[image from www.sacredbodyinstitute.com]
Breathing practices help you become aware of subtle energies and rebuild your vitality and inner spiritual force. You can use breath work to over-come obstacles, maintain clarity of focus, energize your spirit, relax your body or calm down when you are over excited.
Folk wisdom says to calm yourself when you are upset, ‘take a deep breath and count to ten before speaking’. Stress reduction therapists train patients to take deep breaths to soothe anxiety. Lamaze childbirth coaches teach pregnant women to use the breath to ease pain in labor and delivery. The Hindu culture has made a study of the breath and developed the science of pranayama, yogic breathing practices. In India, it is taught that slow, deep breaths relax the body and calm the mind; while rapid breathing stimulates the body and energizes the mind.
Radical Self Care, Chapter 4 “Energy Awareness and Breath Work for Radical Self Care”. Dr. Beth Hedva.
- { Freezing Breath }
Learn to support yourself with your breath.
How are you breathing right now?
Are you breathing in or out?
Are you holding your breath?
Is your breath shallow?
Are you breathing deeply?
What do you observe?
In one of our embodied awareness seminars, Meaghan, who works as a psychotherapist and counsellor, shared,
“The aspect of embodied practice I feel most serves me is breath work. I integrate this for myself by getting on my yoga mat nearly every day. I really notice a difference when I am grounded how much space I have available to do a number things, including supporting others. I bring this embodied practice and really notice the impact when I sit with clients in my work, particularly the earth breath and the water breath”.
“I use these to bring grounding when people come in the door from the flurry of whatever their life has been in the moments prior to deepen and come into a place of inner work. The water breath is great for soothing once we have dived into something significant that may have stirred things up a little for them”.
“Breath work is a foundation I am currently grateful for and see the impact of on a daily basis”.
How has breath work helped you stay present in your body?
What type of breathing practice do you rely on most?
Embodied Awareness 