resources to share
from our
Support group
afternoon tea gatherings
Resources from the December '22 meeting:
Setting goals: getting clear about want you want your future self to be
and how you are going to get there.
"Setting an intention is like laying the foundation for what you'd like to have, feel and experience versus just being a passive participant going through the motions. Intentions provide you with the opportunity to actively participate in your life the way you want to live it."
Sara Weand, Behaviour Therapist
"The field of neuroscience has produced an incredible amount of evidence pointing towards this concept called neuroplasticity which means that your brain is changing and evolving all the time. Setting a positive intention will start to sprout a new neural pathway in your brain, and then resources will go towards supporting it. The more positive intentions you set, the stronger and more capable you become at being able to access those positive experiences— not just on an emotional level, but literally when it comes to the neurological structures of your brain! We often think we have to take action to have a positive experience, but what we’ve discovered through research is that purely setting a positive intention will create a shift in your brain."
SETTING YOUR GOALS:
1. Consider where you are currently with your experience of chronic aural symptoms.
2. Consider where you would like to be in 3-6 months' time.
3. Write down one goal - how you will feel, look, act differently in 3-6 months' time.
4. Rework your goal by applying the suggestions on the whiteboard pictured here, to give your intention some extra therapeutic and neural plasticity power.
5. Share it with someone.
EXAMPLE GOALS workshopped and shared at our meeting:
"When I wake, I will acknowledge tinnitus if it is there, then refocus on feelings of gratitude."
"I can feel calm in the presence of tinnitus."
"I will go to bed when I feel sleepy and focus on feeling warm and cosy under my blankets"
"I will sit in the front row of the theatre and feel the joy of the music inside me".
What is your goal? Please feel free to share it with our group at the next meeting.
Need help getting clear goals? I am here to help - please get in touch.
Resources from the October '22 meeting:
Stories: Harnessing the power of the stories we tell
Your story matters, and …..
you are the hero and main character in your story
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We all love a good story … and stories are powerful. The stories we tell and the stories we live, for good or bad, are everything. The stories we tell about ourselves and our experiences make a difference. I invite you to be mindful of the stories you are telling about yourself and the world. We can choose our stories, more so than we often think.
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Today we looked at whether the language we used to tell our tinnitus story was aligned with our quest. You might like to draft the next chapter of your story: what will your next empowering step be on this journey, a personal quest that can be challenging but, like all heroes in stories, make us somehow a better, stronger and more resilient person.
"We can’t always choose the stories we have in our lives, but if we take a risk and show that we are human and vulnerable, then that is where the best stories lie.” Andrea Gibbs TED TALK The power of story telling
Resources from the August '22 meeting:
Tinnitus Treatments: What is the current best practice for treating tinnitus distress, and what emerging treatments have potential?
CURRENT TINNITUS TREATMENTS
The intention of these resources is to provide the evidence-base for common tinnitus treatments, and help you know where to go if you want to find out about the evidence behind a treatment that you have heard about, read about or have been recommended.
CURRENT TINNITUS TREATMENTS
The intention of these resources is to provide the evidence-base for common tinnitus treatments, and help you know where to go if you want to find out about the evidence behind a treatment that you have heard about, read about or have been recommended.
FUTURE TREATMENTS WITH POTENTIAL
The intention of these resources is to highlight some of the current scientific research that is showing potential to be of help to tinnitus sufferers. There is no cure yet, but let's thank our scientists and researchers for their work and encourage them to keep going!
Click on this link to find a table of current tinnitus treatment options that have a sound evidence base:
https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/decision-aid
Click on this link to go to the British Tinnitus Association's webpage that provides information about each currently available tinnitus treatment, using a traffic light system to rate the safety and efficacy of each treatment:
Click on this link to see a short video on exciting hair cell regeneration to address the cause of tinnitus for many people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q7ZZWES8Xw
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Click on this link to see a short video on a drug treatment to reduce the sound of tinnitus itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psiqExK1LOI
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Click on this link to see a short video on a new technology using bi-modal stimulation to support people to habituate to tinnitus:
WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN FUTURE RESEARCH?
Donate: Tinnitus Australia advocates for tinnitus research
https://www.tinnitusaustralia.org.au/donate/
Participate: British Tinnitus Association links participants with researchers
https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/Listing/Category/taking-part-in-a-research-trial
Keep up-to-date: Australia New Zealand Monthly Research Webinars
Email emcentre@auckland.ac.nz to join in.
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Resources from the June '22 meeting:
"Neural Plasticity: how we can create neural maps for ease in the presence of sound (or dizziness)"
Neuroplasticity Gospel:
Short practices
Repeated often
So, it’s far better to do two or three 8-miniute practices every day, rather than a one-hour practice once a week.
It can take 8-12 weeks of daily practice to create a new neural pathway that is strong enough to become more automatic.
"For better or for worse, how we consistently think and behave will ‘wire’ itself into the brain. We now understand that the brain is constantly rewiring itself right throughout our lives. From a therapeutic perspective, it also means that we can ‘unwire’ unhelpful patterns of thought and behaviour and wire in helpful ones. This has significant implications for the development and management of [chronic health conditions like tinnitus, sound sensitivity and chronic vertigo]."
Dr Craig Hassed MBBS, FRACGP, Senior Lecturer Monash University, Department of General Practice
What are your thoughts and behaviours in response to tinnitus / trigger sounds / dizziness?
Are you hardwiring in frustration, avoidance and fear?
Or are you hardwiring in calm, joy and steadiness?
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Further reading:
Joey Remenyi, "Rock Steady: Healing Vertigo and Tinnitus with Neuroplasticity"
Norman Doidge, "The Brain That Changes Itself."
Norman Doidge, "The Brain's Way of Healing".
Julian Cowen-Hill, "Tinnitus: From Tyrant to Friend".
Individual support: Please get in touch! Inner Ease Tinnitus Centre can help support you through the neuroplasticity process.
Resources from the April '22 meeting:
"How our subconscious drives decisions about what sounds we hear and how loudly we hear them."
Our ears hear sounds all around us (and within in) all the time. To stop us being bombarded by sound, there is a filtering system in the brainstem that categorises sounds into important or not-important, safe or unsafe. This filtering system brings unsafe or important sounds into our awareness by increasing their perceived volume, while non-important or safe sounds are filtered out of our awareness by decreasing their perceived volume.
Your trigger sounds or tinnitus sounds have been miscategorised by your subconscious as being important or unsafe, and therefore you need to be made aware of them.
Strategies you can use to help your subconscious recategorise sounds as being safe and not important ...
Vagal toning practice
Here is a link to a vagal toning practice called Bumblebee Breathing. This breath practice has the potential to shift your autonomous nervous system (ANS) out of fight/flight mode and into the relaxation response,. When we feel relaxation in our body in the presence of tinnitus or trigger sounds, we are messaging to our subconscious that we are safe, and this is a safe sound that can be filtered out of our awareness.
Reframing your tinnitus
Here is a part of a poem by Antonio Machado with the lovely image of bees making sweet golden honey ...... perhaps you'd like to re-frame your tinnitus so you are imagining the golden honey instead of the buzzing bee. Notice how this subtle shift in how you think about your tinnitus can take the 'danger' message out of the sound.
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Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Resources from the February '22 meeting:
Tinnitus Awareness Week
Our Support Group afternoon tea this month was aligned with Tinnitus Awareness Week 2022. While most of us are seeking a greater degree of tinnitus UNawareness, this is the one week in the year where we make a noise for tinnitus to raise awareness and compassion in the community, including in the healthcare and political arenas, through sharing your story and lived experience of this invisible auditory stimulus. ​
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Our agenda aligned with the great work being done during Tinnitus Awareness Week by Tinnitus Australia, a arm of the not-for-profit hearing advocacy organisation, Soundfair. We shared poems, playlists, videos, questions and answers, and political letter-writing skills as some of the many ways we can express what it is for each of us to live with tinnitus. You can go to Tinnitus Australia's website or Facebook page to access realms of information from Tinnitus Awareness Week and more.
Here are a few samples of what we shared at our afternoon tea:
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#mytinnitus
We've been together
many years, inseparable.
Life's barometer. by JC (Netty)
#mytinnitus
Soundscape of my life -
My buzzing, hissing screeching
Friend who never leaves. by JC (Netty)
#mytinnitus
Even when at peace
you provide a reminder
that I am present. by JC (Netty)
Resources from the December '21 meeting:
Appreciating beauty: how beauty and creativity can uplift us when ear symptoms are tough
An effective approach to reducing the bother of persistent ear symptoms is to focus on what you like doing, rather than focusing on what you don't like (i.e., your ear symptoms). In this way, we get the neural pathways of enjoyment and contentment firing, rather than the neural pathways of frustration and worry. Being mindful about where you place your attention/focus and making choices that support your wellbeing is the pathway to recovery through neural plasticity.
You might like to try these activities, either online or with your own hard-copy resources at home:
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1. Mindful colouring
http://www.supercoloring.com/collections/coloring-pages-for-adults
2. Poetry
Haiku poetry link:
Some inspiring poetry links:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-oliver
https://www.best-poems.net/danna-faulds/poems.html
3. Construction
Mindfulness with Lego
https://www.lego.com/en-au/categories/adults-welcome/article/mindfulness
4. Art Appreciation
Painting/artwork link:
https://www.hannahblackmore.com/portfolio
5. Jigsaws
Online Jigsaw puzzles link:
Resources from the October '21 meeting:
"Vagal Toning: how building agility in your nervous system can ease your distress"
The Polyvagal Theory...
Click the red heart icon on the left to listen to an educational video on Polyvagal Theory. This describes new understanding of the huge role our nervous system plays in how we might respond to our ear sounds or trigger sounds.
How does your nervous system respond to tinnitus/external sounds? What do you notice physically in your body that tells you whether your nervous system is feeling safe or unsafe in the presence of these sounds? How can you re-message to your nervous system that you are actually safe?
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One way to let your ANS know that you safe in the presence of tinnitus sounds or other external sounds, is to emulate the breathing rhythm your body naturally adopts in relaxation - a long, slow and steady breath in and out.
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Down load this free App to follow a simple breathing rhythm. Read the information on the App about resonance breathing and how this builds nervous system tone.
Resources from the August '21 meeting:
"The power of smiling: how your own smile can reduce the impact of tinnitus symptoms."
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Look at this graph on the left, by the IDA Institute. It forecasts how the tinnitus signal begins to change (dotted yellow line) after we have lessened our distress (blue line). For those of you who are waiting for tinnitus to ease before you can be happy, perhaps you might like to experiment with intentionally bringing a smile into your day right now, despite the presence of any persistent symptoms, and then see what happens to your tinnitus?
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"When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change." Richard Miller
Resources from the June '21 meeting:
"Nourishing yourself:
how making healthy choices can impact tinnitus symptoms"
Resources from the March '21 meeting:
"Befriending Sleep:
how good sleep habits can ease tinnitus symptoms"
Resources from the February '21 meeting:
Capturing Our Tinnitus Stories:
how our stories can empower others and ourselves
Use these hashtags to read other's experiences of living with tinnitus:
#ThisIsMySilence #TinnitusAwarenessWeek
Add your own tinnitus story to Tinnitus Australia's socials:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tinnitusaustralia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tinnitusaustralia/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinnitusaustralia/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tinnitusaus/
Let's make some noise for tinnitus to raise awareness of this debilitating ear symptom and inform care and health pathways for medical professionals.
Resources from the December '20 meeting:
Stress and Tinnitus: How finding tone and agility in the nervous system can help ease tinnitus symptoms.
Click the blue heart icon on the left to listen to a 4min TED TALK about how stress effects our brain, and how there are strategies we can use to minimise the negative impact of chronic stress.
Click the red heart icon on the left to download the British Tinnitus Association information sheet on Stress and Tinnitus.
A 5 min vagal toning exercise to practice everyday:
Follow these steps, spend 30 seconds at each stage, with mindful awareness on your breath as you practice....
1. Hand on heart; 2. Hands over eyes (rest head on hands); 3. Hands on belly; 4. Cross arms and pat upper arms with opposite hands - slow and rhythmic; 5. Stand up, mountain pose; 6. Shake body all over - stand on right leg - shake body all over - stand on left leg - shake body all over; 7. Hand on heart - notice how you feel.
Resources from the October '20 meeting:
What is sound? Sound is vibration, and everything that vibrates within 20-20,000Hz makes a sound that is audible to the human ear. Click the tea cup to link to an 11 minute TED-talk about sound, and a chance to listen to what our solar-system sounds like.
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Surprise alert: Outer space may sound awfully similar to your tinnitus! You may even see a possibility here to reframe any limiting thoughts you may have about your tinnitus from listening to this expansive presentation.
Bliss Ball / Slice Recipe
If you enjoyed the treats on Sunday, here is the recipe to make more for yourself at home, whenever you need to give yourself and those around you a big serve of love!
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Blend together:
1 cup of dates
1/2 cup of cashews
1/2 cup of slithered almonds
1/3 cup of shredded coconut
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
1/3 cup of coconut oil (melted)
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Use your hands to roll into balls and coat with shredded coconut; or spread out on a tray to make a slice. Put in freezer for one hour.
What is silence? Is silence simply the absence of sound? Is that even possible to really achieve in this world? Or is silence when we feel still, calm, peaceful and quiet? We can do things that make us feel silent. Click the tea cup to link to a 13 minute TED-talk about silence, and a chance to experience it, even in the presence of tinnitus.
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"How long does the bee buzz about? As long as it is not sitting on a flower. No sooner does it rest on a flower than it keeps quiet." Ramakrishna
Tips and ideas from the August '20 meeting:
Tips and ideas from the July '20 meeting:
By John O'Donahue:
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This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
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Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
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If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.
​1. Go for a bushwalk, dig in your garden, have a dip in the ocean - research shows that spending just 5 mins a day in nature has a positive impact on your mental wellbeing. All these nature-based activities suggested in our group this month invite you to feel with your body and perceive with your senses, short-circuiting the unhelpful thought-loops in your head.
2. Try a somatics class online with Wai Ying Tham of Reconnect Yoga in Melbourne, and enjoy being guided through simple and slow movements - so nourishing for your nervous system.
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3. "Quieten" App by Julian Cowan-Hill - here is a little bit of info taken from the advertising material:
Julian Cowan Hill got back to silence after twenty years of tinnitus. A combination of body-based therapies and practices to settle the nervous system, developing a clear understanding of how this symptom works and finding solid reassurance and advice on what helps let go of tinnitus gets you firmly onto the path to recovery. Quieten is packed full of practical advice, understanding, comforting information and many tips that will benefit you.
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4. Do a daily mindfulness practice (here is one for you to try below):
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Click here to read more about the health benefits of Mindfulness Meditation and why it is recommended for those living with chronic conditions such as tinnitus (by researcher Dr Craig Hassed at Monash University)
Tips and ideas from the June '20 meeting:
