by Win Wenger, Ph.D.
Winsights No. 106 (November/December 2008)
Photograph courtesy of Steven C. Hall
Here is an audio version of this article:
Find relief in an instant, right here, right now, from whatever it is that you’d like some relief from.
Completely in your control: the key to feeling wonderfully better right now, is in your BREATHING.
Here’s the key principle
We breathe the way we feel, and…
We feel the way we breathe.
How does that work?
We breathe the way we feel, in that each of us has a characteristic way of breathing for each different feeling, a different pattern of breathing for when we are glad, for when we are sad, for when we are bad, or for when we are having an a-ha, or for when we are feeling wonderfully GOOD!
It works both ways. Breathing is a two-way street in this regard, going beyond simple inhale-exhale. It is two-way in that we not only breathe the way we feel, but we feel the way we breathe. We can control or change the way we are feeling simply by controlling or changing the way we are breathing.
For example, feeling relief and feeling good. One way to experience feeling relief and feeling good, is to breathe the way we breathe WHEN we are experiencing profound relief. Let’s set that up by imagining something to experience relief from, then imagine being relieved from it, breathing luxuriously a number of times in the way we WOULD breathe when being relieved from it, a slow deep succession of sighs of relief.
Let’s set that up further. Please imagine you’ve been carrying a h-e-a-v-y bag of groceries a little too far. Not only that, but that heavy bag of groceries is just starting to tear, you don’t want it to spill out before you can set it down…
At last! Imagine finally reaching the table upon which you can safely set that heavy bag of groceries down. AS you set it safely down, imagine or experience the sheer relief of that. Breathe a great wonderful sigh_____ of relief at finally having been able to set that heavy load safely down.
Make your next breath as if IT were that first wonderful sigh of relief at having set that heavy load safely down. Nice and slow…. And deep: when you get around to your NEXT breath, make THAT also your very first breath and wonderful sigh of relief at having set that heavy load safely down….
Nice and slow….and deep, when you get around to your next breath, make THAT also your very first breath and sigh of relief at setting that heavy load safely down.
Nice and slow….and deep – EACH next breath over the next minute or so, make each next breath also to be that first deep wonderful sigh of PROFOUND relief at setting that heavy load safely down….
At least two more deep wonderful slow sighs of relief over the next minute…
(–)
Now from the luxurious depths of that relief, check how you are feeling. Compare how you are feeling NOW, to how you were feeling before you did this Relief-Breathing.
Just as easily as that!
Whatever you might have needed some relief from, you have just in fact given yourself some welcome relief from. Whenever you need relief from any condition or any situation, remember to Relief-Breathe.
Relief-Breathing is only one of forty-seven especially good types of breathing which we call the “Calm-Breathing Patterns,” out of hundreds of different types. Each type of breathing reflects your state and condition. Each type of breathing in turn affects your
state and condition.
The breathing builds the associated state. Continuing that and maintaining or building that state while focusing on a situation, re-conditions that situation to fit that felt state. A third thing that breathing does is to enable you to redirect the autonomic processes of your system, an interesting point of leverage from which to clear away obstacles to clear and vivid perception, understanding, or optimal health or optimal outcomes – by the physical metaphors I’ve suggested for such purpose, and the physical metaphor of setting down that heavy and tearing bag of groceries to find relief.
The basic set of Calm-Breathing Patterns, and their introduction,
are found in these relevant articles: