Relaxation/Breathing exercise Recordings

[Nenuphar]

Mum's main issues are severe panic attacks and anxiety, coupled with memory loss (not yet diagnosed dementia but borderline).

She had an OT nurse come to see her for a few weeks who tried to teach her breathing exercises - Ummmmm well, because of her memory issues, I knew that wasn't going to work, and I did say as much at the time! Nurse left a folder of printed out instructions and suggested I sat with mum and took them through them every day. Nice idea - but not workable.

Just by chance, yesterday I asked mum to listen to a lovely classical music track I had on my MP3 player - she was willing (big plus!) and the earphones were the new earbud type (mine are Skull Candy brand). These are not the angular sort that you have to try and wodge into your ear - which even I find very uncomfortable - but they are small and soft, and literally made to gently plug into your ear canal. Benefits of that are they drown extraneous noise and you get the best sound.

She leaned back, closed her eyes and really loved the music, visibly relaxed.

So here we go - where can I find a recording that consists of a spoken, gentle relaxation breathing exercise - basically what the OT had down on paper - which i can put onto a MP3 player for her?

She's already said she would happily listen to that like a form of meditation (many years ago she did TM), I just need to find the right recording. Not too long, maybe 10-15 mins, she can listen to it twice a day and maybe I can persuade her to plug into it when we are out & about and she starts getting anxious.

Ideas welcome

[Lazydaisy]

have a look on youtube. There are some lovely relaxation recordings there,many of them are advertisements for the person's own product,but you can either use those or I am sure they will give you plenty of ideas.warning,you will become very relaxed yourself, might even drop off when you look and listen. x

[rosemary]

Also if you google relaxation tapes for MP3 you get lots of suggestions. Play around with various search words and I am sure something will come up to suit your needs. Most are available on DVD too

x x

[malc]

relaxation cds are on ebay,then download cd to mp3 software to copy to mp3 player,they use these at the memory cafe the wife goes to along with doing chair based exercises.

[Nenuphar]

Thanks for your help everyone

I couldn't find what I was looking for on YouTube, but did a bit of Googling and found this website:
http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/gallery1.htm

...where you can download some lovely mp3 recordings, for various issues. You can choose between a male or female speaker, with or without music. Most of them are about £1-£2.50 to download. The speakers are British - which may make a difference to some people.

I chose -
First Aid for Panic (free) (female)
Master[ing] Adrenaline (female, with music)
Mindful Breathing (female, no music)

Listening to them now, and quite enjoying them. If I can get Mum to sit quietly listening through all 3 every day, I hope some of it will lodge in her mind. She's already had a brief listen and says she really likes the woman's voice, very soothing!

[Melly1]

Sounds like you have it sussed. Hope it really makes a difference.

Melly1