Breathe Easy (continued from above)
Sit
or lie down on your back comfortably in a place where there is fresh air. Close
your eyes and focus your attention on your breath. Breathe in through your
nose. First fill your lower lungs. Feel your abdomen, lower back and kidney
areas expand and your ribs open sideways. Finally, feel your chest rise slightly upward. Imagine that the oxygen
that you breathe in is going directly
from your nasal cavity to your brain to refresh and cleanse you mentally.
Pause for a moment and then as you exhale, feel your body release tension and your muscles relax. Repeat
this for twenty breaths.
Whenever
you become aware that you are feeling stressed or upset, use this exercise to calm your mind and get back
into balance. To intensify the relaxation response, try pausing for two to
three seconds between breaths and
prolonging the exhale. If you do this every day, you will create a conditioned relaxation response which will
help you reduce your reaction to
stress and help you get to sleep quicker.
This
is muscular training as well. Muscles become de-conditioned
when
they are not used or only used at a fraction of their capacity.
Doing
this simple exercise daily will get your breathing muscles
like
the diaphragm and the inter-costals, (found between your ribs),
conditioned so that they work at an increased
capacity which will
allow
you to breathe more fully.
Conscious
breathing can do more than simply activate a rest, digest
and
heal response. We store tension in our muscles. Long after
physical
injury has healed or emotional trauma has passed, self
protectiveness,
emotional reactions, negative attitudes and
behaviour
patterns can become imprinted into muscles as tension,
chronic
pain and disability.
In
breathwork seminars, this is illustrated with a plastic water bottle.
We
squeeze the bottle to represent a stressful experience and this
leaves wrinkles and dents over the surface or
even crumples the
bottle.
When we breathe into the bottle, some of the dents pop out.
With repeated breaths, the bottle will
eventually return to its
original
shape. At times in breathwork seminars, we see people
having
emotional responses like crying out loud or laughing
uncontrollably.
With support from the facilitators, they emerge
from
the process feeling more emotional and mental wellbeing than
they have felt in a long time because they
have released stored
muscular
tension and mental trauma and eased the pain.
Optimal
health is an ongoing expression of choices that we make;
choices
of what we think, what we eat, how active we are as well as full,
deep
unhurried revitalizing breathing. Conscious breathing can provide
us
with an effective way to cope with stress by bringing the focus
of
attention back to the processes that nurture and sustain life.
Next BREATHWORK Seminar: Sat. MAY 29, 1:30-5:30pm
First 18 registrants only will be accepted - book early!
$65. ($50. for returning students)
