Deepening Your Breath Capacity - Part 2

Tension in the mind = tension in the body = tension in the breath.

These can cyclically become the cause AND effect of each other in an unending, life-long perpetuating trap that has its own impact on how we experience and respond to stress.

BKS Iyengar once famously said: “show me a tense place in your body and I’ll show you a tense place in your mind”.

Rather than focusing on “breathing deeper” when life gets intense, which becomes a stressfull instruction in itself for our already over stimulated body-mind; try feeling into and relaxing a body part - and see if that begins to open up a little window in your mind and breath.

Here are 3 examples to try while laying on your back - any one of these, done patiently, generously, slowly, over several long exhales, should do the trick:

👉🏼 Laying on your back, eyes closed, focus on breathing and feeling into your lowest ribs and relaxing them towards the ground evenly, one exhale at a time. (You should feel your whole spine lengthen and relax when you do).

👉🏼 Same as above, but work on breathing and feeling into the back, top edge of your pelvis and sacrum, and melting it into the ground underneath you with long exhales.

👉🏼 Same as above, but focus on relaxing your abdominal contents into your pelvic bowl, one exhale at a time.

These are just some examples but really any part will do. Feet, throat, jaw/teeth/tongue, brain, knees, palms/fingers/toes - you name it! Pick, play and experiment 🙂.

Bringing the kindness of your own heart into your body parts is its own very special kind of medicine.

🌲 For extra potency, try any one of these laying on the grass, in your back yard, in a park, or under any friendly tree.

🤍 N.