To Relax With Tinnitus

To say the least it has been a rough ride these 10 months of T. I can say that i function more or less ok atm. no problems to get enough sleep and so on. But i must admit that my biggest problem i to just relax in the way that i could pre T. To relax i must either knock me out with a hard cardio exercise or half a bottle of Whisky, i have hard times to find the feeling of complete relaxation that i could before, i am a lot more reckless than before. I know mindfulness could be something here but i am really sceptical towards that it would work on me. Any tips out there?

 

Hi again my Nordic T-friend! Glad to hear you are feeling better. I have similar challenges and I do feel that meditation / mindfulness practices are the key to relaxation. Some people say they meditate to their T sound and just observe it with a curious fashion... 'Oh, now the sound changed a bit. Very interesting. I wonder what it will sound next...' and so on. When we can relax ourselves at the same time listening to our T, I am confident we retrain our mind and brain to a) ignore the sound and b) feel less stressed about it. Have a look at this recent short CBS video about mindfulness. Worth a watch!

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mindfulness-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/

 

Thanks Sound! I will check it out. Nothing wrong with hard cardio or whisky but it could be nice to get the old feeling of just complete relaxation in any other way. How does your ears handle the newborn?

 

Actually VERY well! The first 4-5 weeks after the baby have been the lowest T weeks so far. It must have been the brain hormone storm that made the T very very low. Now the T has increased a bit, but it is still low compared to the worst times. The baby is awesome and I am enjoying life with it!

Btw, I wouldn't use alcohol to relax, because it messes up your sleep and thus your body and mind as well. It's a short term fix. Exercise is much better. How about acupuncture - have you tried that? Sauna works wonders for me and luckily I have one at my home (as all Finns do). A spike mat is also one of the best quick fix tools to relax your body and also mind. A must have imho and doesn't cost much. I got one for 5€! And then there is of course music. Do you have good hifi equipment? If not, you might want to consider buying for example good headphones. They can help also with meditation / mindfulness exercises. Check out for example binaural beats soundscapes from Spotify / Youtube.

 

Don´t worry Sound, the whisky drinking is under control. My fiance wouldn´t let it escalte. Funny thing that you did mention the spike mat. I talked to my sister about that a couple of days ago. Sauna would be very nice, but there is no one around close. Great to hear about your kid, mine is 6 months now and it´s starting to be really fun with him.

 

Hi @Nick the Swede, it was really hard for me to practice mindfulness/meditation in the beginning, even though it was something I had done before. I wasn't one who could focus on the sound and be peaceful about it at first. The thing that really allowed me to relax again (and what got me off sleep meds and to sleep naturally) was yoga.

It's a moving meditation/mindfulness exercise, so you have something to focus on other than the sound - breathing, you muscles, a super pleasant stretch . You can also try a guided meditation/mindfulness exercises, there are a lot of nice ones on youtube for free. Even if you aren't into some of the stuff they're talking about, it allows you to have something nice to think about, even while the T is present. I think it makes it less threatening.

Here is one that I use a lot - it's pretty short. Even if you aren't into chakras and find all that kind of hokey, just set that part aside : ) It's super relaxing to close your eyes and just think of nice things:

Chakra Meditation

I also love this woman's yoga, her name is Kate Potter. Her yoga is extremely calming and relaxing (you can do it before bed, after a shower - it's not meant to make you break a sweat and some are 1/2 hour and under.) This particular DVD was one of the best (and cheapest) things I ever got for my T: http://www.katepotteryoga.ca/namasteDVD5.html

There's one sequence on it (I think it's the Vata sequence - I'd have to check) but it's specifically meant to target your nervous system with particular breathing patterns and slow floor movements. I can't explain why it worked so well for me, but it was miraculously calming and just made me feel happy and hopeful. I think there's something wonderful about feeling something good in your body after T makes you feel so bad. I couldn't find it for free to post unfortunately, but I would highly recommend it.

Good luck, Nick!

 

I lay in my bathtub with a water proof blow up pillow and the shower running on me. Breath in the steam and listen to the water fall on you. Simple but it works. It's the only time I feel even half way relaxed.

 

It´s an odd feeling to be unable to relax, before T i was a pretty lazy guy when it comes to things that i wasn´t so interested in. But atm i am the opposite. My warm water just last approx 30mins