Disclaimer: These posts are speaking from my personal experience and I’m trying to outline what has worked for me. I know everyone’s cases are different, so I want to respect that, and say up front that I know my methods my not work for others. By no means am I looking to push my experience as the only way that can work for people, nor am I trying to say that anyone is wrong or weak for not pushing through! I have tremendous respect for everyone fighting through POTS, and I am only looking to inject some more strength, resilience, knowledge, and positivity into an already incredible community. I’m also just looking to share my story and connect with others. So, thank you for reading today, and know that you are amazing, and I wish you the best on your personal journey!
When I visited the Mayo Clinic’s Pain Rehabilitation Center (PRC) about two years ago, I was looking for something practical to help me live my life fully with POTS. Medicine, compression socks, and salt could only go so far for me — I wanted something that could fundamentally change the way I was living in a positive way, without any negative side effects. The Mayo Clinic offered countless strategies, on physical, mental, and emotional levels, to help me deal with pain. I’ll be sharing everything I learned at Mayo, and what I’ve learned outside of it, through this blog. But first, I want to talk about my most powerful daily practice, something that changes me on a physical, mental, and emotional level. It is something I learned at Mayo, and something I have practiced every day since my completion of their PRC program. What is it? Meditation! Meditation has decreased my stress and anxiety levels, improved my concentration, helped my heart to stabilize its activity, assisted with my digestive problems, and helped my body in countless other ways. Most importantly, though, meditation has dramatically changed my worldview and the acceptance and appreciation I have for my circumstances.
Meditation, and specifically a practice with a focus on diaphragmatic breathing, is the most important thing I do to deal with stress, pain, and life. For the last two years, I have practiced meditation every morning for about ten minutes, and I notice a substantial difference in my overall disposition and ability to deal with stress from my practice. If I ever miss a day, I am much more likely to overthink things and stress myself out, leading to silly arguments and a bad mood. Meditation not only has incredible benefits for anyone who practices, but there are a number of benefits that can help directly with POTS symptoms. I’ll be diving into some of the fascinating research into how meditation can help the body with POTS and then I’ll share my meditation story and offer some practical ways to implement meditation into your daily life!
As most of you probably know, with POTS, there is a major dysfunction with the autonomic, or involuntary, nervous system (ANS). Within the ANS, there are two divisions: the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is known as the “rest and digest” system and it stimulates digestion, activates various metabolic processes and helps us to relax. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS), on the other hand, is known as the “fight or flight” system and it makes your heart beat faster and stronger, opens up your airways so you can breathe more easily, and inhibits digestion.
People with POTS tend to have a high-activity sympathetic nervous system and a low-activity parasympathetic nervous system. This is why, as shown by this study, a dominant SNS can result in heart rates getting out of control, major digestion problems, and a constant, reactionary, body state of fight-or-flight. However, diaphragmatic breathing can help to level out the systems and establish a better autonomic balance. An article published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research shows a breathing practice can reduce sympathetic nervous system activity and increase parasympathetic nervous system activity.
Additionally, studies have linked dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system with anxiety, and we all know anxiety and stress can make our POTS symptoms worse. However, here’s some good news: a breathing practice can help to calm anxiety and stress. According to a review published in the Frontiers in Psychology Journal,
“Physiological evidence has indicated that even a single breathing practice significantly reduces blood pressure, increases heart rate variability (HRV) and oxygenation, enhances pulmonary function, and improves cardiorespiratory fitness and respiratory muscle strength.”
For POTSies who struggle with heart function, blood flow to certain parts of the body, and physical fitness levels, diaphragmatic breathing is an essential tool in overall health and well being. Sounds awesome, right?
Diaphragmatic breathing is an essential tool for living to the fullest with POTS. I even use it to help me lift more weight when strength training, and taking big, deep, breaths will always promote positive change in your body, whether you immediately feel it or not. The best part is, practicing diaphragmatic breathing is not at all difficult, and you can train your body to change your breathing pattern to one that mimics diaphragmatic breathing more over time.
To practice diaphragmatic breathing, you can lie down on the ground, put your hand on your stomach, and breathe in through your nose, focusing on pushing your stomach out. Then, let your stomach muscles fall inward as you breathe out through pursed lips. I’ll let the Cleveland Clinic explain it to you in better detail here. If that doesn’t work for you, a Google or YouTube search is another great way to learn how to train your breath.
Though you can perform a breathing practice on its own, or with yoga or exercise, I recommend integrating diaphragmatic breathing into a meditation practice. Meditation was a key focus at Mayo Clinic — they had us meditate during the day and we were told to use a diaphragmatic breathing practice at night before bed. They recommended a twenty minute session daily, but, as mentioned earlier, I find ten minutes in the morning does the best for me. The key is to find what works for you. In meditation, there is no wrong or right way to do it. The focus is about being present and allowing time for your mind to be on its own, without a specific focus or judgment on present emotions or happenings.
Meditation has its own treasure chest of health benefits to speak about. A Forbes article titled, “7 Ways Meditation can Actively Change the Brain” states that meditation can be as effective as antidepressants for treating depression and anxiety, can lead to size changes in areas of the brain that affect mood and well-being, and can improve concentration and attention span — after only a few days of training!
Meditation can also help to change perspective. I know I can take time every day to let my thoughts go and calm my body down, no matter where I am or what is going on. It is extremely reassuring to know that I am working on my brain and my overall health on a daily basis by meditating, and nothing can stress me out too much because I find serenity and solace in my practice.
For my personal meditation practice, there are three main resources I use. I like to be guided, and the Headspace app has been invaluable to me in helping me through my mornings. Headspace gives users a ten-day intro pack for free. Using those ten days alone, on repeat, is more than enough as a guide — I used the ten-day pack for about three months after starting. If you buy the yearly “pro” pack (about $60), you gain access to ten to thirty-day packs on topics such as getting to sleep, dealing with pain, and increasing happiness. There are options for ten, fifteen, and twenty-minute sessions, and there are “mini-packs” that are one, two, and three minutes that can help during a panic attack or a high-stress time. Another neat feature is that you can track your meditation stats through Headspace. For example, my Headspace stats show I have meditated for over 46 hours, with 285 sessions and an average duration of 10 minutes. How cool is that?
Soundcloud, the music streaming platform, is another free way to access guided meditations. Big names in meditation such as Tara Brach, Sam Harris, and Dr. Alejandro Junger all have guided meditations on Soundcloud that I use often. Additionally, tarere is all kinds of meditation music on Soundcloud that can be used as a background for a diaphragmatic breathing practice. Whether you like a calming nature sound, or prefer something more techno that can stimulate brain waves, you’ll be sure to find whatever suits your needs on Soundcloud. I recommend trying out some different background structures (music, guiding, a combination) and seeing what works best for you!
The other way I have found guided meditations is something we all use on a daily basis – Google! Just a simple Google search of “meditation for stress” or “breathing to calm down” can yield hundreds of thousands of results. Often, YouTube videos with a high number of views or websites of people who have some kind of credential are the best options to start. Calm.com is also something I’ve seen that is similar to Headspace and has free resources to help people start their practice. Give it a shot — the resources for meditation are literally endless.
It is also important to mention guided meditation is not the only way to go. Vipassana meditation and Transcendental meditation (TM) are extremely popular around the world and they use different techniques than the guided method. Both methods are taught through courses and retreats, so you can connect with other beginners to find a community for your meditation practice. Transcendental meditation has quite the community; it has been found to have evidence-based health benefits, and famous people such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Ray Dalio, Tom Hanks, and Jerry Seinfeld all practice TM and have said it’s an essential part of their lives. Furthermore, if neither of those sounds good to you, there are dozens of other ways to practice meditation from around the world, so you may fall in love with a practice that I haven’t even heard of! Again, finding what works for you is most important.
Meditation is an integral part of my day, and I have recently started to practice under the sun, outside, to get some morning sunlight and reset my circadian rhythm. The ten minutes I spend before eating or looking at my phone is the perfect way to start my day right and make sure my mind is primed to attack the day without letting stressors get in the way. In addition to meditation, I also take daily cold showers, have another breathing practice for my VO2 max capacity, and do a set of morning mobility exercises to warm up my body and work towards injury prevention. If anyone is interested, I’ll have a post about my full morning routine coming soon (it’s here).
I urge you to consider adding meditation or a breathing practice of some form into your life — the benefits are abundant! It can be a lifesaver for dealing with POTS, but the practical benefits for anyone means starting a practice is a no-brainer. As the narrator on Headspace, Andy Puddicombe, says, you should “treat” your mind daily — it’s the most important muscle in your body!
Thank you so much for your reading and support! Please let me know in the comments section what you think of this post, if you have any questions, and if there is anything you would like me to talk about in the future. I would also love to hear from you personally in the “Contact Me” section above. Thank you again and please share this post so we can help to build a community of positivity around POTS!
Thank you for sharing. I will try calm.com. I find some googled sites provide guided help but have commercials that causes it not to work for me.
You have supplied us with helpful information that gives me hope and faith to improve my quality of life. My eye swelling and photophobia is pretty severe. I hope you will consider doing some videos of info too.
Thanks again;). I will print this so it’s easier on my eyes🤗
Thank you Julie! I’m inspired that you are getting hope from these posts! I am thinking about starting a podcast with people who have achieved success with POTS, but a video series would also be cool. Anything specifically you’re interested in? Thank you again for commenting!