         18                                                   28
Concentrate                                                            7                                                    11
Keep away sadness                                              2                                                     3
Survive                                                                     2                                                      3
Feel good                                                                 2                                                       3

 

Others -1 Each:

For better mental states: Be peaceful, Feel the silence, Shuts my mind down, Makes me feel happy, Feel silent, Have a good day, Stop crying as much, Helps me be patient at dinner time, On the plane it helps me because I am usually scared but I don’t get scared any more  Practical uses: After that I am not tired any more, Keep away bad dreams, Wake up, Keep awake at home after school, Takes away my cough a little, Stop car sick, Slow down my heart rate, Shortens the lessons, Relieve stress, Helps me so I can get my books and not lose any of them  Unique experiences: It makes me disappear and I do not know where I am any more, It calms me down and when I feel like running around the room it makes me not do that, Makes me feel real good and I feel like I can be a rock or stone, Makes me feel like I am bathing in the sun, “If people do this, all the wars in the World will end” one girl in K/1 told me when I first introduced the breathing to the class and asked each one of them felt about the experience.

 

PART TWO: GRADE WISE FEEDBACK

Pre School – 4 years (7 out of 15)

Place of practice: Every day at home, Right after I go to school, In the morning and at night, At bed time deep breathing with mommy

When do I practice and how does it help?: Sometimes I breathe right after I am mad – It helps me by calming me down, When I feel really angry – It is calming, At play time when I am mad – Calms me down, Before dinner – Helps me be patient, When I am upset – Stop crying as much, When I am excited – It helps me by calming down, Bed time – It helps me go to sleep, When I am tired, When I am overwhelmed, Others: It helps me so I can get my books and not lose any of them, Helps me focus, It takes away my cough a little,

KG and Grade 1 (5/ 6 Years) (18 students, 15 of them practice ‘Going into silence’ and 3 of them mentioned ‘breathing’)

All of them practice at the morning meeting and feel these effects:

It is relaxing
It feels nice, I feel calm
It makes me much calmer
It feels calm and good
It calms me down when I feel like running around in the class room, it makes me not do that
It feels good and relaxing
It makes me feel really relaxed
I feel the silence
It makes me feel peaceful
It makes me feel real good like I can be a rock or a stone
It makes me feel like I am bathing in the Sun
It makes me disappear and I don’t know where I am any more

Other practice times and effects

In the morning at my house – I feel relaxed
At my house at night time – It helps me to go to my bed and sleep
At my grandma’s house, sometime in the morning – it makes me feel happy
Sometimes when I am in the bath I close my eyes – It makes me feel like it is the middle of the night and I am fast asleep
When I am going on vacation in the car – It stops me from being car sick
When I am mad
At night time when I get back home
In the car
At home
On the plane when I try to go to sleep – It helps me because I usually get scared – I don’t feel scared any more
Before I go to Tae-Kwon-Do – It makes me do good work
When I have nothing else to do – It feels good
I fall asleep
It makes me feel silent

Grade 2/3 (7/8 years) (17 out of 18)

When do I practice and how it helps me

Morning meeting
- Focused
- Having a good day
- It helps me focus for the rest of the day
- It helps me to calm down
- It helps me concentrate
- It helps relax me
- At school – To survive
- At night when it is hard to get sleep – Keeping bad dreams and sadness away
- Before I go to sleep – It helps me sleep
- Bed time – It calms me down
- Before bed – Calm down
- At home 6.30 am – To survive
- In the shower – I don’t know
- In the shower – Relaxed
- In the shower – To relax
- When I wake up – It helps me complete my day
- When I am waking up – it helps me wake up
- At home after school – Keep awake
- When I am trying to hold in tears
- When feeling yucky – Feel relaxed
- When sad – less sadness and focus

Gr 4/5 (9/10 years) (16 out of 16)

When do I practice and how it helps me

When stressed – Helps me relax
When angry and need to focus – Helps me concentrate better
When I want to sleep – Helps me sleep better
Before bed – Go to sleep
Before bed – I am sleepy
At night – It helps me sleep
At night – Relaxes me
At night – It helps me fall asleep
When I go to sleep – To fall asleep
At night – Get to sleep
Gong to bed – To relax
At night – It helps me calm down
When I go to sleep – It helps me relax and sleep
In school – It calms me down
At school
When I am mad – I am calm
When I am meditating – I am peaceful
When crazy or stressed
It does not really help me that much
When I am in the car – Calms me down
In the car – To concentrate
Sometimes in the bus – Stay calm
On the bus – Relieves stress
It shortens lessons
When I feel like it – It calms me down
When I am out of control – Relax
In the morning

Middle school Gr 6 to 8 (11 to 13 years) (5 out of 33)

When do I practice and how it helps me

When I am bored – It helps me go to sleep
When I have a hard time sleeping – It relaxes me
When stressed – It calms me down
When I am angry – Helps me relax
When I am going to sleep – Helps me shut my mind down
After exercising – helps slow down my heart rate
Some times – Relax
It does not help me

TEACHERS (5 out of 9)

When do I practice and how it helps me?

I breathe every morning before getting out of bed when my mind starts racing. I don’t get up until I’m centered and ready for the day.

At the beginning of morning meeting – Keeps to focus and think about the day ahead of me

When I have difficulty sleeping – Greatly helps put my mind to rest

When I can’t sleep – It still my mind and usually makes sleep come to me

When I am faced with a particularly challenging moment – Helps me to be calm and focus on the issue at hand

Morning meeting – Relaxes me as I prepare for a busy day

Between activities to transition to next task – To be more focused and ready for next learning activity

After lunch – Helps students stay on task

Some students do this at morning meeting or on their own before the meeting

Some students use this technique before a learning activity that is difficult or challenging for them. I have seen students do this on their own to calm themselves or refocus

In the evening – Relaxes me

When I feel stressed – Relaxes me, Calms me and helps me to be more focused

When I need to be more focused – Helps me transition to the next activity

“I truly feel that, what we in the class call “going in your silence” has made a very big difference for the children and Lynn and me. I often watch the children during those times and I can see their whole body relax, their facial expression become calm, and whatever the next activity we have, the children begin it with more focus and calmness. Closing eyes remains a challenge for some children and we continue to work on this piece. For me personally, I find the breathing helps me relax, refocus, brings back my humor and ability to see things around me a bit differently and more clearly-truly helpful in the classroom as well as life.”

Liliana (teaches K/1) said in separate e-mail after I raised some questions on how she has been teaching the ‘going into silence’ practice.

“I try to teach the children that “going into your silence” is not the same as no noise (lack of noise). I tell them that it’s about learning to find the silence inside even if there is lots of noise and distraction around them. We have discussions about what all this means. We practice sitting quietly and keeping the body as still as possible. I teach the children the meaning of the word “stillness” and I teach about stillness. As you can see, I don’t really have a method or technique – what I do is part of who I am, how I teach, the values I want to instill in children, and I try to teach them about peace. I teach about the peace within (in the silence) and how when they are able to find their own peace, they become peace makers. I don’t have a set time – can be a minute to a few minutes – I usually get a feel about how long we should do it.”

Introductory Seminar for Staff of Loudonville Elementary School
Conducted an introductory seminar of one hour for 24 staff of Loudonville Elementary School including the principal. This followed the request of the principal Kerry Flynn who got positive comments from the students, teachers and parents of the sixth graders who were given a 15 minute exposure to ‘Focusing on breathing’ at the Albany Hindu Temple recently.

The seminar participants were practically introduced to three modes of ‘Focusing on breathing’ and asked to lie down on the floor and practice any of the modes for about 20 minutes.

Feedback from the participants was collected in writing, on the following issues and the summary of their responses is presented below.

The seminar was
- Excellent – 15 responses
- Very Good – 5
- Good – 4

I will use this technique to relieve my (mention your concern) …..
- Anxiety
- Anxiety-Stress both on the job and personal
- Busy mind at bed time
- Daily stress
- Job stress – I will use this in my class when my students are doing state testing
- Motion sickness and vertigo
- Migraines
- Stress with my family
- Stress and student anxiety
- Stress
- Stress/Sleepiness
- Stress and Headaches
- Stress/ Hard times in life
- Stress of daughter teething
- Stress/ Obesity
- To relax
- Tension headaches & Hot flashes

Comments and suggestions about the seminar
- It was great
- Great ideas
- Good suggestions for starting focus on breathing as relaxation
- Wonderful opportunity to relax
- Wonderful class!
- Very calming
- Interesting! Logical! helpful!
- Very relaxing
- It was difficult for me to relax but eventually I became relaxed
- I liked the simplicity of the relaxation methods
- Offered very practical techniques for relaxing that I am eager to incorporate into my life
- I loved this class! Instructor was very relaxing. I will use his voice when doing the relaxation techniques.
- Excellent. I want to share this with my family. Especially with my children. What a gift this is to teach young children how to manage stress early.
- I am excited to share these techniques with my loved ones. Really enjoyed the experience.
- I suggest to play some quiet music during the floor exercises (when lying down on the floor and practicing the relaxation) and use some incense as well.
- I suggest to include more examples of teachers using these techniques