Methodology: Rhemercise Plus Mindfulness
The technique has 4 steps.
The goal is to attempt to induce controlled sympathetic and parasympathetic states in the subjects and monitor their pulse throughout the session with a pulse by Pulse Oximeter.
Step:1. Resting Pulse. Person comfortably seated, has the right index finger in the Pulse Oximeter. Record the pulse and this is the person’s Resting Pulse.
Step 2. Take a deep breath, as deep as possible and start counting 1001, 1002, 1003…till the person is out of breath, the number that the person reached say 1023 is that person’s Single Breath Count (SBC) and that is the Single Breath Count (SBC) of that person and is usually above 1020 and less than 1040. This number is the Resting Single Breath Count (SBC.)
Step 3. Modified CDC Chair Test. In an upright chair with arms, the person is comfortably seated and after taking in a deep breath, start counting, 1001, 1001, 1001, 1001 as the person as quickly and comfortably as possible sit and immediately stand, again sit and immediately stand till the person is out of his single breath. Every time the person sits and stands the count increases by one. This is the CDC Chair Test Count. With the right index finger in position in the Pulse Oximeter all the time, record the highest Pulse rate obtained during or soon after the CDC Chair Test SBC. This is the CDC Chair Test Pulse Rate and will be obviously high.
Step 4. Rhemercise Plus Mindfulness Technique- (Remember throughout the test period the Pulse Oximeter has one of the index fingers in it).
Learn to feel the faint pulse in front of the tragus of the left ear with the free index finger left or right. The other fingers folded and resting on the left side of the face, is the hand posture of someone in deep thought. Practice briefly to count 1001, 1002, 1003… with each pulse the person feels with the right-left index finger.
Take a deep breath and with each pulse, speak, smiling progressively*, one pulse for one word, “Relax now, rejoice now, love, joy, peace now”. There are a total of 8 words to be spoken with 8 pulses.
* The progressive smile, starts with a Mona Lisa faint smile, then an ear-to-ear smile, and lastly Duchhane smiles with eyes and squeezes the eyes shut.
As one Breathe in slowly, think or meditate the same words in that order, “Relax now, rejoice now, love, joy, peace now “, one word for each pulse and voluntarily yawn progressively opening wide the mouth as possible and same time, with mouth opening as wide as possible with shoulders arching back as one does in relaxed yawning. Alternatively, the person can yawn with the mouth closed, as we all do in public when we are overcome by an irresistible spontaneous yawn. Record the lowest pulse rate as the person does this relaxing technique, which may take a 30 to 40 seconds. This will be invariably lower than the Resting Pulse, SBC Pulse, CDC Chair Test Pulse. The difference of the highest and lowest pulse will be what we call by a new name Heart Rate Difference (HRD) and is postulated an indication of Heart Rate Variability.
Do this single breath smiling speaking, yawning meditating 2 or 3 times or one yawn spontaneously which remarkably happens quickly
Duration of a session: We suggest 5 to 6 times a day while admitted with all the records of pulse etc entered for each session. The data needs to be entered into a Spreadsheet.
Number of sessions in a day: 5-6 every 3- 3 walking hours.
References
1.The Space. Volkow ND, Baler RD, 2014. Addiction Science: Uncovering Neurobiological Complexity. Neuropharmacology. 76. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lie our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl.This quote is relevant to relapse, as the “space” Viktor Frankl refers to, a space whose dimension changes throughout life, could also influence relapse risk behaviors in people suffering with opioid use disorder
2.Forced Smiling: Kraft, Tara & Pressman, Sarah. (2012). Grin and Bear It: The Influence of Manipulated Facial Expression on the Stress Response. Psychological science. 23. 10.1177/0956797612445312. In the study reported here, we investigated whether covertly manipulating positive facial expressions would influence cardiovascular and affective responses to stress. Participants (N = 170) naive to the purpose of the study completed two different stressful tasks while holding chopsticks in their mouths in a manner that produced a Duchenne smile, a standard smile, or a neutral expression. Awareness was manipulated by explicitly asking half of all participants in the smiling groups to smile (and giving the other half no instructions related to smiling). Findings revealed that all smiling participants, regardless of whether they were aware of smiling, had lower heart rates during stress recovery than the neutral group did, with a slight advantage for those with Duchenne smiles. Participants in the smiling groups who were not explicitly asked to smile reported less of a decrease in positive affect during a stressful task than did the neutral group. These findings show that there are both physiological and psychological benefits from maintaining positive facial expressions during stress.
3.Yawning Clin Auton Res1996 Aug;6(4):237-9. Inhibition of muscle sympathetic nerve activity during yawning. J J Askenasy 1 , N Askenasy . Abstract. Yawning is a complex event that depends largely on the autonomic nervous system. Microneurographic techniques were used to study the mechanism involved in yawning. A series of spontaneous yawns displayed by a healthy 39-year-old male offered us the opportunity to study the muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during this phenomenon. It was found that 2 s of yawning inhibited the MSNA recorded at the right peroneal nerve in the lateral knee area, while 3 s of slow expiration succeeding a yawn provoked an MSNA discharge. Blood pressure decreased with each slow expiration by 5-6 mmHg, and increased again with the renewed MSNA discharge. We conclude that yawning is associated with a sympathetic suppression that favours a parasympathetic dominance, as indicated by the MSNA and the decrease in blood pressure. The slow expiration following a yawn is associated with a sympathetic activation marked by an MSNA discharge and an increase in blood pressure.)
4.Yawning as a Brain Cooling Mechanism: Nasal Breathing and Forehead Cooling Diminish the Incidence of Contagious Yawning
Andrew C. Gallup, Gordon G. Gallup, Jr. First Published January 1, 2007 Research Article https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049070050010
Abstract: We conducted two experiments that implicate yawning as a thermoregulatory mechanism. The first experiment demonstrates that different patterns of breathing influence susceptibility to contagious yawning. When participants were not directed how to breathe or were instructed to breathe orally (inhaling and exhaling through their mouth), the incidence of contagious yawning in response to seeing videotapes of people yawning was about 48%. When instructed to breathe nasally (inhaling and exhaling through their nose), no participants exhibited contagious yawning. In a second experiment, applying temperature packs to the forehead also influenced the incidence of contagious yawning. When participants held a warm pack (460C) or a pack at room temperature to their forehead while watching people yawn, contagious yawning occurred 41% of the time. When participants held a cold pack (40C) to their forehead, contagious yawning dropped to 9%. These findings suggest that yawning has an adaptive/functional component that it is not merely the derivative of selection for other forms of behavior.