Breathing Consciously: Tools for DailyLife Challenges.
I was once talking with a friend&client about the power of conscious breathing. I would like to recall here some thoughts because I saw they were helpful and hopefully can help you also.
It’s not only that you need breathing and without it, there is no life but it’s also about putting attention on it, that can help you in difficult moments.
First, let’s say you have two different way to breath (2 that I know).
One is the known breathing. I call it “Macroscopic Breathing”. Inhale and exhale through mouth, nose, moving upper chest and belly and so on. Here you bring oxygen to your lungs, exchange it with CO2 to “clean” your blood.
The other one is the “Microscopic Breathing” which is at a cellular level. Thanks to this last one you produce energy.
You start moving your body beginning from the inside. It’s the engine.
The two are connected and are existing if the other one is existing.
The two are working just for the fact that you are alive. They don’t need any conscious decision from you.
I won’t go deeper in describing what’s happening on a macro and micro level of breathing and why those two are so important in your life. You can find more info in an episode of my Podcast “The Dancing Mum Journey”.
What I will do now is giving you another point of view of how breathing can help you in your daily life.
What I’ve found from my experience is that when you put your focus on how you breathe you can also change your point of view and the posture you have.
When you are fine it’s like flowing in a nice, calm, comforting sea.
You are floating, enjoying swimming, you don’t need any boat and you can see where the dry land is, in case you are feeling tired and need to rest.
Imagine you start a conversation and in a few mins, this is getting difficult to manage. Maybe you are feeling like you are in an angry sea, the waves are getting higher and you need to find a good and safe harbour, you need to find an isle.
This picture is not because of the difficult conversation itself, but because of how you perceive it and dealing with it at that moment.
You are completely caught in the conversation.
Start putting your attention on your breath.
Inhale and start slowing the exhaling (which has a calming effect on your heartbeat).
What does it happen? How do you see the image of the sea?
You’re still passionately talking in the conversation but you should start seeing that the waves in your sea are getting smaller.
Slowly you start seeing one possible island.
Breathe in, breathe out, count 4 for inhaling, count 4 for exhaling. Stay in the exhaling for a bit more, enjoy the feeling.
Fewer waves and smaller.
More and more islands are visible.
You are still in the conversation but you are more and more confident that, if needed, you will be able to reach one of those safe islands.
How do you feel now?
I guess differently…
At least, it was different for me when I first tried it.
You can try it the next time you are feeling overwhelmed or in a challenging situation.
And it’s also useful if you are practising when you are still in the calm sea. When you’ll be in need, you’ll quickly find the way for the “Safe Isle”.
I hope this was helpful.
If you want to know more, I recorded an audio in my podcast “The Dancing Mum Journey” on Breath and Conscious Breathing. It was part of the first 3-Days-Immersion called “Breath, Dance and Transform” which took place in the private FB Group “Imaginative Inside-Out Dance, The Group”.